North Sydney Girls High School

In 2025, North Sydney Girls was ranked fourth among all high schools in Sydney.

• Name — North Sydney Girls' High School • Motto — Ad Altiora • Motto Translation — Towards Higher Things • Type — Government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school • Gender — Girls • Oversight — New South Wales Department of Education • Principal — Megan Connors • Location — Crows Nest, Sydney, New South Wales • Country — Australia • Campus — Suburban • Grades — 7–12 • Teaching Staff — 63 (2025) • Grades Label — Years • Enrolment — c. 923 • Enrolment As Of — 2025 • Colours — Navy blue, green and white #FFFFFF • Website — https: northsydgi-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/

• Illustration — North Sydney Girls' High School prior to opening, January 1914 North Sydney Girls' High School was officially founded in 1914 with an enrolment of 194 students. The school was originally located on the corner of Hazelbank Road and the Pacific Highway, where Cammeraygal High School's junior campus is now situated. By the 1980s, it was felt that the site could no longer meet the needs of the school, and years of intense lobbying for improved facilities followed. After the Government of New South Wales decided to close Crows Nest Boys High School, the site was earmarked for North Sydney Girls High with the move to its current location, following a $6 million building and renovations project occurring in December 1993. • Illustration — School gardens

North Sydney Girls is an academically selective high school; admission to the school for Year 7 is determined by results in the Selective High Schools test, which is open to all Year 6 students in NSW. A small number of students from other high schools are accepted into years 8 to 12, with applications made to the school to sit for an entrance exam.

In 2001, The Sun-Herald ranked North Sydney Girls High School first in Australia's top ten girls' schools, based on the number of its alumnae mentioned in the Who's Who in Australia. In 2022, North Sydney Girls High School ranked as the fourth high school in the state, based on the percentage of exams sat that achieved a Distinguished Achievers (DA). Generally, around 20-30% of students earn ATAR ranks between 99-99.95.

NSGHS offers a diverse range of extracurricular activities.

NSGHS has a theatresports troupe, junior drama ensemble, Year 10 drama night, and various clubs available to seniors. Instrumental ensembles and bands include the advanced string ensemble, stage (jazz) band, jazz ensemble, concert band, symphony orchestra, wind orchestra, wind ensemble, and beginner band. Choirs and vocal ensembles include Year 7 choir, junior choir, intermediate choir, combined (NSGHS & NSBHS) choir, senior vocal, and the a capella group.

Co-curricular sports include basketball, skiing, hockey, cricket, badminton, table tennis, taekwondo, rowing, kayaking, touch football, water polo, fencing, netball, tennis, and volleyball. NSGHS also has a chess club, dance ensembles, and a cadet program at Marist Catholic College North Shore, and has had students participate in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

• Dame Valerie Beralbreast cancer epidemiologist • Anna Katherine DonaldRhodes Scholar (1989) • Dame Janet Rittermanformer director of the Royal College of Music in London, from 1993 to 2005.

• Benita CollingsPlay School presenter • Ruth Cracknellactress • Ceridwen Doveyauthor • Jill Hellyerauthor and poet • Elsa Jacoby – actress and soprano • Nathalie Kelleyactress • Nicole Kidmanactress • Samantha Langfilm and theatre director • Catherine Martinproduction designer • Lucy Maundercabaret and theatre performer • Janet Pattersoncostume designer and production designer • Cassandra Pybushistorian and author • Margaret ThrosbyABC Classic FM presenter • Naomi Wattsactress • WengieYouTube personality, singer, voice actress • Nina Oyamacomedian, writer, actor, and director • Nagi Maehashi – cook, writer and businesswoman

• Sally DowlingNSW Director of Public Prosecutions • Shelley Hancockteacher and parliamentarian; elected as a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for South Coast (Liberal Party) • Justice Lucy McCallumChief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory • Nancy Grace Augusta Wake resistance fighter known to the Germans as "the White Mouse"; the most decorated woman of World War Two

• Elise Simone Ashton (née Norwood)Olympic water polo player

The school principals have been: • Years — Principal • 1914–1923 — Janette Grossman • 1924–1937 — Ida Slack • 1938–1941 — Lilian Geer • 1942–1949 — Vera Howard • 1950–1955 — Elizabeth Booth • 1956–1958 — Edith Kane • 1959–1962 — Jessie Simons • 1963–1968 — Dorothy Dey • 1969–1976 — Joan Morris • 1976–1982 — Shirley Hokin • 1982–1986 — Joan Whittaker • 1987–1990 — Betty Anderson • 1990–1996 — Isobel Seivl • 1997–2005 — Louise Robert-Smith • 2006–2012 — Meredith Ash • 2012–2018 — David Tomlin • 2019–present — Megan Connors