Type Public Principal Anita Zocchi Campus Urban Number of students 1,216 | Established 1908 Enrolment 1216 Phone +61 8 8231 9373 Founded 1908 | |
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Motto Non scholae sed vitae
(Not only for school, but for life) Address West Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia | ||
A whole school approach to healthy lifestyles adelaide high school
Adelaide High School is a coeducational state high school situated on the corner of West Terrace and Glover Avenue in the Adelaide Parklands. It was the first government highschool in South Australia. It currently has an enrollment of approximately 1,200 students.
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History
In 1879, John Anderson Hartley, Catherine Helen Spence and others created the Advanced School for Girls in Grote Street, Adelaide. It was the first public secondary school in South Australia. The school was combined with the Adelaide Continuation School, and on April 8, 1908 the name was changed to Adelaide High School. This was the same year the South Australian state high school system was launched. Adelaide High School was officially opened on the 24th of September, 1908 by the premier of South Australia, Thomas Price. It was the first secondary school in the Commonwealth of Australia.
In 1927, it had an enrolment of 1,067 students, making it the largest school of its kind in the Commonwealth. By 1929, due to increasing enrollments, the school occupied two sites; one site was at Grote Street and the other was at Currie Street (now part of the Remand Centre). Due to the increasing enrolments, it was decided that a new building was required for Adelaide High School. The current site of the school on West Terrace was originally set aside for an army barracks in 1849, but in 1859 an observatory was built instead, which then 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. This became Adelaide Boys High School while Adelaide Girls High School remained in the buildings in Grote Street. 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. It had not led to the building's listing on the register as of 2007. The original Grote Street school buildings were listed on the register as a Historic site in 1980. As of 2007, the buildings were used as a centre for the performing arts. The buildings were considered to be among the Nationally Significant 20th-Century Buildings in South Australia.
In 1977, due to decreasing enrollments at both the Boys and the Girls schools, amalgamation began with Adelaide High School operating on two campuses - one on Grote Street and one on West Terrace. This arrangement ended in 1979, when all students were on the West Terrace site. In 1979, Adelaide High School became South Australia's Special Interest Language School, with students able to study up to seven languages: French, German, Latin, Modern Greek, Chinese, Spanish and Italian. Latin ceased to be offered in 2004 and was replaced by Japanese.
Adelaide is part of the longest-running sporting exchanges with Melbourne High School and Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, both in Melbourne.
Curriculum
Adelaide High School is especially known for being a Special Interest Language School. It offers its students seven different languages to study: Modern Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish and German. The school is also a Centre for the Hearing Impaired and an Associate School for Students of High Intellectual Potential. It was a selected entry for students in its special interest cricket and rowing programs.
Languages
Adelaide High School is a Special Interest Language School and currently a sister school to Asahi High School in Osaka, Japan; IIS Quintino Sella in Biella, Italy, Heriburg Gymnasium in Coesfeld, Nord Rhein Westfalen, Germany, Lycée Saint Sauveur in Redon, Brittany, France, IES La Sisla in Sonsecas, Spain, Jinan Foreign Language School in Jinan, China, the 7th High School of Corfu, Greece and Greensward College in Essex, UK. Sister school visits, both inbound and outbound, take place regularly.
Facilities
Facilities that students 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. It also has a shared rowing facility with Unley High School and Norwood Morialta High School, both at West Lakes.
Sport
The school has four "house" teams which students represent in sporting events within the school. The houses took their names from past principals of the school.The house names are: Adey (Red), Macghey (Blue), Morriss (Green), and West (Yellow). Sporting events include swimming, carnival, and sports day.
Adelaide High School has a range of girls and boys sporting teams and offers special interest sporting programmes including cricket and rowing. They participate in games and regattas throughout the year which lead up to the main events. The 5 Highs Cricket Carnival and Rowing event head to the River. Other sporting trips have the volleyball teams travelling to the Australian Volleyball Schools Cup in Melbourne, in December.
Since 1913, Adelaide High has taken part in a sporting exchange with Mac.Robertson Girls' High School and since 1910, Melbourne High School is the longest-running sporting exchange in the state. It is known as the Prefects Cup. It is held in early Term 3 and each year they swap, as the boys go to Melbourne and the girls go to Adelaide. There are competitions in many sports such as: Australian rules foctball, soccer, tennis, rowing, basketball, netball, softball, chess, debating, theatre sports, volleyball, cross country athletics, badminton, table tennis and hockey. Sports previously played against Melbourne included lacrosse, baseball and field hockey. Melbourne High School currently holds the Prefect Cup as its most recent win was in 2014.