About us
WEGC History
"…a crying want and also a standing disgrace to this city"
- New Zealand Mail Editorial, 27 May 1882
The European settlement of Wellington was founded in 1839 but over forty years passed before the first government funded secondary school for girls opened with 60 pupils in 1883. This was much later than the other main centres. Even though important men such as Sir Truby King thought that the education of girls was damaging to their health and a danger to motherhood, secondary education quickly became popular for young women. By the end of the first World War, over 800 pupils at Wellington Girls’ High School led to the founding of a new school in 1925 on the other side of the city: Wellington East Girls' College.
The school's longstanding principal who retired in 2007, Janice Campbell, is on the far left-hand side of the top row in the above photo.
The new school was built on the hillside of Mt Victoria, from ‘reserve’ land of the neighbouring Wellington College for boys. The historic building is regarded as one of the best examples of interwar ‘stripped classical’ public architecture. It is a landmark building overlooking Wellington city and harbour. Since its foundation, there have been huge changes in the physical site, the composition of the student group, the style of teaching and learning and the range of subjects offered.
