The Mackellar Girls Campus of

Northern Beaches Secondary College The Northern Beaches Secondary College (abbreviated as NBSC) is a multi-campus Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex education, co-educational dual-modality partially Selective school (New South Wales), selecti ...

is a government-funded single-sex comprehensive

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 A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compar ...

for girls only, located in

Manly Vale Manly Vale is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 17 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council, in the Northern Beaches r ...

, a suburb on the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the entra ...

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 ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. Established in 1968 as Manly Vale High School, and then became Mackellar Girls High School, named in honour of

Dorothea Mackellar Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar, (1 July 1885 – 14 January 1968) was an Australian poet and fiction writer. Her poem ''My Country'' is widely known in Australia, especially its second stanza, which begins: "''I love a sunburnt country/ ...

, the school caters for approximately 1,200 students 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 ...

and

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 ...

. The school is operated by the

New South Wales Department of Education The New South Wales Department of Education, a department of the Government of New South Wales, is responsible for the delivery and co-ordination of early childhood, primary school, secondary school, vocational education, adult, migrant and hig ...

; the principal is Christine Del Gallo.

Overview

Mackellar Girls Campus is a part of the Northern Beaches Secondary College, a five-

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 ...

college across Sydney's Northern Beaches, formed in 2003. It is generally considered to be the brother school to

Balgowlah Boys Campus The Balgowlah Boys Campus of Northern Beaches Secondary College is a government-funded single-sex comprehensive secondary day school for boys only, located in Balgowlah, a suburb on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ...

, another school within the College. Mackellar Girls Campus was formerly known as Manly Vale High School, and then became Mackellar Girls High School until 2003 when it gained its current name after the famous Australian poet, Dorothea Mackellar. Under the name Manly Vale High School, the school was believed to have been reinvented as a girls

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

school in 1967 upon the thought of creating strong and diligent girls to enter the work-force. The exact history of Mackellar as a school is not well-known, but it is believed to have been a school prior to 1967, rather as a

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 ...

school. Prior to being established at the site in manly vale, it was a co-educational campus at the current location of primary school, Manly Village Public School. The school's unofficial motto, 'Mackellar Girls can do anything' was borne when the school expanded from a home economics school to include mathematics and science subjects not traditionally taught to girls, and the students were told they could now "do anything". In 2015 it was ranked as the third top comprehensive girls' school in New South Wales. It was 116th in the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) rankings in 2015.

Houses

Mackellar has a

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 ...

to facilitate school based competitions and activities. House activities include athletics, swimming carnivals and other sport related events. The school currently has four houses created based on the Aboriginal meanings for Australian native birds: * BeabauKing parrot * GullaryWhite crane * MoolgoriBlack swan * TingeeBlack cockatoo

Notable alumni

Layne Beachley Layne Collette Beachley (born 24 May 1972) is a former professional surfer from Manly, New South Wales. She won the World Championship seven times. Currently she is the chair of Surfing Australia. Surfing career At the age of 16 Beachley ...

professional surfer, seven-time World Champion. *

Elka Graham Elka Graham (born 20 October 1981), now known by her married name Elka Whalan, is an Australian former competition swimmer who swam in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2004 Athens Olympics. Graham specialised in the 200-metre and 400-metre freesty ...

Olympic swimmer, television presenter. * Debbie WatsonOlympic water polo player, captained the winning Australian Waterpolo team at the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. *

Brooke Hanson Brooke Louise Hanson, OAM (born 18 March 1978) is an Australian former competitive swimmer, Olympic gold medallist, world champion, and former world record-holder. Career A swimmer since the age of four, Hanson was the youngest swimmer on t ...

– Olympic gold medalist in swimming. Former world-record holder. *

Keli Lane Keli Lane (born 21 March 1975), a former Australian water polo player and teacher was convicted of the 1996 murder of her newborn baby, Tegan, and of three counts of making a false declaration. Lane is serving an 18-year prison sentence and will ...

– Former water polo coach and Convicted potential baby murderer.

References

External links

Girls' schools in New South Wales Public high schools in Sydney Educational institutions established in 1968 1968 establishments in Australia {{NewSouthWales-school-stub

Overview

Houses

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links