Avonside Girls' High School (), is a large urban high school in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand, with more than 1,000 girls from Year 9 to Year 13. It was formerly in the suburb of

Avonside Avonside is an eastern suburb in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is one of the oldest suburbs of the city, with only Heathcote being older. History The Avonside district was first mentioned in the Lyttelton times as a local district by Bish ...

but moved in 2019, along with Shirley Boys' High School, to the former QEII Park site in the east of Christchurch.

History

The school originally opened in January 1919 on the Avonside Drive site as a satellite campus of Christchurch Girls' High School. It became a separate school in its own right in 1928.

Earthquake

Following the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the school site closed, with classes operating at Burnside High School in the afternoons. Two school blocks, including the Main Block, were condemned following the earthquake and were demolished. Students returned to the Avonside site at the beginning of 2012, with relocatable and prefabricated classrooms filling gaps left by the condemned buildings, but due to significant land damage adjacent to the school site, it was clear that the school might need to close or relocate. Education Minister

Hekia Parata Patricia Hekia Parata (born 1 November 1958) is a former New Zealand public servant, diplomat, and politician. After a career as a senior public servant, Parata was a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, representing the Nationa ...

announced on 16 October 2013 that the school would move, and be co-located with Shirley Boys' High School at a new site in east Christchurch, and on 12 February 2015 the site was confirmed to be the former QEII Park site – and the move was complete in April 2019.

Enrolment

As of , Avonside Girls' High School has roll of students, of which (%) identify as Māori. As of , the school has an

Equity Index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market perform ...

of , placing it amongst schools whose students have socioeconomic barriers to achievement (roughly equivalent to decile 4 under the former

socio-economic decile In the education in New Zealand, New Zealand education system, decile was a key measure of socioeconomic status used to target funding and support schools. In academic contexts the full term "socioeconomic decile" or "socioeconomic decile band" wa ...

system).

Notable staff

Before she entered politics, Marian Hobbs was principal of the school. Jean Herbison, later New Zealand's first female chancellor of a New Zealand university, taught at the school from 1952 to 1959.

References

External links

Education Review Office (ERO) reports
{{Authority control Girls' schools in New Zealand Educational institutions established in 1919 Secondary schools in Christchurch 1919 establishments in New Zealand