, motto_translation = Let the Sun be your Witness , established = , type =

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

, and

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 and boarding school , denomination =

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

, gender =

Girls A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...

, slogan = Celebrating learning; inspiring young women , principal = Jane Danvers , chairman = Ainslie van Onselen , founder = Louisa Gurney , location = 794

New South Head Road New South Head Road, is a major road in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, linking the inner-eastern suburb of Rushcutters Bay to the southern reaches of the South Head peninsula. Route New South Head Road runs north-east from Rushcutters Bay t ...

Rose Bay, New South Wales Rose Bay is a harbourside, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rose Bay is located seven kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Council (east of Old S ...

, country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Sydney , pushpin_image = , pushpin_mapsize = 250 , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_map_caption = Location in greater metropolitan Sydney , pushpin_label = , pushpin_label_position = , website = , affiliations = Kambala Church of England Girls' School is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

early learning,

, and

day and boarding school for girls, located in

, Australia. Established in 1887, Kambala has a non-selective enrolment policy and currently caters for approximately 1,000 students from early learning 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 ...

, including 95 boarders from

Year 7 Year 7 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is the seventh full year (or eighth in Australia) of compulsory education and is roughly equivalent to grade 6 in the United ...

to Year 12. Students come to Kambala from the greater metropolitan area, rural New South Wales and overseas. The school is affiliated with the

Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia The Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia (abbreviated as AGSA) is a non-profit organisation that promotes the education of girls in single-sex girls' schools, and promotes the image of, and support the development of, girls' schools in Australa ...

(AGSA), the

Junior School Heads Association of Australia The Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHA) formerly Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), is an incorporated body representing the heads of independent primary schools in Australia. Officially established in Septem ...

(JSHAA), the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the Australian Boarding Schools' Association (ABSA), and is a founding member of the

Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools The Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools (AHIGS), is an association for independent girls' schools, based in North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1916 as The Association of Head Mistresses of New South Wales, t ...

(AHIGS).

History

Kambala was established in 1887 by Louisa Gurney, the daughter of an English

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

. Gurney conducted her first classes with twelve girls at a

terrace house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

Woollahra Woollahra is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located 5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra. W ...

called 'Fernbank'. In 1891, Augustine Soubeiran, who had assisted in the running of the school and who taught French, became Co-Principal. To accommodate increasing enrolments, the School was moved to a larger property in Bellevue Hill called Kambala, from which the school took its new name. In 1913, with an enrolment of nearly fifty, the School moved again, to its present site on

, Rose Bay. The property was known as "Tivoli", from the original Tivoli Estate, and was previously occupied by Captain William Dumaresq and later by merchant

James Robinson Love James Robinson Love (1836–1914) was an Australian merchant and founder of J. R. Love & Co Ltd and Kinkara Tea. Love was the son of the politician William Love and Ellinor Robinson, both immigrants from Ireland, and brother of magistrate Mi ...

. The spacious new building was built in 1841, and the notable architect

John Horbury Hunt John Horbury Hunt (1838 – December 30, 1904) was a Canadians, Canadian-born Australian architect who worked in Sydney and rural New South Wales from 1863. Life and career Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of a builder, Hunt was tra ...

was commissioned to extend it. Today this building houses classrooms and Kambala's boarders in Years 7 to 9. In 1926, Kambala became a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Foundation School controlled by an independent council. During Fifi Hawthorne's tenure as Principal, 1933 to 1966, the school grew from 100 students to more than 660, and buildings and facilities expanded accordingly.

Principals

Campus

Kambala is located on a single

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

on the rising shore above

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

Rose Bay, overlooking

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

. The school is divided into four main areas: #Hampshire House – the Early Learning Centre (creche) #Massie House for students from Preparation (4 year olds) to Year 2; #Junior School for girls in Years 3 to 6; and #Senior School for girls in Years 7 to 12.

