Blaze e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 30
Lucy Garvin
1851-1938
First Headmistress
of Sydney Girls
High School
Lucy Garvin had a 35 year career with the NSW
Department of Public Instruction as the founding
Headmistress of Sydney Girls High School.
Sydney High School was opened in 1883
under the NSW Public Instruction Act, 1880
at a temporary site bordering Castlereagh and
Elizabeth streets. Girls occupied the top floor
of a 60 year old building, and boys, the bottom.
By the late 1890s and with 300 students,
Garvin urged the Department to provide more
teachers. The boys had moved out and the site—
surrounded by tramlines and traffic together
with inadequate recreation space—was deemed
‘most unsuitable’ for a girls’ school.
“A source of inspiration …
to a large number of the
most highly educated
women in the State.”
NSW State Archives: Department of Education;
NRS 3829, School files, 1876–1939 [5/17746 Bundle B],
18/98826, enclosing 18/94672
Garvin keenly encouraged academic
achievement and had high expectations of staff
and students. Several went on to university and
had prominent careers in health, law, science
and education. She agitated (unsuccessfully)
that the Department pay her staff salaries equal
to the boys’ school. In December 1918, a petition
was lodged to continue the 68 year old Garvin’s
services but the Department did not endorse
the application and Garvin was retired.
Above
Old Sydney Girls High School,
Castlereagh St front, 1922
NRS 4481 ST 7557
education
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