St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls

History

St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls was originally opened as a small school on Stirling Highway, Claremont. In 1898, the School was renamed Claremont Ladies’ College and moved to the parish hall in Claremont. The school was bought by Melina Parnell in 1904 and renamed Girls’ High School. After Parnell’s retirement in 1926, the Anglican Church, keen to found an Anglican school for girls in the Claremont, Cottesloe or Peppermint Grove areas, acquired the Girls' High School. In March 1931 it was transferred to the Bay View Terrace campus it now presides at.

The school was named after the Christian Saint Hilda of Whitby and is the name of St Hilda’s Church of England School for Girls. St Hilda’s began under the direction of Catherine Small, with 54 pupils from the Girls’ High School and 45 new pupils. The School developed into a well known Western Australian girls school despite difficulties for schools during the Depression and Second World War.

St Hilda’s experienced another surge of growth and development under the new guidance of Una Mitchell from 1947 to 1967. From 1969 to 1975, when Ms Patman was headmistress, a number of important buildings were constructed. The Roger Goode Centre which acted as both a gym and a performance venue, and the Una Mitchell Building which provided new teaching facilities and currently houses the Social Science department. The annual Cultural Day (now known as the St Hilda’s Arts Festival) was also introduced. June Jones took up the position of principal in 1980 and in 1981 the school was renamed St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in celebration of its Golden Jubilee on the Mosman Park site.

Since 1980, enrolment has increased rapidly in both the Junior and Senior School to around 1,000 students from Kindergarten to Year 12. A building program was undertaken and is still continuing. St Hilda’s has seen the development of a new library and English Studies Centre, a new Science Centre, Mathematics Centre, Administration Centre, Staff Curriculum Centre, Dining Hall, kitchen and Health Centre, and a new Junior School as well as major renovations to the boarding houses.

In 1990, a Chapel Appeal was launched and a school chapel was eventually completed. To commemorate the centenary celebration of the founding of the school, a replica of Cædmon’s Cross from Whitby was built in the Great Court

Joy Shepherd was appointed in 1998 and has brought a pastoral care program to the school. Eventually, major plans for renovation, building and refurbishment of the school campuses were formed. However, in 1999 a fire damaged the boarding house. Boarders were relocated temporarily to the newly bought Chidley Campus while a new boarding house and café were built on campus. The old boarding house was rebuilt to house languages and drama. In 2004, the school launched the "Spreading Our Wings" campaign and commenced development of a new Junior School at the Chidley Campus a few kilometres away. A new scheme was taken on in 2006, when Year 7 officially became a part of the Senior School. The Junior School (K–6) were moved to the new campus in Fourth Term 2006. The old Junior School facilities at the Bay View Terrace campus are currently being refurbished to extend existing facilities in the Senior School. This has provided for extra services and rooms for music, art and English, while the old library and English Centre are currently being renovated to house a technology centre.

Academic performance

The school has traditionally performed well in the Western Australian Certificate of Education examinations and appear regularly among the top 10 schools in the state.

House system and pastoral care

St Hilda's has a pastoral care system in the Senior School. There are four houses all named after rivers in Western Australia:

In each year, girls are separated into forms by their house, with two forms per house per year. The forms consist of approximately 14 to 19 girls and each has a teacher from the school acting as a form tutor. Forms meet every morning before classes for 10 minutes and for one period a week.

Student executive

The school executive consists of eleven school officials taken from the Year 12 students. These officials are elected by the student body at the end of Term 3 the year previous. The executive is made up of the Head Girl, Administration Captain, Head Boarder and Boarding Prefects, Community Service Captain, Arts Captain, Music Captain, Sports Captain, Blackwood House Captain, De Grey House Captain, Fitzroy House Captain and Gascoyne House Captain. House officials are also elected at the same time with five for each House.

