SCEGGS Darlinghurst

SCEGGS Darlinghurst is an independent Anglican single-sex primary and secondary day and boarding school for girls, located in Darlinghurst, an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Founded in 1895 as the Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School, the school's official name was changed to SCEGGS Darlinghurst in 1995. The school has a non-selective enrolment policy and currently caters for approximately 890 students from Kindergarten to Year 12. The school is regularly among the top-performing schools in New South Wales academically. While predominantly a day school, SCEGGS offers a small number of boarding places at St Vincent's College, Potts Point.

SCEGGS is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia (AGSA), and is a founding member of the Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools (AHIGS).

In 2001, The Sun-Herald ranked SCEGGS Darlinghurst second in Australia's top ten girls' schools, based on the number of its alumnae mentioned in the Who's Who in Australia (a listing of notable Australians).^[a]

On 17 July 1895, a grammar school for girls was officially opened in Sydney under the auspices of the Sydney Diocese of the Church of England. The Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School (abbreviated as SCEGGS) commenced in a terrace house at 65 (now 55) Victoria Street, Darlinghurst with one pupil, Mary Watson, one teacher, Miss Janet Uther, and the Principal, Miss Edith Badham. Within a year, the school had increased to 50 pupils enrolled, and moved to "Chatsworth", a larger home in Macleay Street.

By 1900, the school had 100 pupils, including a Kindergarten and junior school. "Barham" in Forbes Street, Darlinghurst was purchased and the school moved there in 1901. The curriculum at the time included English Language and Literature, Geography, Modern and Ancient History, Latin, Classical Greek, Mathematics, French Language and Literature, German or Italian, Needlework and Drilling. Classes in Botany, Geology or other scientific subjects, were also offered to pupils who reached a fair standard of proficiency in their ordinary subjects. Classes in Cookery and Dressmaking were held whenever there was sufficient demand. In 1920 Dorothy Irene Wilkinson became the head following Edith Badham. Wilkinson made unsuccessful appeals for money from the church before she began an internal expansion of the school's facilities. The school roll grew to 365 pupils by 1935.

SCEGGS continued to expand and several branch schools were opened – Bowral (1906–1929) relocated to Moss Vale (1930–1974), Hunters Hill (1912–1915), North Sydney (1911–1941) becoming Redlands (1945–1976), Wollongong (1955–1976) and Loquat Valley (1967–1976).

In 1974, financial difficulties arose due to the controller of the Anglican Diocesan schools misappropriating school funds,^{[citation needed]} threatening the school with closure. Within two years, contributions from the school community and the Sydney Diocese ensured that the original school, SCEGGS Darlinghurst, was not closed but continued to operate. Moss Vale was forced to close in 1974, and two years later, Redlands, Wollongong and Loquat Valley became schools independent from SCEGGS Darlinghurst, and have been governed by their own boards ever since.