In 1898, fifteen years after the founding of our school, a group of ex-students decided they should form a Union and unanimously elected as president Mrs Lucy Garvin, the initially appointed and still serving Headmistress of the school. The original name was the Old High School Girls’ Union. There was no need to identify the name of the school since the school was the only High School for Girls in Sydney at that time. The new Union awarded its first prize to the school in the name of the Old Girls’ Union and it was for an English essay. The new Union also decided that an annual get-together would be a regular event and that the Old Girls would help the school in its projects.
In the intervening years, the name of the Union has been adapted to identify the High School and it is now an incorporated association but the original aims of that first Union of Old Girls continue to form part of the Union’s activities.
The get-together is an Annual Reunion Lunch which is held on the second Saturday in November in the beautifully refurbished Campbell Hall.
Prizes are still awarded. The number has now grown to 43 and they are awarded across the school years, ranging from recently endowed prizes to those which were established in earlier years and bear the names of outstanding students. The OGU also has honoured past principals in the increased prize list. Currently also, there are endowments and bequests which are managed by the OGU and help to fund the list of OGU prizes. Further assistance is given to the school in the form of donations towards, eg. musical instruments, library, rowing, building projects, and in the establishment and maintenance of school archives.
Keeping Old Girls in touch with the school and each other is achieved by the distribution of a News Sheet three times a year. The business of the OGU is conducted by a Council elected at an AGM held on the fourth Saturday in March with six other meetings throughout the year. Membership application forms are available through the school office or via email (secretary@shsogu.info). The OGU also has a Facebook page which anyone can view here: www.facebook.com/SHSOGU
The OGU and its members take pleasure as active participants in the school family.