Auburn Girls High School is committed to excellence and equity in education. The school promotes an inclusive and educationally challenging environment. The school actively shares examples of successful programs with other schools.
Auburn Girls High School had its first intake of Year 7 students in 1960 and was officially opened on 19th September, 1961. The school’s first Principal was Mrs M. Johnstone. As a brand new school, the school community wished to promote a school uniform, song and traditions that set the school apart. The schools original motto, “Friends to truth”, comes from a line in the poem “The Deserted Village” by Oliver Goldsmith, from which the suburb of Auburn had been named.
The first candidates for the NSW Leaving Certificate presented themselves for the examination in 1964. In 1967 this examination was replaced by the Higher School Certificate. At this time very few students completed their six years of schooling. This was a very different situation to the present, where almost 90% of students now return after Year 10 to enrol in Year 11.
Mrs Johnstone was replaced by Mrs Mavis Best in 1965. Mrs Best was then replaced in 1974 by Mrs Olive Cleary, who had been a Science teacher at the school in her earlier teaching career. The next Principal was Miss Eugenie Ramon, who was appointed in 1983 and who had also previously taught at the school as an Art teacher and then a Head Teacher. Mr Brian Ralph, who was appointed as Principal in 1992, after serving three years as Deputy Principal and Relieving Principal. Mrs Sharon Ford, was the Principal from 2003 – 2009. The present principal Mr Chris Charles was appointed in 2010. Mr Charles previous appointment was as Deputy Principal of Asquith Girls and his teaching background is in Science and Technology.
During the 1980s great changes were made to the school buildings. The present library and four new Science labs were constructed, land in Argyle Street was acquired and the Technics classroom was set up. The range of subjects greatly increased. During the 1990’s the range of subjects has greatly increased again with the introduction of subjects such as Drama, Computing Studies, Legal Studies, Business Studies and dual accredited vocational courses. In the new millennium, the school has focused on improving students’ access to technology with ongoing major upgrading of the school’s cabling system and additional computing resources for IT labs, classrooms, staffrooms and the library. In 2007 the school community re-examined its school motto and the school adopted its current motto “Discover your Potential”.
In 2010 the then NSW Minister of Education Ms Firth announced the outcome of a review into secondary education in the Auburn-Granville area. The minister stated that both Auburn Girls High and Granville Boys High School’s would become partially selective, introducing a selective class into Year 7 from 2013. This change will see nearly 150 students enrolled in the school from 7-12 through the selective schools unit by 2018.