CELEBRATING 90 Years
FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD CANBERRA GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL IS THE OLDEST INDEPENDENT SCHOOL IN CANBERRA AND IT IS A WONDERFUL MILESTONE FOR US TO BE CELEBRATING OUR 90TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR. Did you know the first School Board was established in 1935? This significant event coincided with the School being established as a Company Limited by Guarantee – as it is now. The following article in The Canberra Times on 27 September 1935 reported the occasion:
“I hope we act as role models for our girls and reinforce the fact that women can do absolutely anything.”
GIRLS GRAMMAR COMPANY TO BE FORMED FOR SCHOOL At a meeting of those interested in the Canberra Church of England Girls’ Grammar School on Wednesday night arrangements were made for the formation of a limited liability company to carry through the acquisition of the school property and provide for future management. As a result of a campaign conducted recently by The Ven. Archdeacon Robertson, a sum of about
female Chair of our Risk Committee. I hope we act as role models for our girls and reinforce the fact that women can do absolutely anything.
£1,600 has been raised and it was stated that
It is a splendid
should enable the purchase to be completed.
synchronism that
It was decided that the first directors would comprise The Primate (Dr Mowll), the Archbishops of Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth and the Bishop of Goulburn (Dr Burgmann), Archdeacon Robertson and a number of Canberra citizens interested in the School. Since 1935, there have been twenty-three Board Chairs, three of whom served two terms. Unsurprisingly, nine of them have been senior Anglican clergymen. Surprisingly, until my appointment in 2011, all the Board Chairs were men. It does make me wonder why it took seventy-nine years for a woman to be the Chair of a school for girls!
a school founded by the Community of the Sisters of the Church is once again run by
Belinda Moss (far right) with Grammarians Margaret Henty (Greenham, 1962), Margaret Anne Jones (1950) and Margaret Brennan (Youngman, 1962) at the Founders’ Day Lunch and Badge Ceremony, 23 May 2016.
women. The Sisters of the Church were strong, determined and independent women who often entered holy orders so they could influence society at a time when there was no other real avenue for them to do so. The usual role for women at that time was marriage. The Sisters risked
I know our students, past and present, can leave such noble legacies and contribute to our society with such vision and integrity. Belinda Moss CHAIR OF THE BOARD
all to travel to a different country in ‘the colonies’ to set up schools for girls and empower them to contribute to society.
It makes me proud to know that we now
Those schools continue to prosper in most
have a female Principal, a female Board
states and territories in Australia and also
Chair and Deputy Chair and an independent
in New Zealand. GRAMMAR REPORT No. 103 | 3