Matraville Sports High School


Matraville Sports High School is a government co-educational comprehensive and specialist secondary school, with speciality in sports, located on Anzac Parade, Chifley, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Established in 1960 as Matraville High School, the school became a specialist high school in December 2001 and caters for approximately 300 students from Year 7 to Year 12. The school is operated by the New South Wales Department of Education; the principal is Nerida Walker. Its alumni include Bob Carr and a number of professional sportsmen and women, particularly rugby league players.
Matraville Sports High School is a member of the NSW Sports High Schools Association.

History

In the years consequent upon the Second World War, South Eastern suburbs of Sydney saw increasing population growth and, as a result, increasing demands for infrastructure to assist that growth. At the time, the closest high schools in the area were South Sydney Boys' High School and Maroubra Junction Girls' High School. As a result, the local member and Minister for Education, Bob Heffron, made the decision to establish a new high school in Matraville. The site on the corner of Anzac Parade and Franklin Street in southern Matraville was secured by the Department of Education in 1957. The original school site was covered in virgin Banksia scrub growing on low sand hills bordered by houses on Mitchell Street.
At Heffron's instigation, the new school would be co-educational, in a period when the vast majority of NSW secondary schools were sex segregated. Prior to 1960, Robert E. Mobbs, a former Second World War army officer who had also helped establish Fairfield Boys' High and Arthur Phillip High, was appointed as the school's first headmaster. However, a lack of funding restricted the start of construction and it was not until well after the first 200 students had been accepted in 1960 that building began. Therefore, the first students were housed at Daceyville Public School and the 1961 intake of students were sent to Gardeners Road Public School. Construction was finished by early 1962, which allowed the students to finally move in. The school soon generated a reputation for excellence in sports. The Waratah Shield, the state knockout competition for Rugby, was won by Matraville in 1972, 1976, 1977, 1983 and 2007 and the ARL Schoolboy Cup was also won in 2007. In recognition of the school's excellence in this area, in December 2001, Matraville High was re-established as a specialist sports high, thus becoming "Matraville Sports High School".

School details

In May 2010, there were 325 students enrolled in the school from Years 7 through to Year 12. Of these, 110 students were girls and 215 were boys. The school has an enrolment of 30% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and 30% Pacific Islander students. There were approximately 45 staff at the school.

Notable alumni