Avonside Girls' High School Explained

Avonside Girls' High School
Native Name:Maori: Te Kura Kōhine o Ōtākaro
Motto:Latin: Summa Sequere
Type:Girls state secondary school
Established:1919
Motto Translation:Aim at the highest – seek to attain the best
Streetaddress:209 Travis Road
Country:New Zealand
Principal:Catherine Law
Roll:
Decile:6N[1]
Moe:324

Avonside Girls' High School (Maori: Te Kura Kōhine o Ōtākaro), 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.[2]

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.[3]

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,[4] 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.[5] 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,[6] and on 12 February 2015 the site was confirmed to be the former QEII Park site[7] – and the move was complete in April 2019.[2]

Notable staff

Before she entered politics, Marian Hobbs was principal of the school.[8] Jean Herbison, later New Zealand's first female chancellor of a New Zealand university, taught at the school from 1952 to 1959.[9]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Decile Change 2014 to 2015 for State & State Integrated Schools . Ministry of Education . 12 February 2015.
  2. News: Law . Tina . Two Christchurch secondary schools say goodbye to original sites . 15 May 2019 . Stuff . 10 April 2019.
  3. Web site: About Avonside Girls' High School. 22 August 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110719023132/http://www.avonside.school.nz/About.aspx. 19 July 2011. dead.
  4. News: John Key tours Avonside Girls' High School . Rachel . Young . 16 February 2012 . The Press . 5 March 2012.
  5. News: School repairs to cost $8m, with a 2-year guarantee . . Tina . Law . 10 August 2011 . 22 August 2011.
  6. News: Two schools to share site in city's east . . Jody . O'Callaghan . 16 October 2013 . 16 October 2013.
  7. News: O'Callaghan . Jody . Cairns . Lois . Avonside Girls, Shirley Boys to be built at QEII . 2 July 2016 . . 12 February 2015.
  8. News: Ruth . Berry . The Evening Post. Marian Hobbs and Phillida Bunkle resign their ministerial posts . 23 February 2001.
  9. News: Obituary: Dame Jean Herbison . 26 May 2007 . . 28 January 2013 . Phoebe . Falconer.