Boarding

Boarding students from Year 7 to Year 9 live in Tivoli, the home of the original Tivoli estate, of which the School was once a part. Frequented by the colonial artist

Conrad Martens Conrad Martens (21 March 1801 – 21 August 1878) was an English-born landscape painter active on HMS ''Beagle'' from 1833 to 1834. He arrived in Australia in 1835 and painted there until his death in 1878. Life and work Conrad Martens' f ...

during the 1840s, extensively renovated by architect

in the 1880s, Tivoli features modern

dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

-style living amenities. Boarders in Years 10 to 12 reside in Fernbank. Opened in 1997, Fernbank provides students with more independent living, social privileges and greater privacy for study.

House system

The

House system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries and the United States. The school is divided into subunits called "houses" and each student is allocated to o ...

was introduced at Kambala in 1928. Each student from Years 3 to 12 is allocated to one of the four houses; Gurney, Hawthorne, Roseby or Wentworth. There are several interhouse competitions throughout the year in which Houses can earn points towards the Angus Cup at the end of the year. Each House is led by two House Captains. Tutor groups are formed according to Houses.

Notable alumnae

Ex-students of Kambala are known as Old Girls and may elect to join the Kambala Old Girls' Union (KOGU). Some notable Kambala Old Girls include: * Jessie Strahorn Aspinall – first female junior resident medical officer at

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (abbreviated RPAH or RPA) is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located on Missenden Road in Camperdown. It is a teaching hospital of the Central Clinical School of the Sydney Medical School ...

(1906) (also attended

Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney (PLC Sydney) is an independent school, independent Presbyterian Church of Australia, Presbyterian Single-sex school, single-sex Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primary and Secondary sc ...

) *

Claudia Black Claudia Lee Black (born 11 October 1972) is an Australian actress, best known for her portrayals of Aeryn Sun in '' Farscape'', Vala Mal Doran in ''Stargate SG-1'' and Sharon "Shazza" Montgomery in the film '' Pitch Black''. She has had prom ...

–

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

, best known for her portrayal of Aeryn Sun and

Vala Mal Doran Vala Mal Doran is a fictional character in the American military science fiction television series ''Stargate SG-1'', a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices. Played by former ...

in science fiction television series ''

Farscape ''Farscape'' is an Australian-American science fiction television series, produced originally for the Nine Network. It premiered in the US on Sci-Fi Channel's SciFi Friday, 19 March 1999, at 8:00 pm EST as their anchor series. The series was c ...

'' and ''

Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction Adventure fiction, adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate, ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wrigh ...

'' *

Sheila Chisholm Margaret Sheila Mackellar Chisholm (9 September 1895 – 13 October 1969) was an Australian socialite and "it girl" in British high society during and after World War I. She married three times: Francis St Clair-Erskine, Lord Loughborough (h ...

– socialite *

Michelle Guthrie Michelle Guthrie (born 1965) is an Australian business executive and lawyer. Guthrie was born in Sydney in 1965, was educated at Brigidine College Randwick and Kambala Girls' School, and studied arts and law at the University of Sydney. She jo ...

– former managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * Judy Playfair - silver medal-winning swimmer at the 1968 Mexico City OlympicsPlayfair profile
/ref> *

Roxy Jacenko Roxanne Jacenko (born 8 June 1980) is an Australian businesswoman and socialite who was one of the runners up on the third season of ''The Celebrity Apprentice Australia''. Career Jacenko is the director of Sydney-based public relations fi ...

- Businesswoman *

Claire Messud Claire Messud (born 1966) is an American novelist and literature and creative writing professor. She is best known as the author of the novel '' The Emperor's Children'' (2006). Early life Born in Greenwich, Connecticut,van Gelder, Lawrence. "Foo ...

- writer

References

External links

Kambala website
{{Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia schools, state=autocollapse Girls' schools in New South Wales School buildings completed in 1887 Boarding schools in New South Wales Educational institutions established in 1887 Anglican primary schools in Sydney Anglican secondary schools in Sydney Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools Junior School Heads Association of Australia Member Schools 1887 establishments in Australia Rose Bay, New South Wales Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia