Advanced School for Girls

File:Advanced School for Girls (first home).jpg

From its inception, the University of Adelaide welcomed female students, although degrees were not available to females until 1880. At first, the only schools preparing girls to matriculation level were small private colleges such as Miss Martin's School and Parliament considered that education of women should be on a more structured basis, and the "Education Act of 1875" provided for establishment of a government-funded Advanced School.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42988819 |title=Advanced School for Girls |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=28 October 1878 |accessdate=2 August 2013 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The first appointments were for a headmistress and assistant head: Jane Stanes and Edith Cook (both transferred from the Grote Street Model School),{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43094953 |title=The Month's News |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=6 October 1879 |accessdate=2 August 2013 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} followed by Rene-Armand Martin (French). Stanes resigned the following year, ostensibly due to ill-health, and Cook was promoted to head in 1882. A Government regulation, stipulating that the head must be aged 25, had to be waived for her to be appointed, as she was only 20. The Minister of Education (Thomas King) did not approve, but his successor (J. Langdon Parsons) pushed it through.

The school, in the two-storey former residence of Dr. Lambert Butler, Franklin Street, was opened on 7 October 1879 with sixteen students passing the entrance examination.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43090049 |title=Educational |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=3 November 1879 |accessdate=2 August 2013 |page=4 Supplement: Supplement to the South Australian Register |via=National Library of Australia}} Additional appointments were made in 1880: Madeline Rees George (German), Ellen Thornber (assistant), Kate C. Brown (assistant).{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43109924 |title=Teachers' Appointments |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=14 January 1880 |access-date=2 August 2013 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} By September 1880 the number of students was 92.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43148207 |title=Advanced School for Girls |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=24 September 1880 |accessdate=2 August 2013 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} The following year, there were more applicants than places.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47109173 |title=Advanced School for Girls |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=27 April 1882 |access-date=2 August 2013 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} By 1882, girls from the school were prominent in the matriculation results: two of the top nine were from the Advanced School.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43338487 |title=The Matriculation Examinations |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=18 December 1882 |access-date=2 August 2013 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1883, both recipients of the Sir Thomas Elder prize for physiology were students of the Advanced School.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43465974 |title=Miscellaneous |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=6 January 1883 |access-date=2 August 2013 |page=2 Supplement: Supplement to the South Australian Register |via=National Library of Australia}}

Many criticisms were leveled against the school: that it robbed educated widows of a source of income as tutors; that by conducting an entrance examination and by not conducting junior classes it had an unfair advantage over other schools; and that by offering French and German rather than the more difficult (and essential for University degrees) Latin and Greek, it was gaining an inflated reputation and at the same time robbing talented women of opportunities.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44574669 |title=The Advanced School for Girls |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=31 August 1886 |accessdate=2 August 2013 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 1891 a new purpose-built building on Grote Street was completed. The move from Franklin Street enabled the number of students to be raised from 124 to 150.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198426141 |title=Advanced School for Girls |newspaper=Evening Journal |volume=XXIII |issue=6624 |location=Adelaide |date=17 December 1891 |accessdate=11 July 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} This building still stands today (2016).

== Combining with Adelaide High School ==

The Grote Street Model School and the Training School (a teachers' training college) were amalgamated, forming the Continuation School for Boys, which then amalgamated with the Advanced School for Girls, creating Adelaide High School on 24 September 1908.{{cite web | title=Grote Street| publisher = History Trust of South Australia| first1=Margaret |last1=Anderson |first2= Jude| last2= Elton | website=SA History Hub | date=| url=https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/places/grote-street | access-date=25 November 2024}}{{cite web | title=Model School | website=Adelaide City Explorer | url=https://adelaidecityexplorer.com.au/items/show/47 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240316193501/https://adelaidecityexplorer.com.au/items/show/47| archive-date= 16 March 2024}} The headmaster from 1909 until 1919 was W. J. Adey, later Director of Education.{{cite web |last=Condon |first=Brian |title=

William James Adey (1874–1956)| website= Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |publication-place=Canberra|date=1979 |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/adey-william-james-4974 |access-date=25 November 2024 |page=| quote=This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, (Melbourne University Press), 1979}}

