Academic Clubs

Chess

Chess is both fun and challenging, it is a game that can be played socially with friends and family and also a game that can be played competitively.

No prior knowledge of the game is required.  As a graduated member of the club said: “I was hesitant to join the club at first as I had absolutely no experience with chess. However, once I did, it instilled a new passion within me that I will carry on with for the rest of my life.” She was a member of the 5-player team that went on to come 2nd in the 2019 Australian Secondary Girls Teams Championship.

Debating

Debating is an excellent way to develop confidence in communication skills and public speaking. It encourages students to both listen and respond clearly and fluently. Debating is an activity that develops critical thinking skills and argument construction skills. It enhances essay writing skills for subjects such as English and History, as well as communication skills that are vital in many career paths, such as law and politics.

Teamwork, an important life skill and valued in virtually all professions, is also enhanced through debating. Debating students have deep knowledge of, and passion for, current affairs and topical issues.

It is a co-curricular activity that is not only highly regarded by universities and employers alike, but also provides students with the opportunity to make new friends within the school, meet other students from competing schools and join a vibrant community that continues into university.

Public Speaking

Public Speaking aims to provide opportunities for students to develop their speech writing and speaking skills. Students will have the opportunity to audition for external competitions such as Rostrum, Junior Legacy, Sydney Morning Herald Plain English Speaking Competition and the Eastern Suburbs Public Speaking Competition. The school also runs the Soapbox program where students have the opportunity to speak at the school assembly on a topic.

Creative Clubs

Dance

Dance at Sydney Girls High is not only a wonderful opportunity to perform and improve your dancing ability but a place to learn teamwork, build long-lasting friendships and have fun.

From our junior/senior dance groups to open class, there’s a place for everyone to join. We perform annually at the “In the Spotlight” Dance and State Dance Festivals and our Company group also competes at the Sydney Eisteddfod. This is the perfect opportunity to build confidence onstage and perform your best!

Drama

Sydney Girls High School offers a broad range of drama opportunities in both an elective and cocurricular program. These include workshop and production, camps and festivals, performance and technical ensembles/companies.

Drama is an art form that explores the world through enactment. It is a collaborative art form that involves the creative interaction of individuals using a range of artistic skills.

Drama is an important means of understanding, constructing, appreciating and communicating social and cultural values; exploring, celebrating and challenging the present and imagining the future.

There are so many opportunities for cocurricular experiences in Drama. We celebrate in showcasing throughout the year as well as the Junior Drama Twilight Showcase evening and the Open Night.

Music

The Music cocurricular program offers all students vocal and instrumental opportunities. We have ensembles to cater for different styles and levels of abilities and participation is encouraged.

The school provides an opportunity for students to learn a musical instrument of their choosing. Music staff, venues and some instruments are provided.

These ensembles provide a wonderful opportunity for students to be part of school life and make friends. Joining the choir is a great way to get involved in the musical life of the school as no formal vocal tuition is required

Sporting Clubs

Badminton

Throughout the years Badminton, as a co-curricular, has rapidly grown with the club having over 50 members. Students start playing in mid Term 1 and play until the end of Term 3.

Badminton is open to anyone from Years 7 to 12 and the coaches cater  for all levels of experience (beginner to more experienced). There is no specific prerequisite: just dedication and enthusiasm.

Basketball

SGHS has a well-established basketball program that has been running for almost three decades. SGHS Co-curricular Basketball continues to grow in popularity and offers students from all Year groups the opportunity to participate in weekly training and games.

We currently have 15 teams (approx 125 students) playing on Friday nights in City of Sydney Basketball Association (CSBA) competitions at Alexandria. CSBA is a not for profit community organisation which attracts players from a wide geographical area from the east, south east, inner city and inner west.

Table Tennis

Beginning as a small, little-known co-curricular at SGHS in 2008, Table Tennis has quickly become one of the best known and most popular clubs at this school. The club has grown significantly since its start, with many girls now participating each year.

New equipment, including tables and racquets, have been bought to accommodate for the growing numbers of students wanting to play. The school provides all the equipment the girls need, although they are welcome to bring their own racquet if they prefer.

Fencing

Sydney Girls High is one of the few girls’ schools in NSW and Australia to offer Fencing as a cocurricular sport for their students. SGHS does well in competitions and often has a team competing in the National School Fencing Championships. Anyone can join fencing and it is considered to be only slightly more dangerous than lawn bowls. It’s true!

