Fort Street High School
Fort Street High School is a government funded, co-educational, academically selective, secondary day school, located in Petersham, an Inner Western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Its forerunner, Fort Street Model School, was established in Fort Street, Observatory Hill, Sydney, in 1849, the first government high school in Australia and, notably, the first school not founded by parents and community, as a private business or by a religious organisation. Today, it remains a state school operated by New South Wales Department of Education. As an academically selective secondary school, it draws students from a wide area across greater metropolitan Sydney.
To avoid confusion arising from the school's history of separation, amalgamation, and relocation, the present school is designated Fort Street High School, Petersham for official government purposes.
The school's Latin motto is Faber est suae quisque fortunae, translated as "Each person is the maker of his own fortune", a phrase attributed to the ancient Roman Appius Claudius Caecus.
Fort Street High School has a sister school, Suginami Sogo High School, in Tokyo, Japan.
In 2010, The Age reported that, historically, Fort Street High School ranked equal fourth among Australian schools, based on the number of alumni who had been honoured as a Companion of the Order of Australia.
History
Fort Street Model School
The history of public education in Australia began when the governor of New South Wales, Charles FitzRoy, established a Board of National Education on 8 January 1848 to implement a national system of education throughout the Colony of New South Wales. The board decided to create two model schools, one for boys and one for girls. The site of Fort Street Model School was chosen as the old Military Hospital at Fort Phillip, on Observatory Hill. This school was not only intended to educate boys and girls, but also to serve as a model for other schools in the colony. The school's name is derived from the name of a street that ran into the grounds of the hospital and became part of the playground during its reconstruction. The street name is perpetuated in the small street in Petersham that leads to the present school.The school was officially established on 1 September 1849, when the conversion of the building was approved by the government. This original school building is visible today beside the southern approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The establishment of Fort Street Model School marked the establishment of a non-denominational system of school, where the government undertook the education of its people, separate from religion. The influence of the Fort Street Model School was substantial, forming the basis for education throughout the colonies:
At the same time at the Fort Street National School in Sydney William Wilkins was teaching pupil-teachers how to lead the children of New South Wales out of darkness into the light. He was holding out to them that bright prospect of the day when every locality however remote and every family however humble was supplied with the ameliorating influences of an education, which would teach every man, woman and child in the colony to form the habits of regularity, cleanliness, orderly behaviour, and regard for the rights of both public and private property, as well as the habit of obedience to the law, and respect for duly constituted authority. In Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart his counterparts were preaching the same gospel of humanity marching forward, reaching upward for the light. – Manning Clark, A History of Australia, Vol. 4, The Earth Abideth Forever 1851–1888
In 1881, the school was raised to the status of Superior Public School.
Formation of Fort Street Public, Boys' High, and Girls' High Schools
In 1911, the school was split into one primary and two secondary schools: Fort Street Public School, Fort Street Boys' High School and Fort Street Girls' High School. Due to space limitations at Observatory Hill, in 1916, the boys' school was moved to the school's present site, on Taverner's Hill, Petersham. The girls' school remained at Observatory Hill until 1974/75, when the two schools were amalgamated to form the current co-educational school at Petersham. During that time, its grounds continued to be consumed by the growing city; for example, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which opened in 1932, took most of the playground. Fort Street Public School remains at Observatory Hill.For many years from 1912 George Mackaness was the English master and deputy headmaster at Fort Street Boys' High School. He published Inspirational Teaching on his teaching techniques.
21st century
The school celebrated its sesquicentenary in 1999.By the 21st century, its student population is a diverse one; students come from over 100 suburbs in Sydney, from places as far as Hornsby, the Blue Mountains, Cabramatta, Fairfield, and Canterbury, and a range of cultural backgrounds. Students past and present are referred to as "Fortians".
Ronald Horan was for many years a master at the school. As well as writing foreign language textbooks, he was the author of a history of the school, Fort Street, the School which was later followed by Maroon and Silver.
On 5 August 2022, a stonemason working at the school died in an accident. The worker had been restoring the facade of the 170-year-old public school when he was crushed by a sandstone concrete slab weighing several tonnes.
Campus
Fort Street High School is located on a single campus adjacent to Parramatta Road in Petersham, a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney. The school occupies almost the entire street block, and is surrounded by Parramatta Road, Palace Street and Andreas Street with access from Fort Street.The Petersham campus centres on the Romanesque Revival main building now named the Wilkins Building after William Wilkins, who played an instrumental role in the formation of the education system in New South Wales in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The other buildings include the Kilgour building, the Memorial Hall and the newest additions, the Cohen and Rowe buildings, which were completed in 2004.
School facilities include a library, a gymnasium, an oval, futsal courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts, cricket practice nets, a canteen, a STEM makerspace and a performing arts block.
After years of campaigning for insulation, the school received funding for noise reduction technology, as it is located beneath an air corridor. Work on in the school was scheduled to start in mid-2010 and began in the Memorial Hall at the request of the school principal, Roslynne Moxham, to provide a quiet environment for exams being held in the hall including the Higher School Certificate. It was completed in January 2012, with the completion of insulation in the Wilkins and Kilgour blocks.
The school's original Observatory Hill campus is now used by the National Trust of Australia.
Extra-curricular activities
Sport
Fort Street High also offers sports as part of its formal and co-curricular programs. Year 7 to 10 students experience sports through the Physical Education program, and Years 8 to 11 have the option to participate in zone and knockout sports. Year 12 students are not required to undertake sport but may partake if requested. Students who are not involved in competition undertake in Year 8 skill-based sport, and in Years 9 to 11 recreational sports. Sports offered include Ultimate Frisbee, hockey, rugby union, aerobics, basketball, ice skating, netball, K-pop dancing, pilates, soccer, water polo, cricket, tennis, baseball, volleyball, recreational gym, Oz-tag, rock climbing and touch football.Instrumental Music Program (IMP)
The Instrumental Music Program is the largest co-curricular program in the school involving over 300 students. In 2002, it won the Director-General's School Achievement Award for providing opportunities for students to enrich and expand their expertise as musicians and performers. The large ensembles include the Wind Ensemble, Wind Orchestra, Concert Band, Training Band, Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra and Vocal Ensemble. In addition, the extension ensembles include the Jazz Orchestra, Big Band, Jazz Ensemble, Percussion Ensembles, and Chamber Choir.Charity Committees
Each year group has a charity committee, focusing on different issues and charities throughout the year. They often hold highly successful fundraising stalls, such as cake stalls, student hairspray salons, live entertainment, raffles and gold-coin donation drives. In 2015, the Year 8 Charity Committee established a team to participate in the annual Seven Bridges Walk, raising over $21,100. They have since established this as an annual tradition, where over $88,351 has been raised by the Year 8 Charity Committees from 2015 to 2019 inclusive.It is also a tradition for the Year 12 Charity Committee to run the World's Greatest Shave, an annual fundraiser run by the Leukaemia Foundation which raises awareness and funds for blood cancer research and treatment.