In 1951 the school divided into the Adelaide Boys' High School and the Adelaide Girls' High School under headmistress Mary Veta Macghey.{{Citation |last=Allen |first=Margaret |title=Mary Veta Macghey (1897–1970) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macghey-mary-veta-10955 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2024-01-10 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}

• Edith Alice Bowen ( –1932) married George Craig in 1892; appointed assistant 1882
• Kate Cormac Brown (c. 1860–1891) appointed assistant 1880, then at private school; suicide 1891{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91537092 |title=A Terrible Suicide |newspaper=South Australian Chronicle |volume=XXXIII |issue=1,699 |location=South Australia |date=14 March 1891 |access-date=12 July 2023 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}
• Sarah Cargill: appointed head teacher June 1880, ex-Brisbane Grammar School.

• Ada Mary a'Beckett M.Sc. CBE (1872–20 May 1948), née Lambert, biologist, first woman lecturer at Melbourne University.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132029503 |title=Melbourne Kindergarten President |newspaper=The News |volume=XXVII |issue=4,104 |location=Adelaide |date=16 September 1936 |accessdate=9 July 2016 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}
• Dr. Eleanor Allen, psychologist of Adelaide
• Ethel Ambrose
• Mabel Jewell Baker, head mistress of Walford School, Unley
• Graemme Barbour, senior mistress of the Adelaide High School
• Dr. Phoebe Chapple
• Florence Cooke Mus. Bac.(3 June 1888 – 11 December 1953), a noted violinist and teacher of music
• Dr. Constance May Cooper married Arthur Kent Newbery in 1909
• Bessie Davidson, an artist of European reputation
• Dr. Eulalie Dawson (née Burnard){{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57360843 |title=Concerning People |newspaper=The Register |location=Adelaide |date=6 September 1907 |accessdate=3 July 2014 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}
• Violet de Mole, well known as a teacher of French in Adelaide
• Edith Emily Dornwell, in 1885 the first woman graduate in science at Adelaide University; married Lionel Charles Raymond in 1895, and moved to New South Wales
• Edith Josephine Gardner married Cuthbert Viner Smith on 2 April 1910
• Elsie Hamilton, another gifted musician
• Charlotte Harry OBE, married stationer James Leonard Leal in 1911
• Florence Haycraft BSc.
• Agnes Marie Johanna Heyne BA married Rev. Caspar Dorsch, mother and stepmother of a remarkable family{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36460971 |title=Dorsch Family's Fine Record |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=30 November 1933 |accessdate=23 July 2016 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}} A great story.
• Ethel Adelaide Hinde née Ayliffe (1868–1944), aka Ethelwyn Hamilton Hinde, founder and Principal of Riverside School
• Ethel Holder MA became art teacher, involved with Old Scholars Association
• Stella Howchin B.Sc.
• Dr. Edith Ulrica "Rica" Hübbe (1885–1967)
• Doris Egerton Jones (1889–1973), Sydney author and playwright
• Dr. Helen Mayo
• Dr. Gertrude Mead daughter of Rev. Silas Mead
• Dr. Violet Plummer (1887–1890)
• E. Dorothea "Dora" Proud DSc., CBE., first winner of the Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship. She married Gordon A. Pavy in 1917
• Maude Mary Puddy AMUA, Mus. Bac., pianist, with a reputation in Europe as well as in Australia{{cite AuDB |first= Alison |last= Holder|authorlink= |title= Puddy, Maude Mary (1883–1974)|volume= 11|edition= |year= 1988 |id2= puddy-maude-mary-8128/text14199|accessdate= 6 October 2017}}
• Bessie Rischbieth, noted feminist
• Susie Solomon BSc.
• Agnes Louisa Storrie for 17 years contributed poems to The Australasian. She married John Wilson Kettlewell in 1890
• Anna Trudinger BA, missionary to China where she married Rev. William Robertson Malcolm, settled in NZ.
• Constance Mary "Connie" Verco married architect Eric Habershon McMichael in 1909
• Nellie Walker B.Sc.
• Dora Frances Williams (1874 – 13 November 1950) married Thomas Slaney Poole in 1903
• Eva Roubel Williams married Frederick Augustus d'Arenberg, both daughters of the Rev. Francis Williams, a former head master of St. Peter's College
• Charlotte Elizabeth Arabella "Lottie" Wright (1867 – 15 March 1951), first woman to gain her BA. at Adelaide University;{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133056462 |title=Schoolgirls of Yesteryear |newspaper=The News |volume=XXVI |issue=3,920 |location=Adelaide |date=13 February 1936 |accessdate=11 July 2016 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}} proprietor and principal, Semaphore (Girls) High School 1890–99; married Frederick A. Graham in Kalgoorlie 1900, secretary WFMA (Women's Foreign Missionary Auxiliary), peace activists Subiaco.

