Adelaide High School

Adelaide High School is a coeducational state high school situated on the corner of West Terrace and Glover Avenue in the Adelaide Parklands. It is the first government high school in South Australia. It now has an enrolment of approximately 1,200+ students.HistoryIn 1879 John Anderson Hartley, Catherine Helen Spence and others created the Advanced School for Girls in Grote Street, Adelaide; the first public secondary school in South Australia. The school combined with the Adelaide Continuation School on April 8, 1908 and the name was changed to Adelaide High School, the same year the South Australian state high school system was launched. Adelaide High School was officially opened on 24 September 1908 by the premier of South Australia Thomas Price. It was the first secondary school in the Commonwealth of Australia.In 1927 it had an enrolment of 1,067, making it the largest school of its kind in the Commonwealth. By 1929, due to increasing enrolments, the school occupied two sites - one at Grote Street and another at Currie Street (now part of the Remand Centre). Due to the increasing enrolments, it was decided a new building was required for Adelaide High School. The current site of the school on West Terrace was originally set aside for an army barracks in 1849, but an Observatory was built instead in 1859. This became the Bureau of Meteorology in 1939.Based on an award winning 1940 design, a new building was erected on the site from 1947 to 1951. This became Adelaide Boys High School while Adelaide Girls High School remained in the buildings in Grote Street. An application was made to have the building listed as a Historic Building on the Australian Register of the National Estate. The nomination was on the basis of the building's "Art Modern" style and significance in Adelaide education, but had not led to the building's listing on the register as of 2007. The original Grote Street school buildings were listed on the register as Historic in 1980. As of 2007 they were used as a centre for the performing arts.