Netball

Saturday Netball is a popular sport at Sydney Girls High School. We have over 15 teams, about 140 girls, playing each week, with girls from all Years participating.

With so many teams, we are able to cater for players with a range of abilities and experience. So whether you are an experienced player or have never played before, think about joining up and playing netball in a school team. It is a great way to meet new friends and to participate in the school’s extracurricular life.

Rowing

Rowing is a fantastic sport that builds all-round fitness and body strength. It involves great teamwork and through this our rowers build very strong bonds of friendship and loyalty with their crews.

Out on the water, rowing is both fun and challenging. The training camps build team bonds as well as rowing expertise and the regattas really stimulate the competitive spirit. At the same time, the girls learn the principles of safe boating.

Lessons learned through rowing help with motivation, goal setting, commitment and time management in other areas of the girls’ busy lives.

Volleyball

Volleyball is one of the more recent additions to the sports roster at SGHS, having been introduced in 2014. Since its inception, student interest has remained robust, with the current membership exceeding 140 students, including 50+ enthusiastic Year 7 members (more than a third of the grade). As a result, our program continuously evolves to cater best to our players.

Hockey

Hockey is a great team sport that develops teamwork, leadership, confidence, self-esteem, concentration and self discipline. It helps people make new friends and can be a great competitive or social sport. It is a great workout and improves fitness, endurance, balance, agility and coordination.

Hockey is an international sport that is safe and comparatively inexpensive. Students can represent their school, club, association, state or country and can aspire to play in the national or overseas leagues.

Water Polo

Water polo is super fun for anyone who enjoys learning new skills, and it does not require any experience to join. It is a fast-paced team sport which also allows members to interact with students from different Year groups.

The sport runs all year, but if you are not able to compete in some terms, it’s more than okay to just attend training, or pick up where you left off in the next term. There are usually three teams: Year 7, Junior (Years 8 and 9), and Senior (Years 10, 11 and 12) teams which all play the same competitions in different divisions each year.

Interest Clubs

Art Club

The Art Club provides a fantastic avenue for girls to extend and enrich their Visual Arts experiences. Membership to this club allows girls opportunities to develop new skills in artmaking practice and extend theircreative processes and outcomes while working in a studio practice. Art Club is conducted by qualified art educators and/or artists.

Astronomy

The Astronomy Club meets each Thursday throughout the year. We have consistent numbers of about thirty students attending. In a world that is increasingly looking at space travel, tourism and technology there has never been a better time to get interested in Astronomy.

Some of the highlights of the Astronomy Club calendar are the Egg Drop Competition, the Rocket Launch, Open Night, space themed movie nights and excursions to places like Google to learn about software engineering, Macquarie University to look at careers and research in Astronomy and with NASA and the Sydney Observatory to use their telescope and planetarium.

Book Club

Students attend Book Club each week meet with other book worms to chat about their favourite books both past and present. As a group, they choose a book to read concurrently so that they can discuss the themes, characters, and events in the story. Book Club members also review new books that are on offer and help to decide which books to obtain for the school library.

Coding Club

Code Club provides students with the opportunity to extend their skills in computer coding. Students work in groups or individually on projects or online tutorials in the language that interests them, such as Python, C for programming Arduino microcontrollers, and HTML for web development. We also have workshops with guest tutors from UNSW who provide fun and challenging activities.

Film Club

Film club provides the participating students with the opportunity to learn basic film making skills. They will be trained in the use of numerous film-making resources such as iPads, video cameras, 3 dimensional cameras, green screen and drones. They will also learn how to make use of video editing software such as iMovie and Adobe Premiere as well as being able to live stream video for live events.

Students will record school events such as school assemblies, ceremonies and carnivals and conduct interviews of teachers and students to produce videos that they can share with the school community. They will use the skills and techniques that they develop to produce their own short films to enter student film competitions throughout the year.

Knitting in Company

All students are invited to participate in Knitting in Company. This group provides students with an opportunity to learn to knit or crochet. Students will be able to create their own projects or contribute knitted squares that will then be made into blankets to be donated to those in need.

Students share the fun of being engaged in a relaxing activity in the company of like-minded people. The students enjoy catching up with friends, or meeting people from other Years. It is a good change of activity after a busy day of concentrating in class.

