St Mary's Anglican 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 Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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and

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for girls, located in Karrinyup, a suburb north of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. Established in 1921 at West Perth, St Mary's has a non-selective enrolment policy and currently caters for more than 1470 students from

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

to Year 12, including 171 boarders from Years 6 to 12. St Mary's is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), 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 Independent Schools of Western Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools' Association (ABSA), the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australia (AGSA), and is a member of the Independent Girls' Schools Sports Association (IGSSA). St Mary's brother school is

Hale School Hale School is an independent, Anglican day and boarding school for boys, located in Wembley Downs, a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Named after the school founded by Bishop Mathew Blagden Hale in 1858, Hale School claims to ...

, located in Wembley Downs.

History

St Mary's Anglican Girls' School was founded when two private girls' schools operating in West Perth, Mrs Blanche Gouly's Girls' Grammar School and Miss Emily Hilfirty's Alexandra High School,

amalgamated Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan ama ...

. The school opened on 14 September 1921, with The Reverend Charles Lawrence Riley as Acting Principal. Two other schools later joined them. The school was located at 40 Colin Street, West Perth. In 1964, a building appeal was launched to develop the present

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

at Karrinyup. Under the guidance of the then Principal, Anne Symington (1965–1982), St Mary's operated in both West Perth and Karrinyup until 1970, when the entire school was finally situated in Karrinyup.

Facilities

St Mary's campus in Karrinyup is located on 40 acres of land. In 1999, the school built a performing arts venue, The Lady Wardle Performing Arts Centre, with an auditorium that seats 509 people. Later, an adjoining building, The Lady Treatt Centre for Music and Dance, was built. It contains a dance studio, as well as a number of music classrooms and individual music tuition rooms. The school grounds also boast The Sir Thomas Wardle Swimming Pool Complex, which includes a 50m heated swimming pool, paddle pool and dive pool, which was refurbished in 2011, as well as two gymnasiums (Dannatt Hall and Hearn Hall). Hearn Hall was largely funded by the Federal Government's Building Education Revolution Primary Schools for the 21st Century Program. In 2012, the school completed construction of a new library complex. In 2005, the St Mary's Anglican Girls’ School Foundation purchased of land in Metricup, which is located in the Margaret River Wine Region, to develop its flagship outdoor education facility, St Mary's at Metricup: The Lady Treatt Centre for Learning and Leadership, which was opened in 2008. The centre is the first of its kind for an all-girls school in Western Australia and was funded by the Foundation, as well as donations from Old Girls, parents and friends of the school. The facilities were designed and constructed in a manner which maximises their environmental sustainability. The property contains two dams, two large pastures, an eco-tent camping area, dormitory accommodation and a cottage.

Academic performance

In 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2010, St Mary's was the top-ranked school in Western Australia based on the highest number of students scoring in the top third of Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) results.

Principals

House system

As with most Australian schools, St Mary's utilises a

house system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. The school is divided into units called "houses" and each student is allocated to on ...

. Each student at St Mary's is assigned to one of six houses: Craig, Hackett, Lefroy, Riley, Wardle and Wittenoom. Through the house system, students participate in extra-curricular activities and

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s. Each house has a Year 12

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

who, together with captains and the guidance of a house teacher, leads the house through the year's activities. Captains include - dance captain, drama captain, music captain, community captain and sports captain. There are also minor captains. Houses often compete against each other in inter-house athletics, swimming, singing and other activities, including the arts at the Creative And Performing Arts Festival (C.A.P.A.F). Throughout the year, the houses compete for the House Cup presented at the end of the year to the house with the most points awarded from inter-house competitions.

Notable alumnae

Alumnae Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

of St Mary's Anglican Girls' School are commonly referred to as Old Girls, and become life members of the

alumni association An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students ( alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, school A school is the educati ...

, the St Mary's Old Girls' Association on graduation. Some notable St Mary's Old Girls include: *

Scherri-Lee Biggs Scherri-Lee Biggs is an Australian TV host, dancer, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Australia 2011 and represented Australia at Miss Universe 2011, where she was placed in the Top 10. Biggs currently presents ...

– television presenter and Miss Universe Australia 2011 * Jill Crommelin –

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for ''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

'', ''

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'', ''

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'' (

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) and the '' Sunday Independent'' (also attended

Presbyterian Ladies' College, Perth The Presbyterian Ladies' College (informally known as PLC), is an independent, day and boarding school predominantly for girls, situated in Peppermint Grove, a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Established in 1915 by the Presbyteri ...

) * Jessica Gethin – Conductor and violinist, Chief Conductor and Musical Director of the Perth Symphony Orchestra * Ashleigh Gillon – Sky News Political Reporter, National Press Club Wallace Brown Young Achiever (2011), Most Outstanding Broadcast Journalist (2011 ASTRA Awards) *

Michelle Gordon Michelle Marjorie Gordon (born 19 November 1964) is a Justice of the High Court of Australia. She was appointed to the High Court in June 2015. Prior to her appointment, she was a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, to which she was appoi ...

– Justice of the

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(also attended

) * Sandra Hayter – Administration Director of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia * Mollie Lukis OBE OAM BA Hons Dip Ed, FLAA, Hon D Litt Mollie Lukis (1911–2009) – WA State Archivist and Librarian. Awarded an OBE Order of the British Empire, Officer (Civil) 1976 "Archival work", and an OAM Medal of the Order of Australia 2004 for service to the preservation and recording of Australia's cultural heritage, particularly through the National Trust of Australia (WA) and the Toyal Western Australian Historical Society. * Ruby (Ray) Gertrude Oldham (McClintock) OAM BA UWA (1911–2005) – Landscape Architect, Journalist, Historian, Writer and campaigner for the conservation of heritage and the built environment. Made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1985 for service to the community through conservation of the man-made and natural environment. * Jan Stewart –

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of Lotterywest * Jasmin Stewart –

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er for

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

Kylie Wheeler Kylie Wheeler (born 17 January 1980 in Subiaco) is an Australian retired heptathlete. Wheeler is a six-times Australia national champion in heptathlon in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Wheeler also won a silver medal in the Athletics ...

– heptathlete, silver medalist 2002 Commonwealth Games * Kaylia Stanton – Netballer * Annika Lee-Jones – Netballer

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Anglican Girls' School Anglican secondary schools in Perth, Western Australia Girls' schools in Western Australia Educational institutions established in 1921 Boarding schools in Western Australia Junior School Heads Association of Australia Member Schools in Western Australia Anglican primary schools in Perth, Western Australia 1921 establishments in Australia Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia Karrinyup, Western Australia