Christchurch Girls' High School
Christchurch Girls' High School
| Christchurch Girls' High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
10 Matai Street Riccarton Christchurch 8011 New Zealand | |
| Coordinates | 43°31′30″S 172°36′39″E [30] |
| Information | |
| Type | State Single Sex Girls' Secondary (Year 9–13) with boarding facilities. |
| Motto | Sapientia et Veritas "Wisdom and Truth" |
| Established | 1877 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 328 [31] |
| Principal | Christine O'Neill (from 2019) |
| School roll | 1227[1] (March 2019) |
| Socio-economic decile | 9Q[2] |
| Website | www.cghs.school.nz [32] |
Christchurch Girls' High School in Christchurch, New Zealand, was established in 1877 and is the second oldest girls' secondary school in the country (Otago Girls' High School is older).[3]
| Christchurch Girls' High School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
10 Matai Street Riccarton Christchurch 8011 New Zealand | |
| Coordinates | 43°31′30″S 172°36′39″E [30] |
| Information | |
| Type | State Single Sex Girls' Secondary (Year 9–13) with boarding facilities. |
| Motto | Sapientia et Veritas "Wisdom and Truth" |
| Established | 1877 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 328 [31] |
| Principal | Christine O'Neill (from 2019) |
| School roll | 1227[1] (March 2019) |
| Socio-economic decile | 9Q[2] |
| Website | www.cghs.school.nz [32] |
History
Christchurch Girls' High School was established in 1877, four years before Christchurch Boys' High School. The first headmistress was Mrs. Georgiana Ingle (a daughter of Richard Deodatus Poulett-Harris and half-sister of Lily Poulett-Harris). The second principal Helen Connon (later Helen Macmillan Brown) is better known as she was the first woman in any British university to gain an Honours degree.
The school's original building on Cranmer Square, which was renamed the Cranmer Centre, features prominently in the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures based on the 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case involving two students.
The school featured in national and international news in 1972 when two students led a "walkout"[4][5] from school assembly to protest the inclusion of religion in school morning assemblies. At the time, schools in New Zealand were supposed to be secular but this was largely ignored and students were usually told to bring a note from their parents if they wanted to opt out of the religious component of school assemblies.
Present day
Christchurch Girls' High School, known to many as Girls' High or CGHS, provides boarding facilities for 95 students from years 9 to 13 at Acland House, located 20–30 minutes walk away from school.
The school stands by the Avon River, on a site it has occupied since 1986. Previously, the area was occupied by a mill that was first built in 1861 by William Derisley Wood, which became known as the Riccarton Mill.[6]
The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake had a large impact on the school: it caused extensive damage to the current site;[7] the old Cranmer Centre site was damaged so badly that it was later demolished – and the school's principal at the time, Prue Taylor, lost her husband Brian in the CTV Building collapse.[8]
CGHS was the first school to go into lock down during the Christchurch mosque shootings at approximately 1:52pm on 15 March 2019.
Pauline Duthie, previous principal of the school, was appointed in 2014 and stepped down on 4 March 2019. She will continue to be a principal at the school of Columba College in Dunedin.[9]
Christine O'Neill has been appointed as the new principal, and will take on her new role in the beginning of Term 3 (22 July 2019).
Notable alumnae
Alice Candy (1888–1977), academic and second woman lecturer at Canterbury College[10]
Elsie Dohrmann (1875–1909), temperance campaigner[11]
Eileen Fairbairn (1893–1981), teacher and geographer[12]
Marama Fox, politician and co-leader of the Māori Party[13]
Helen Gibson (1868–1938), founder of Rangi Ruru Girls' School[14]
Mary Gibson (1864–1929), Principal of CGHS for thirty years[14]
Stella Henderson (1871–1926), first woman Parliamentary reporter for a major New Zealand newspaper[15]
Edith Searle Grossmann (1863–1931), writer and teacher[16]
Elizabeth Herriott (1882–1936), academic and first woman lecturer at Canterbury College[17]
Margaret Lorimer (1866–1954), mountaineer and Principal of Nelson College for Girls for twenty years[18]
Pauline Parker (born 1938), convicted murderer[19]
Anne Perry (born 1938 as Juliet Hulme), English author and convicted murderer[19]
Christabel Robinson (1898–1988)[20]
Myrtle Simpson (1905–1981)[21]
Gwen Somerset (1894–1988), adult educator and writer
Fay Weldon, (born 1931), English author[22]
Ivy Fife (1905–1976), painter