Carlingford High School is a
comprehensive,
co-educational
Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...
government high school located in
Carlingford,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. The school has approximately 1180 enrollments and has achieved top
Higher School Certificate scores.
History
The decision to build a new high school at North Carlingford was made in early 1967. Though the decision was originally not well received by the community, especially parents who lived in close proximity to
Cumberland High School and whose children were already being sent by bus to
Pennant Hills High School, building of the new school commenced in the Autumn. The contractor,
A.V Jennings, was to complete sufficient of the building to enable the school to open on the first school day in 1968.
In October, the first principal, MJ Maiden, met 165 students who were in first form at Pennant Hills High School and who were destined for the new school, known officially at this stage as "Carlingford North High School". The students were dressed in school uniform designed by a committee of parents appointed by R. Stacey, principal of Pennant Hills High School. A further meeting was held with the parents where a motion was carried that the Department of Education be asked to name the school "Carlingford High School".
Two more meetings were held with the committee prior to the beginning of the new school year. At these meetings, finalized arrangements for the first school day of 1968 were made, along with the establishment of a school badge and motto. Much thought went into the latter with a view to linking the badge with the name "Carlingford". From H. Faters, former headmaster of Carlingford Rural School, informed the committee that Carlingford was named after Carlingford in Ireland. Maiden, wrote to the Embassy of Ireland in Canberra and received information about Irish Carlingford. It was then decided to design a badge and motto that would incorporate the "Venturegameness" of the Vikings and the idea that education should be an adventure. The design of the badge would be in keeping with the design of the school and with an Australian flavour, hence the square, severe line of the badge and the boomerang on which the motto appears. Several different designs were worked on by artists at "Perfection Plate" and indeed the Maiden family also worked on the design.After a quite argumentative meeting the committee finally reached a decision with the agreed motto "Adventure in Learning" put forward by the appointed deputy principal Mr. N. Leeder and the badge design created by Maiden's wife.
Carlingford High was the first NSW school to have a student council rather than prefects, an innovation of Maiden. As late as the Thursday before school was to resume it was by no means certain that the school would be open due to inclement weather, and the light flooding of B block. Although the weather cleared and concrete was poured on the Friday, And because of an unseasonably warm weekend, the school was able to be officially opened on Tuesday 31 January 1968.
This school is currently located on North Rocks Road between two primary schools, Roselea Public School and St Gerard's Primary Catholic School, near the Plympton Rd
Music
The school has many music ensembles. Two Concert bands, two Stage bands, two Choirs and one String ensemble. They also produce a musical biannually. They have achieved many successful shows over the past years and have performed around Australia.
The schools 2020 Adams Family musical was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Schools Spectacular has been cancelled as well. The production of the Adams family was replaced by the play clue based on the game cluedo
*
Notable alumni
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Amanda Keller
Amanda Rose Keller (born 25 February 1962) is an Australian television and radio presenter, comedian, writer, actress, journalist and media personality, best known as the hostess of the popular Australian lifestyle program ''The Living Room''. ...
(OAM) Gold Logie nominee, Australian journalist, radio presenter, and media personality
*
Sally McManus
Sally McManus (born 31 July 1971) is an Australian trade unionist, feminist and political activist who has served as the Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) since 2017. She is the first woman to hold the position of Secret ...
Secretary of the ACTU
*
Tim Brunero
Tim Brunero (born 1976) is known to the Australian television-viewing public as the runner-up of ''Big Brother Australia 2005''.
Brunero visited East Timor in November 2005 for APHEDA, also known as Union Aid Abroad. Hann, BelleFrom housemate ...
''Big Brother'' contestant
*
Victor Mishalow
Victor Mishalow ( uk, Віктор Мiшалов) (born 4 April 1960) is an Australian-born Canadian bandurist, educator, composer, conductor, and musicologist.Бандурист Віктор Мішалов http://www.banduryst.org.ua/in ...
musician, musicologist
*
Stephen O'Doherty
Stephen Mark O'Doherty (born 26 October 1959) is a former Australian politician and former member of the Liberal Party.
Early life and career
O'Doherty was born in Melbourne and raised in New South Wales. He attended Carlingford High School, a p ...
journalist, former politician
*
Jamie Parker
Jamie Parker (born 14 August 1979) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the original cast for the West End play ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'', for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award f ...
politician; Member for
Balmain; member of the
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...
; former mayor of Leichhardt Council
*
Jason SmithAustralian actor; starred in ''
Home and Away
''Home and Away'' (often abbreviated as ''H&A'') is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip ...
''
*
Timmy Trumpet
Timothy Jude Smith (born 9 June 1982), known by his stage name Timmy Trumpet, is an Australian musician, DJ, songwriter and record producer. He has become known internationally for playing the trumpet live and making use of jazz elements in dan ...
musician, DJ
Notable former staff
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Peter Crawfordformer politician; former Member for
Balmain
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Public high schools in Sydney
1968 establishments in Australia
Educational institutions established in 1968