Tempe High School (Sydney)

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Tempe High School
Location
Unwins Bridge Road, Tempe, Sydney, New South Wales

Australia
Coordinates 33°55′12″S151°9′40″E / 33.92000°S 151.16111°E / -33.92000; 151.16111
Information
Type Government-funded co-educational dual modality partially academically selective and comprehensive secondary day school
Motto Latin: Labora Fortiter
(Work Hard)
Established1874;151 years ago (1874) [1]
Educational authority New South Wales Department of Education
PrincipalVanessa Williams
Years 7–12
Enrolment900 [2]  (2012)
Campus type Suburban
Colour(s)Maroon and black   
Website tempe-h.schools.nsw.gov.au
Tempe High School (Sydney)

Tempe High School is a government-funded co-educational dual modality partially academically selective and comprehensive secondary day school, located in Tempe, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Contents

History

After an unsuccessful 1863 application to establish a school in Tempe, in 1872, local residents raised £A200 in funds to build a public school. Tempe Public School, a stone rubble building with an adjoining teacher's residence, opened on the site of the current high school in 1874. [3]

Land opposite of the school was purchased in 1908, and a new two-storey primary department building was erected. A separate girls' department was established in 1910, and in 1923, a large new primary building, containing twelve classrooms, was opened.

In 1949, the school became a boys' intermediate school. Subsequently, in 1955, the school was designated a junior technical high school.

In 1973, a library and science building was constructed. The teacher's residence in the original school building was demolished in 1974, and a new three-storey classroom block was built. Then, in 1975, Tempe Boys and Arncliffe Girls high schools progressively merged to become Tempe High School. [4] The 1923 primary building would then be converted into an industrial technology and arts facility.

In 1994, the school was featured in an SBS documentary, The School of Babel. The film explored the school's large migrant population and the effect of teaching students their native languages on their English marks. It featured a visit from Harvard University's head of education at the time, Professor Courtney Cazden. [5]

A 2004 proposal failed to combine Tempe, Dulwich Hill, Marrickville and Newtown high schools into a multi-campus college due to falling enrolments. [6] Instead, from 2005, the school became partially selective offering places based on academic performance as well as accepting local students.

In 2017, there was controversy among parents surrounding the school principal's threat of suspension for uniform violations. [7] The school purchased and converted a bus in 2019 into a "hangout space" to help Year 12 students deal with HSC stress. [8]

The school was used as a filming location for the 2024 Stan original series Critical Incident .[ citation needed ]

Notable alumni

See also

References

Heritage Act - s.170. NSW State Agency Heritage Register. 4 December 2019.

  1. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ "Tempe High School". School Locator. NSW Public Schools. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  3. ↑ "PUBLIC SCHOOL, TEMPE". Evening News . 2 March 1874. p. 4. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  4. ↑ "Inner-city schools in Sydney to merge". The Canberra Times . 23 October 1973. p. 9. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
  5. ↑ Cockburn, Robert. The School of Babel (VHS). TRAC Productions. Retrieved 7 July 2025.
  6. ↑ Burke, K. (28 August 2004). "Super high school plan thrown out". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  7. ↑ Caines, Kimberley. "Principal's war on sneakers". Archived from the original on 25 October 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2025.
  8. ↑ Chung, Laura (28 April 2019). "All aboard: teachers and students catch the bus to improve mental health". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 July 2025.


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