Mathmatics Enrichment Club

Sydney Girls High School in partnership with UNSW runs a Mathematics Enrichment Club during Terms 2 and 3. The club aims to encourage mathematical understanding and appreciation among students from Years 9 to 12. Each session is led by tutors from UNSW and focuses on the solution of interesting and challenging problems using a variety of problem solving techniques. These problems are typically more complex than questions students face in the normal classroom setting and often require significant determination, creativity, collaboration and time.

This is a terrific opportunity suitable for students who enjoy the challenge of solving complex mathematical problems. Due to the difficult nature of the problems involved, it is most suited to students in Years 9 to 12.

Mock Trial

Each year Sydney Girls High School enters the Law Society of NSW Mock Trial Competition. The team is usually made up of senior students with the cast of speaking roles rotated throughout the course of the year.

The competition provides students with an opportunity to match wits with a range of schools across the state. Most trials take place in person but trials will occasionally occur virtually because of the tyranny of distance. For each trial six students are allocated speaking roles as either a barrister, a solicitor, a witness or a clerk. Those roles each require particular skill sets, so a benefit of participating in Mock Trial is the opportunity for students to work together with a wide range of their peers.

The Mock Trial competition allows students to refine and demonstrate their skills in a wide range of areas including: critical thinking; logical reasoning; strategic questioning and presentation.

Robotics

Our Robotics team design and build robots to compete in the First Tech Challenge which is held in December of each year. The team need to construct and code their robot to meet the requirements for the challenge which changes each year. No prior skills are necessary to join the Robotics team, just a desire to problem solve and learn new skills!

Scrabble Club

Scrabble Club is a vibrant gathering that celebrates language, strategy, and friendship. At Scrabble Club, each tile becomes a potential masterpiece, and every word is a journey of exploration. The thrill of forming meaningful words from a random assortment of letters ignites the creative spark in every participant. As the tiles fall into place, friendships are forged through shared laughter, strategic manoeuvres, and the joy of intellectual engagement. Beyond the game board, Scrabble Club nurtures essential skills. From honing vocabulary to enhancing critical thinking and spatial reasoning, players discover the power of words as a tool for personal growth. Scrabble Club isn't just a gathering; it's a community of individuals united by their love for language. It's a place where scrabble enthusiasts exchange stories, strategies, and the joy of mastering new words.

Try it once and you’ll be hooked.

Shakespeare Carnival

We have an athletic carnival, we have a swimming carnival, why don’t we have a Shakespeare carnival? Sport for Jove’s Shakespeare Carnival is an opportunity for students all around NSW to engage in Shakespeare’s timeless plays and concepts in new innovative ways.

Students have the choice to stick to Shakespearean tradition with duologue and ensemble scenes, or re-present Shakesperean plays, themes and ideas through short films, playbuilt pieces, dance and physical theatre. The Carnival has it all.

The Shakespeare carnival presents Shakespeare in a way rarely approached through school curriculum English and Drama, encouraging students to step into Shakespeare’s shoes and embrace their creativity.

The Shakespeare Carnival develops communication, collaboration and playbuilding skills amongst its participants, nuanced theatre and performance skills. And not to mention, it makes a wonderful show for the rest of us.

Social Justice Group

The Social Justice Group provides opportunities for students to collaborate and develop impactful campaigns that raise awareness about a diverse range of social justice causes.

Formulating campaigns that confront issues such as systemic racial discrimination, religious intolerance, unjust treatment of refugees, mental and human costs of the fast fashion industry, this is a student-led group which creates informative resources that empower the school community to address social injustices, and encourages broad involvement from students across all Year groups. In addition to developing their own campaigns, the group has also contributed to established organisations such as the Asylum Seekers Centre and Share the Dignity and have shared petitions that seek to defend human rights from Amnesty International. Students’ committed participation in this group underlines the importance of encouraging younger generations to speak up and engage with social justice issues.

Sustainability Club

Sustainability Club is a fun and engaging way to learn about how to take care of our environment and engage in teamwork, cooperation and friendships over different Year groups. We hold meetings once a week to discuss our goals and plan events. Our group is divided into 4 smaller sections: Individual action, climate action, waste management and flora and fauna. Each of these groups focuses on a different aspect on how we can incorporate sustainability into our everyday lives and the club collectively come together to make our school as environmentally friendly as possible and spread the importance of self action.

Our future goals are introducing a compost system for organic waste, updating and maintaining the veggie beds and setting up bee hotels around the school. Hopefully, we will be able to establish more positive initiatives like these and continue to support our goals.