| Marryatville High School | |
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| Established | 1877 (as Norwood Junior Boys Tech) |
| School type | Public |
| Principal | Mark Leahy |
| Location | Kensington Road, Marryatville, South Australia, Australia |
| Campus | Two (Middle and Senior) |
| Enrolment | 1228 [1] |
| School colours | Navy Blue, Sky Blue, White House Colours: Woodroofe (blue), Heysen (red), Anderson (yellow), Mitchell (green) |
| Homepage | http://www.marryatvillehs.sa.edu.au |
Marryatville High School is a public state school in Adelaide, South Australia. It was founded in 1976 during the Don Dunstan era of South Australia and was formed out of the old Norwood Boys Technical High School. The school is situated on a large area of land in the eastern suburb of Marryatville, part of the City of Norwood Payneham and St Peters. First Creek cuts through the middle of the school grounds and large gum trees line the property.
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Marryatville High School on Kensington Road at Marryatville occupies part of Section 290, which was first leased from the South Australia Company and first settled in 1839. George and Sarah Brunskill leased the northern part of the section. The southern half was leased by the Reed family (the school's rear ovals are from this section). Apart from clearing and farming the land, The Brunskills soon set about producing bricks from the good quality clay they found on their property and built a fine two-storey house. Lack of capital led them to lease the house and build a cottage near the brickworks where Second Creek crossed the property. With the tightening of credit, in 1848 George passed the lease to twenty acres on the eastern side of his property to the bank in expiation of his debt. This land was subdivided and became the suburb of Marryatville. He also relinquished the lease on one acre fronting Kensington Road enabling it to be conveyed to the Anglican Church by the South Australia Company for the building of St Matthew's Church. George Brunskill formed the Adelaide and Suburban Building Society and he became a corn factor in Grenfell Street. On gaining the freehold to his land in 1850 at a cost of 250 pounds, George sold off part for housing. At that time the family was living in their third house encircled by the 26 acres of Sandford Park on the site of the present day Eden Park mansion where they remained for ten years and raised their son George and seven daughters.
In 1857 the family moved to Greenock Creek to run a grain store. George speculated on a land subdivision at Greenock to which he gave his name.
Bailliere's South Australian Gazetteer (1866), has the following entry; "Brunskill (Co. Light) is a small agricultural village adjoining the township of Greenock, on its S. side and consisting of 4 residences with a population of 28 persons. It is in the hundred of Nuriootpa."
The land speculation was not a success, the family returned to Kensington in 1863 in a much-reduced state and in 1866 George died. Sarah and the daughters commenced teaching and over a period of time became comfortably off. By 1874 they had moved to Semaphore to a pleasant house and several of the girls had a school there. Sarah Brunskill lived to the grand old age of eighty-seven and was said to be the finest whist player in the colony.
In 1947 The Premier announced on July 11th that the Government would provide £25,000 to build four classrooms and four workshops on the new site at Kensington. Work was classed as urgent because on the Osmond Terrace site there were 1400 pupils on less than four acres.
In December 1948 plans for workshops and a classroom block were discussed in Parliament. At this time Members would have been aware of the findings of the Education Inquiry Committee findings which pointed out that there were 8,270 births in South Australia in 1935 compared with 16,317 in 1947 representing... "year by year a swelling tide of children" entering the education system, requiring the provision of extra buildings and staff. Parliamentary Papers 1949 On 23rd June 1949 Parliament approved the construction of a workshop block and a classroom block at "Eden Park" at an estimated cost of £48,659. On 8th April 1950 tenders were called and on 10th July Cabinet accepted the tender of A.N. Baulderstone Ltd at a reported contract price of £57,000 for the construction of a workshop block and 6 classrooms, part of a two storey classroom block. Work began in October. "Now the walls are beginning to rise, we have the satisfaction of knowing that what for so long has been wishful thinking is at last beginning to take shape". (Mr Rooney, December, 1950) To begin with students traveled between the Osmond Terrace site and the new Kensington Road site for lessons in the new workshops which were opened in 1952. In that year the Art /Science block next to the stables was erected and an Air Cadet Unit established at school. The following year the Classroom block (Western end of the main building) was opened and the Stables refurbished to accommodate a library and canteen. Work by the school community on developing the grounds had been in progress since the land was acquired. In 1954 the back playing fields were graded, cricket nets and tennis courts made.
By the time the much-needed extensions to the craft blocks came in 1968, the school's population boom was over.
Headmaster Dowdy retired and in 1969 Mr G B Payne was appointed to a school of 698 students. This dropped to an enrolment of 316 by 1972 when new headmaster Mr J Deer announced plans for the school to be converted to a comprehensive high school.
The announcement did nothing to stem the dropping enrolments and when the school was renamed Marryatville Boys High School in 1974 the numbers had dropped to 290.
The following year the amalgamation was announced with Kensington and Norwood Girls High School. A public meeting was held in July to clarify the amalgamation process.
Deputy Principal Kevin Seipolt was appointed to the new school from Norwood High and was given the task of promoting the school at all the nearby primary schools.