{{Reflist}}

Relevant photographs held by the State Library of South Australia:

• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/1 Miss J. Staines], first headmistress of the Advanced School for Girls
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/2 Mrs Hubbe], second headmistress of the Advanced School for Girls
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/3 Miss M. Rees George], headmistress of ASG 1886–1908
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/4 Staff of ASG c. 1900]. Back row (from left): Miss M. Maughan, Miss Ethel Holder, Miss Ellen Lewis. Front row (from left): Miss Marion R. George, Miss M. Rees George, Miss C.E. Sells, Miss K. Cooke (Mus Bac.)
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/5 Charlotte E. A. Wright, B.A.], the first graduate of the Advanced School for Girls
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/6 Stella Howchin, B.SC.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/7 Annie M. Clark, B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/8 Maude M. Puddy, Mus. Bac.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/9 Annie Lane, M.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/10 Violet M. Plummer, MB, BS.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/11 Eulalia H. Burnard, MB.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/12 Isobel Sanders, B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/13 A group of women graduates] (from left) Mary Kirby B.Sc., Susie Solomon B.Sc., Florence Haycraft B.Sc, and Annie Trehy B.Sc., all former students of ASG.
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/14 Dr Helen Mayo]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/15 Olga G. Mawby]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/16 Agnes M. T. Heyne B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/17 C.E. Sells], Senior Mistress at ASG
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/18 Euphemia Thodosia Blair, M.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/19 Laura Heyne M.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/20 Margaret Lipsham B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/21 Ida Viner Smith B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/22 Constance M. Cooper B.Sc. MB.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/23 E. Dorothea Proud], E. Dorothea Proud, daughter of Cornelius Proud and Emily Good. B.A.(1906), D.Sc.(1916), C.B.E.(1917), graduate and former ASG student.
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/24 Stella M. Churchward B.Sc]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/25 49th anniversary of ASG]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/26 Hilda Farsky]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/27 Ada Mary Lambert]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/28 Elizabeth E. Weld M.B. B.S.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/29 Hilda Blanche Walter M.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/30 Graeme M. Barbour M.A.], Senior Mistress
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/31 Vida M. Wilks B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/32 M. Chapple B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/33 Franziska Kelly, nee Puttmann, Mus. Bac.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/34 Phoebe Chapple B.Sc.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/35 Anna Trudinger B.A.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/36 F.E. Cooke Mus.Bac.]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/37 The Proud sisters] Three graduates and former ASG students (from left): E. Dorothea Proud (later Mrs Gordon Pavy) B.A. 1906, D.Sc London 1916, C.B.E. 1917; Millicent F. Proud (later Mrs Paul Furrer) M.A. 1915, Dip.Ed London 1922; Katherine L. Proud (later Mrs A. A. Magarey) A.C.U.A. 1910
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/38 Edith E. Dornwell]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/39 Last students and staff of ASG]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/40 Ellen I. Benham B.Sc]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/41 Nellie Walker B.Sc]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/42 Earliest home of ASG]
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/43 Dr Edith Ulrica Hubbe, B.A., M.B. B.S.], head of ASG
• [http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+25677/44 ASG building]

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Category:Educational institutions established in 1879

Category:Secondary schools in Adelaide

Category:1879 establishments in Australia

Category:1907 disestablishments in Australia

Category:History of Adelaide

Category:Defunct girls' schools in Australia

Category:Defunct schools in South Australia