Pretoria High School for Girls

Pretoria High School for Girls
Pretoria High School for Girls, Park Street Pretoria entrance
Address
949 Park Street, Arcadia Pretoria, Gauteng South Africa
Coordinates	25°45′03″S 28°13′35″E / 25.7508°S 28.2265°E / -25.7508; 28.2265
Information
School type	Public school Public high school
Motto	Prosit Spes Labori ("We Work in Hope")
Founded	1902
Founder	The Rt Hon. Lord Milner
Sister school	Pretoria Boys High School
Headmistress	Mrs. K. du Toit
Grades	Grades 8-12
Gender	Female
Medium of language	English
Language	English
Campus type	urban
Houses	Aitken, Athlone, Buxton, Clarendon, Connaught, Duncan, Gladstone, McWilliam, Selborne, Van Zyl
Colour(s)	blue and      green
Sports	Hockey Netball Waterpolo
Nickname	Girls High
Accreditation	Gauteng Department of Education
Alumni	Old Girls'
Website	www.phsg.org.za

Pretoria High School for Girls, also called Girls High or PHSG, is a public, fee charging, English medium high school for girls located in Hatfield, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. It is the sister school to Pretoria Boys High School.

In the 1880s the South African Republic Government built a Staatsmodelschool on the corner of Skinner and van der Walt Streets and a Staatsmeisjesschool (State Girls' School)on Visagie Street. By January 1900, with the war in full swing, the Staatsmeisjesschool had been commissioned as a hospital, while the Staatsmodelschool had been turned into a prison. Sir Winston Churchill was captured by the Boers and imprisoned in the school building, but managed to make his famous escape from there and took the railroad into Portuguese East Africa.

With Pretoria under British control, it became apparent to Lord Milner, the Colonial Secretary at the time, that the educational facilities in the city needed attention as there was no secondary school for English-speaking pupils (and it was Milner's intention was to anglicize what would become the Transvaal). The Staatsmodelschool was duly refurbished. It was renamed Pretoria High School and became the first of the so-called "Milner" schools in the Transvaal, opening on 3 June 1901 with Charles Hope, who also founded Potchefstroom High School for Boys, as headmaster. Initial enrollment was 32 pupils, both boys and girls, which increased to 132 by August of that year.The school was to later become Pretoria Boys High School when the girls left.

Mr Hope left 15 months later, along with the girls, who were finally accommodated into the old building of the Staatsmeisjesschool. By October 10, 1902, the school opened as Pretoria High School for Girls. It consisted of four teachers and 126 girls under Edith Aitken, but contrary to the name, taught both primary and secondary school pupils until these two groups were separated in 1905. Girls High moved out to its current Hatfield location on 28 July 1915. The primary school continued to occupy the Staatsmeisjesskool premises and is today known as Hamilton School.