Motto Know Thyself Principal Mr Mark Anderson Enrolment ~730 (2007) Founded 1958 | Established 1958 Grades 7–12 Phone +61 2 9489 1077 Gender Single-sex education | |
Similar Hornsby Girls High School, James Ruse Agricultur, Epping Boys High School, Baulkham Hills High School, Loreto Normanh | ||
Normanhurst Boys High School (colloquially known as Normo) is an academically selective, public, high school for boys, located in Normanhurst, on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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Established in 1958 and operated by the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities (DEC), the school currently caters for around 730 students from Years 7 to 12. The school, affectionately known as "Normo," celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008.
History
In 1957, five schools made up the Hornsby School site, located on the Pacific Highway: a boys' primary school and a boys' junior technical school on the eastern side, and an infants school, a girls’ primary school, and a girls’ domestic science school on the western side. On 30 November 1957, the three western schools were destroyed by bushfires. Over the 1957-58 Christmas holidays, the three schools were relocated into the facilities of the boys' technical school, and the three year groups of boys were moved to a newly built but unopened school at Normanhurst.
From the opening in 1958 until 1993, Normanhurst Boys High School operated as a comprehensive school. In 1993, the Government of New South Wales marked Normanhurst as one of several high schools allowed to select students by academic achievement. The first intake of "selective" students was made up of those starting Year Seven in 1994, with a new intake of Year Sevens each year, until the school became fully selective in 1999. As of 2010, Normanhurst is one of 17 fully selective schools in New South Wales.
Structure
Normanhurst Boys High School is an academically selective high school and accepts only 120 students in Year Seven, from those who have passed the Selective High Schools Examination in Year Six. Some students may be accepted into Years Eight to Eleven, through direct application to the school.
Facilities
The school has an area of 6.3 hectares, and is within five minutes walk of Normanhurst railway station.
Sport
Normanhurst Boys High School comes under the North West Metropolitan Sports Association. The sporting year is divided into summer and winter, and boys are able to select sports they wish to play throughout the semester. Boys can play grade sport, representing the school in inter-school competitions, or social sport, not competing against other schools. The school also holds annual swimming and athletics carnivals, as well as an annual cross-country event.
Co-curricular activities
Many clubs and societies are on offer to students. These include a debating and public speaking society; a chess club; a concert band, a stage band, a jazz ensemble, a vocal ensemble, and a string ensemble. Normanhurst Boys also participates in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme.
Normanhurst Boys runs an annual school excursion for Year Seven students to Jenolan Caves and the Central West of New South Wales. The excursion has been running for 50 years.
Normanhurst Boys is not far from its "sister" school, Hornsby Girls' High School, with joint curriculum and extra-curricular activities held.