Advertisements had been put in the Education Gazette requesting applications for the special music programme and when Glen McArthur called an extraordinary school council meeting on 8th December 1975 he was able to report that
New principal Glen McArthur was appointed late in 1975. At the December 8th meeting of the school council he outlined his teaching experience and gave a brief outline of his philosophy. His appointment had been unexpected, displacing both principals from the amalgamating schools. He was young (34) and had bypassed the normal channels of promotion and seniority. In fact he had been telephoned while overseas completing a Master of Arts Degree at London University. and asked if he would apply for the job.
An important part of the plan for the new school was the inclusion of a special interest music school on the site. In 1976 the school was renamed Marryatville High School and this music school was officially opened with the performance by students of two specially commissioned works "Quodlibet" and "Marryatville Fanfare" written by David Morgan the composer/arranger attached to the Music Branch.
In 1977 the girls from Kensington Norwood Girls High School (KNGHS), moved to the Marryatville campus which was undergoing massive redevelopment. In 1978 the renovations, including the refurbished Stables were officially opened by Premier Don Dunstan. The extensions had overrun the budget considerably at $3 million.
On 18th March 1955 the Minister of Education the Hon Baden-Pattison MP and the Director of Education opened the five new tennis courts.
The Parents and Friends association was formed and the following year Mr A W G Martens, President of the School Council from 1940 retired. Mr A R Moir became the new president.
Construction projects began in the late 1970s to add a new building, 'E Block', consisting of open plan science classrooms, laboratories, a resource centre and a drama room. Existing buildings 'C Block' and 'D Block' were refit to provide a higher standard for technical studies, home economics and art students. In the 1980s, a gymnasium and several tennis courts were constructed at the southern end of the school. The appointment in 1992 of Kate Castine as principal led to the purchase by the Department of Education of Eden Park as a centre for senior students. The building of a number of new buildings followed : an extension to the music centre, "The Stables", adjacent to the front oval, in 2002, 'N Block' opened, adding new classrooms and in 2005 a multimillion dollar performing arts theatre, "The Forge", was opened.
Eden Park is leased to Marryatville High School by the State Government on a 'peppercorn lease' (a silver coin a year for 999 years). Eden Park was a neighbouring heritage-listed mansion, previously owned by the Scarfe family before it was gifted to the state government; Eden Park is now the year 12 campus. In 2004 Mark Leahy was appointed as principal
The school offers education in a wide variety of subjects and its students graduate with above average Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) scores in their South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE)[citation needed]. In 2004 under Kate Castine's leadership, Marryatville High School began accepting international students, was accredited[1] by the European Council of International Schools and formed a number of sister school relationships in Japan and China. Marryatville High School is now considered an international school. The school specialises in particular subject areas, including music, drama, and tennis.
One of the school's main focuses is music, as the school is one of four Specialist Interest Music Schools in South Australia. The school's music program is well known for its national standard school choirs, bands and orchestras. The music centre's ensembles performed at the opening of the new Adelaide International Airport, for Queen Elizabeth II and in Disneyland. The Marryatville High School big bands have also won music competitions around the country. The school's Concert Choir entered into the "McDonald's Performing Arts Competition" held in Sydney in 2005 and won "The John Lamble Australasian Choral Championships for Secondary School Choirs" against tough opposition, including Brighton Secondary School and Barker College. In 2007, the Concert Choir won the SA state final of the inaugural ABC Classic FM Choir of the Year Competition and second place in the national final. In 2007 they won the Children's and Youth Choir section of the 10th International Choir Festival “Tallinn 2007” in Estonia.
The school provides two types of music education in the junior high school (Years 8 to 10), known as Music I and Music II. The Music I program is elective, non-scholarship, and less intense than the prestigious and high-pressure Music II. Music II is aimed at musicians with professional music potential.
The newly built Performing Arts Centre, named "The Forge", the school is now able to showcase drama and music performances with up to date technology in a professional theatre environment. For the official opening of the school's new theatre, a production by drama students (primarily Year 11 students of 2005) was presented to esteemed guests including South Australian Premier Mike Rann and state member for Norwood, Vini Ciccarello. When talking to the cast and crew after the opening show, Mr Rann exclaimed, "I've never seen anything this good, at either a High School, University or TAFE"[2].
Marryatville High School has a large number of computers for use by both students and staff. The school has four dedicated computer rooms in 'A Block' for use by classes. One of these is equipped with several routers, switches and associated equipment for use in the CCNA program offered by the school, which has gained SACE accreditation as a HESS-G subject (meaning it can count towards a TER). Computing facilities are also offered in the Resource Centre, the Technical Studies building, the Art building and the Music Centre. In 2007, the school undertook the task of installing data projectors in many classrooms around the school to assist with data presentations. There is now a wireless infrastructure throughout most of the school that serves for 'trolleys' of laptops in home ecc, languages(a block), resource center, ISEC(eden park) and growing.
The various teams and players at Marryatville High School compete at a national level. Marryatville High School has eight tennis courts, situated at the back of the school. There are teams ranging from Years 8 to 12 including the schools top DRIVE team.
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