Christchurch Girls' High School in Christchurch , New Zealand, was established in and is the second oldest girls' secondary school in the country Otago Girls' High School is older.
The first headmistress was Mrs. The second principal Helen Connon later Helen Macmillan Brown is better known as she was the first woman in any British university to gain an Honours degree. The school's original building on Cranmer Square, which was renamed the Cranmer Centre , features prominently in the film Heavenly Creatures based on the ParkerβHulme murder case involving two students. The school featured in national and international news in when two students led a "walkout" [4] [5] from school assembly to protest the inclusion of religion in school morning assemblies.
At the time, schools in New Zealand were supposed to be secular but this was largely ignored and students were usually told to bring a note from their parents if they wanted to opt out of the religious component of school assemblies.
The school stands by the Avon River , on a site it has occupied since Previously, the area was occupied by a mill that was first built in by William Derisley Wood, which became known as the Riccarton Mill. The February Christchurch earthquake had a large impact on the school: it caused extensive damage to the current site; [7] the old Cranmer Centre site was damaged so badly that it was later demolished β and the school's principal at the time, Prue Taylor, lost her husband Brian in the CTV Building collapse.
CGHS was the first school to go into lock down during the Christchurch mosque shootings at approximately pm on 15 March Pauline Duthie, previous principal of the school, was appointed in and stepped down on 4 March She will continue to be a principal at the school of Columba College in Dunedin.
