Ku-ring-gai High School (abbreviated as KHS), formerly Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School (1996–2016), is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive and specialist

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

day school with a speciality in creative and performing arts. The school is located in

North Turramurra North Turramurra is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Turramurra is located north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Counci ...

, on the

Upper North Shore The North Shore is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, generally referring to suburbs located on the northern side of Sydney Harbour up to Wahroonga, and suburbs between Middle Harbour and the Lane Cove ...

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 ...

, New South Wales, Australia. The school is set on and located adjacent to the

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, sout ...

School catchment area and student selection

As a New South Wales Department of Education public high school, KHS accepts all students in Year 7 to

Year 12 Year 12 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes the twelfth year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-compulsory educa ...

living in its catchment area. The catchment covers locations in

Ku-ring-gai Kuringgai (also spelled Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) (,) is an ethnonym referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of Indigenous Australian peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the Gamilar ...

and Hornsby councils, including Dangar Island. The school also accepts, if there's space, those who "demonstrate outstanding ability and commitment in the creative arts in either dance, music, drama and/or visual arts ". Students who apply for enrolment under this criterion are required to provide a portfolio demonstrating this ability. The school also takes international and exchange students and is part of the International Students Program of the NSW Department of Education.

Campus and facilities

The school features one of the last remaining bini domes (dome-shaped hall) called the "Margret Preston Hall" and is one of the few public schools in NSW with a full sized hockey field. In 2020, refurbishment was completed with the construction of new facilities.

History

The school opened its doors in February 1965 with its first group of Year 7 students. Ku-ring-gai was the first of a second wave of new co-educational high schools built in the Sydney suburbs. The school's first headmaster was Bill Eason, who later went on to found the Australian Independent School at North Ryde. The four houses, which are still part of the school today, and the names of the four original classroom buildings were set in 1965 -

Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

Curie In computing, a CURIE (or ''Compact URI'') defines a generic, abbreviated syntax for expressing Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). It is an abbreviated URI expressed in a compact syntax, and may be found in both XML and non-XML grammars. A CURIE ...

Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter ...

, and Lincoln. The Churchill House is represented by the colour red; Curie House yellow; Tagore House green and Lincoln House blue.The school colours were originally brown and gold. Ku-ring-gai was a local high school until 1996 when Mrs. B. Peatie became the headmistress and requested permission from the Department of Education to become selective in creative arts. Since then, there have been up to 900 students registered each year. In 2015, it celebrated its 50th year and in 2016 reverted to the name "Ku-ring-gai High School".

Creative arts

Ku-Ring-Gai is a creative arts-based school; sports specialist classes and history programs are also offered. Student members of the school choir as well as a large number of dancers are selected to perform at the Arts Unit's Schools Spectacular each year.

Notable alumni

Catherine Jinks Catherine Jinks (born 1963) is an Australian writer of fiction books for all age groups. She has won many awards including the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award four times, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the A ...

– author

References

External links

Ku-ring-gai High School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ku-Ring-Gai High School Creative and performing arts high schools in New South Wales Public high schools in Sydney 1965 establishments in Australia Educational institutions established in 1965 Turramurra