Adelaide High School

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Adelaide High School
Non scholae sed vitae (Not only for school, but for life)
Established	1908
School type	Public
Principal/ Headmaster	Stephen Dowdy
Location	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Campus	Urban
Enrolment	{{{enrolment}}}
School colours	Black and Silver Grey
Homepage	http://www.adelaidehs.sa.edu.au/

Adelaide High School is a coeducational state school situated on the corner of West Terrace and Glover Avenue in the Adelaide Parklands. It was Adelaide's first State High School and was the first free High School in South Australia. It now has an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students, who come from different cultural and religious backgrounds.

Contents 1 History 2 Curriculum 3 Languages 4 Sport 5 Building 6 Facilities 7 Notable staff and students 8 Further Reading 9 References

[edit] History

In 1879 John Anderson Hartley, Catherine Helen Spence and others created the Advanced School for Girls in Grote Street, Adelaide; the first public secondary school in South Australia. The school became the part of Adelaide High School in 1908, the same year the South Australian state high school system was launched.^[1] Adelaide High School was officially opened on September 24, 1908 by the premier of South Australia Thomas Price. It was the first free high school in the Commonwealth.^{[citation needed]}

It started off as two schools, with a boys and a girls campus; though these combined in 1908. In 1927 it had an enrolment of 1,067, making it the largest school of its kind in the Commonwealth. By 1929, the school occupied two sites - one at Grote Street and another at Currie Street (now part of the Remand Centre). The current site of the school on West Terrace was originally set aside for an army barracks in 1849, but an Observatory was built instead in 1859. This became the Bureau of Meteorology in 1939.

Based on an award winning 1940 design, a new building was erected on the site from 1947 to 1951. An application was made to have the building listed as a Historic Building on the Australian Register of the National Estate. The nomination was on the basis of the building's "Art Modern" style and significance in Adelaide education, but had not lead to the building's listing on the register as of 2007.^[2] The original Grote Street school buildings were listed on the register as Historic in 1980. As of 2007 they were used as a centre for the performing arts.^[3]

Adelaide is part of the longest running sporting exchanges with Melbourne High School and Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, both in Melbourne. It competes in the Prefects Cup with Melbourne High.

[edit] Curriculum

Adelaide High School is especially known for being a Special Interest Language School. It offers its students a selection of 7 different languages to study, which include Modern Greek, Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish and German. The school is also a centre for the Hearing Impaired and as an Associate School for Students of High Intellectual Potential.

[edit] Languages

Adelaide High School is a Special Interest Language School. Adelaide High School is currently a sister school to Asahi High School in Osaka, Japan, IT IS in Biella, Italy, No. 3 Middle School Nankai, Chongqing, China, Greensward College in Essex, UK and 7th Gymnasio Junior High in Ioannina, Greece. Every year there is an annual visit to Adelaide High by students from Asahi High School.

[edit] Sport

The school has four House teams which students represent in sporting events in the school. The Houses take the names of past principals of the school. The house names are, Adey (Red), Macghey (Blue), Morriss (Green), and West (Yellow). Sporting events include the school swimming carnival and sports day.

Adelaide High has taken part in a sporting exchange with Mac.Robertson Girls' High School and Melbourne High School since 1910 and it is the longest running sporting exchange in the state.^[4] It is held in early Term 3 and one year the boys are in the Melbourne and the girls are in Adelaide and then the next year they swap. There are competitions in sports such as: Australian Rules football, soccer, tennis, rowing, basketball, netball, softball, chess, debating, theatre sports, volleyball, cross country and lacrosse. Sports previously played against Melbourne were baseball and field hockey.

[edit] Building

Viewed from above, the shape is roughly the shape of an 'E' with its back curved in an arc. Coupled with porthole-like windows in the stairwells, the building has the appearance of a grounded ship, with its seemingly random protrusions from the roof resembling chimneys. While such a design may be considered artistically imaginative (its architect having won an award for the design), the overall look of the building is deemed uncharacteristic of its surrounds and of Adelaide^[who?].

[edit] Facilities

Facilities that students at the school have access to include a resource centre, gymnasium, weights room, tennis, basketball and netball courts, performing arts centre, science labs and lecture theatres. The school also has a boatshed on the bank of the River Torrens which holds the school's many rowing boats and where the school’s rowing crews train.

[edit] Notable staff and students

• Evan Christou, left mathematics teaching in 1984 to found Pizza Haven with his brothers Louis, Bill and Gabriel.
• Simon Lewicki aka Groove Terminator, electronic music artist.
• Sir Marcus 'Mark' Laurence Elwin Oliphant, former Governor of South Australia; physicist and humanitarian.
• Lou Vincent New Zealand Test cricketer, AHS student 1993-96,
• Shaun Burgoyne Port Adelaide Power footballer, AHS student 1996,
• Neil Page Former Australian baseball representative/player and the first Australian to sign a professional baseball contract with a US Major League team. Inducted into the Australian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.^[5]
• Bob Hank, West Torrens FC and South Australian State Australian Rules Footballer, Dual Magarey Medallist.

[edit] Further Reading

• Adelaide High School Council (1983). Adelaide High School: 75th anniversary, 1908-1983 souvenir book. ISBN: 0959388028. OCLC 220259206

[edit] References

v • d • e Members of the Independent Schools Sport Association, South Australia Adelaide High • CBC • Concordia • Immanuel • Marryatville • Mercedes • Norwood Morialta • Pedare • Pembroke • Prince Alfred • Rostrevor • Sacred Heart • Scotch • St Ignatius • St John's • St Peter's • Thomas More • Trinity • Westminster