Christchurch Girls' High School

Christchurch Girls' High School
Christchurch Girls' High School
Address
10 Matai Street, Riccarton, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand
Coordinates	43°31′30″S 172°36′39″E / 43.5249°S 172.6109°E / -43.5249; 172.6109Coordinates: 43°31′30″S 172°36′39″E / 43.5249°S 172.6109°E / -43.5249; 172.6109
Information
Type	State Single Sex Girls' Secondary (Year 9–13) with boarding facilities.
Motto	Sapientia et Veritas "Wisdom and Truth"
Established	1877
Ministry of Education Institution no.	328
Principal	Pauline Duthie (from 2014)
School roll	1179(February 2017)
Socio-economic decile	9Q
Website	www.cghs.school.nz

Christchurch Girls' High School in Christchurch, New Zealand, was established in 1877 and is the second oldest girls' secondary school in the country (Otago Girls' High School is older).

Christchurch Girls' High School was established in 1877, four years before Christchurch Boys' High School. The first headmistress was Mrs. Georgiana Ingle (a daughter of Richard Deodatus Poulett-Harris and half-sister of Lily Poulett-Harris). The second principal Helen Connon (later Helen Macmillan Brown) is better known as she was the first woman in any British university to gain an Honours degree.

The school's original building on Cranmer Square, which was renamed the Cranmer Centre, features prominently in the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures based on the 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case involving two students.

The school featured in national and international news in 1972 when two students led a "walkout" from school assembly to protest the inclusion of religion in school morning assemblies. At the time, schools in New Zealand were supposed to be secular but this was largely ignored and students were usually told to bring a note from their parents if they wanted to opt out of the religious component of school assemblies.

Christchurch Girls' High School, known to many as Girls' High or CGHS, provides boarding facilities for 95 students from years 9 to 13 at Acland House, located 20–30 minutes walk away from school.

The school stands by the Avon River, on a site it has occupied since 1986. Previously, the area was occupied by a mill that was first built in 1861 by William Derisley Wood, which became known as the Riccarton Mill.

The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake had a large impact on the school: it caused extensive damage to the current site; the old Cranmer Centre site was damaged so badly that it was later demolished - and the school's principal at the time, Prue Taylor, lost her husband Brian in the CTV Building collapse.