Advanced School for Girls

The Advanced School for Girls was a South Australian State school whose purpose was to prepare girls to qualify for entry to the University of Adelaide.

History

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.

The first appointments were for a headmistress and assistant head: Jane Stanes (who resigned the following year due to ill-health) and Edith Cook (who was promoted to head in 1882), both transferred from the Grote Street Model School, followed by Rene Amand Martin, (French). The school, in the former residence of Dr. Butler, Franklin Street, was opened on 7 October 1879 with sixteen students passing the entrance examination. Additional appointments were made in 1880: Madeline Rees George (German), Elizabeth Thornton (assistant), Kate A. Brown (assistant). By September 1880 the number of students was 92. The following year, there were more applicants than places. By 1882, girls from the school were prominent in the Matriculation results: two of the top nine were from the Advanced School. In 1883, both recipients of the Sir Thomas Elder prize for physiology were students of the Advanced School.

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.

Support from Edward Stirling MLC.

Combining with Adelaide High School

A.S.G. merged with the (co-educational) Adelaide High School in 1907 under headmaster W. J. Adey, later Director of Education. It took over the three adjacent buildings in Grote street which were previously (from east to west): Advanced School for Girls, Teachers' Training College, and Grote Street Model School. In 1951 the school divided into the Adelaide Boys' High School and the Adelaide Girls' High School under headmistress M. Veta Macghey BA. MA. Dip.Ed.

Notable Alumni

• Dr. Eulalie Dawson (née Burnard)
• Dr. Phoebe Chapple
• Dr. Violet Plummer (1887–1890)
• Dr. Rica Hubbe
• Dr. Constance Cooper
• Dr. Helen Mayo
• Mabel Jewell Baker, of Walford House,
• Ethel Adelaide Hinde née Ayliffe (1868–1944), aka Ethelwyn Hamilton Hinde, founder and Principal of Riverside School
• Bessie Davidson, an artist of European reputation
• Maude Puddy, pianist, with a reputation in Europe as well as here
• Elsie Hamilton, another gifted musician
• Dora Proud, first winner of the Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship
• Doris Egerton Jones, later of Sydney, whose play based on the early history of Sydney, was colorfully presented by Alan Wilkie and her mystery play, The Flaw, seen in Adelaide with Emélie Polini.