Uniform

The St Hilda’s uniform consists of a blue short sleeve blouse and light grey skirt in summer, worn with a light blue socks and brown leather shoes. Cardigans are available but are optional. A yellow straw boater with a light blue band and badge is compulsory in the summer terms (Term 1 and 4) and must be worn to and from the School as well as at lunchtimes. A formal uniform is also required which consists of the uniform as above with flesh coloured stockings instead of socks, a blue and yellow striped tie for Years 7–11 or a blue tie for Year 12s and the school blazer. In winter, girls may wear the same short sleeved blue blouse or a long sleeved blue blouse with a tie as above. A heavier, dark grey skirt is worn with grey stockings and brown leather shoes. Grey jumpers are worn for girls in Years 7–11 and dark blue ‘Leavers’ jumpers for girls in Year 12. The blue school blazer is compulsory during winter but optional during summer except for formal occasions and must be worn to and from the school and whenever in a public place in uniform.

The school blazer is a bright blue colour with three gold buttons and the school crest stitched in yellow on the breast pocket.

Each student is allocated a house badge which they pin on their blazers. Badges are also provided for committees, officials and tutor group captains. School and house officials get stitching on their breast pocket that detonates their position. School awards are awarded for co-curricular activities and range from a cream bar for Year 7s up to Colours of Honours for Year 12s. Each activity has its own symbol for Colours and is stitched onto the student’s breast pocket if they receive it. Along with Cream Bars, Blue Bars and Gold Bars are awarded depending on school year and level of involvement as well as one or two bands which is stitched on to the sleeves of the blazer.

Hair must not be dyed beyond natural colourings. Hair should be neat and tied back once it reaches the collar of the uniform. Hair ribbons, head bands and scrunchies must be regulation blue. Only brown/blue hair ties, alice bands, or clips are to be worn.

• Make-up and nail polish must not be worn. • No jewellery (including earrings). Clear plastic studs may be worn.

Sport

St Hilda's is a member of the Independent Girls Schools Sports Association (IGSSA), and partakes in competitive sports against other schools including the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Methodist Ladies' College, St Mary's Anglican Girls' School, Iona Presentation College, Penrhos College, Perth College and Santa Maria College. St Hilda’s offers most sports from swimming and athletics to soccer and badminton. Physical Education Classes are compulsory for all Years, twice a week for Year 7–10 and then once a week in Year 11 and 12 with Second Semester PE optional for Year 12s. PE Studies is available for Year 11 and 12 students.

Music

St Hilda’s has a Music Department offering instrumental and voice lessons and scholarships. There are co-curricular music groups available, many of which rehearse before school. Amongst these, there are a Symphony Orchestra, String Orchestra, Chamber Ensemble, Flute Ensemble, Chorale, Barbershop, Animando, Concert Band, Jazz Band and Rock Band. The music department holds many concerts each year including an annual concerto concert where the best musicians from Years 11 and 12 perform a solo work with orchestral backing. Other highlights of the music calendar include a combined Arts Festival Concert with their Brother School Christ Church Grammar School, the St Hilda's music festival, which was held for the first time in late 2007, the annual Music Camp to Margaret River and the yearly Music Breakfast.

Drama

St Hilda’s offers drama studies and drama as a subject in Years 11 and 12. Drama is compulsory for Year 8s and then optional for Years 9 to 12. The drama department also offers individual speech and drama lessons for students who wish to pursue the activity further. A yearly school production is also held with students and musicians from Years 8 to 12 taking part. The productions were until recently held at the Playhouse Theatre in Perth but have since relocated to the Octagon Theatre at the University of Western Australia. Recent productions include Annie, The Wiz, Anything Goes, "Beauty and The Beast" and Sweet Charity.

The production are now performed in the St Hilda's Performing Arts Centre.

Arts Fest

The annual arts festival is held at the end of Term One and is run and organised by two Arts Captains from each House. The main Festival takes place on the last day of Term One, with some solo events taking place in the weeks preceding this. The Festival provides opportunities for solo and group performances which are organised by the students. Such events include House Choirs (where each House as a whole performs two songs as a choir), Group Popular Song (each House selects singers and a band and perform a popular song), Solo Popular Song, Group Classical, Solo Classical Song, Solo Instrumental, Group Spoken (each House selects a group of students and performs a short original production based on a theme), Solo Spoken, Group Dance and Solo Dance. Each event is judged by an outside adjudicator. There is also a fancy dress parade on the morning of the Arts Festival for Year K–12 and staff, where each Year has a theme to dress to. At the end of the day, the House with the most points receives the Arts Festival Shield.

Notable alumnae