Avonside Girls' High School

Avonside Girls' High School is a large urban high school in Christchurch, New Zealand, with more than 1,000 girls from Year 9 to Year 13. It was formerly in the suburb of Avonside but moved in 2019, along with Shirley Boys' High School, to the former QEII Park site in the east of Christchurch.[3]

Avonside Girls' High School
New building shared with Shirley Boys' High School
Address
209 Travis Road

Christchurch

New Zealand
Information
TypeGirls state secondary school
MottoLatin: Summa Sequere
(Aim at the highest – seek to attain the best)
Established1919
Ministry of Education Institution no.324
PrincipalCatherine Law
Grades9–13
GenderGirls
School roll1125[1] (April 2023)
Socio-economic decile6N[2]
Websiteavonside.school.nz

History

The school originally opened in January 1919 on the Avonside Drive site as a satellite campus of Christchurch Girls' High School. It became a separate school in its own right in 1928.[4]

Earthquake

Following the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the school site closed, with classes operating at Burnside High School in the afternoons. Two school blocks, including the Main Block, were condemned following the earthquake and were demolished.

Students returned to the Avonside site at the beginning of 2012,[5] with relocatable and prefabricated classrooms filling gaps left by the condemned buildings, but due to significant land damage adjacent to the school site, it was clear that the school might need to close or relocate.[6] Education Minister Hekia Parata announced on 16 October 2013 that the school would move, and be co-located with Shirley Boys' High School at a new site in east Christchurch,[7] and on 12 Feb 2015 the site was confirmed to be the former QEII Park site[8] – and the move was complete in April 2019.[3]

Notable staff

Before she entered politics, Marian Hobbs was principal of the school.[9] Jean Herbison, later New Zealand's first female chancellor of a New Zealand university, taught at the school from 1952 to 1959.[10]

References
  1. "New Zealand Schools Directory". New Zealand Ministry of Education. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  2. "Decile Change 2014 to 2015 for State & State Integrated Schools". Ministry of Education. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  3. Law, Tina (10 April 2019). "Two Christchurch secondary schools say goodbye to original sites". Stuff. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  4. "About Avonside Girls' High School". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  5. Young, Rachel (16 February 2012). "John Key tours Avonside Girls' High School". The Press. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  6. Law, Tina (10 August 2011). "School repairs to cost $8m, with a 2-year guarantee". The Press. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  7. O'Callaghan, Jody (16 October 2013). "Two schools to share site in city's east". The Press. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  8. O'Callaghan, Jody; Cairns, Lois (12 February 2015). "Avonside Girls, Shirley Boys to be built at QEII". The Press. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
  9. Berry, Ruth (23 February 2001). "Marian Hobbs and Phillida Bunkle resign their ministerial posts". The Evening Post.
  10. Falconer, Phoebe (26 May 2007). "Obituary: Dame Jean Herbison". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
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