Timaru Girls' High School is a secondary school in Timaru

Timaru

TimaruUrban AreaPopulation:27,200Extent:Former Timaru City CouncilTerritorial AuthorityName:Timaru District CouncilPopulation:42,867 Land area:2,736.54 km² Mayor:Janie AnnearWebsite:...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, founded in 1880. Timaru Girls' High provides education for girls aged between 13 – 18 years of age (class levels - years 9 to 13). It also has a boarding facility within the school grounds for pupils not living in Timaru itself and also caters for international students. The school motto is Scientia Potestas Est – Knowledge is Power. The school is a stone's throw away from the Catholic Roncalli College

Roncalli College

Roncalli College is a Catholic college in Timaru, New Zealand. It is named after Pope John XXIII, whose birth name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. It is a co-educational college, with approximately 550 students from Year 9 to Year 13, it is situated on Craigie Avenue, next to the Sacred Heart Basilica...

.

Houses

The school has 4 colour houses named after New Zealand native flowers and each student is put into one of them to encourage team spirit.

The colours are:

• Yellow = Kowhai
• Blue = Konini
• Green = Ngaio
• Red = Rata

There are several House events per year, Swimming Sports, Athletics, Cross Country, Aitkens and Waters Cup Day and House Choirs

Notable alumnae

• Maria Fahey
  Maria Fahey
  Maria Frances Fahey is a New Zealand cricketer who plays for the Canterbury Magicians in the State League, as well as the national team...
  
   - cricketer
• Jo Goodhew
  Jo Goodhew
  Jo Goodhew is a New Zealand politician, and currently serves as a member of Parliament.-Early years:Goodhew grew up in Timaru, and attended Timaru Girls' High School. She holds a qualification in nursing from Otago Polytechnic...
  
   - MP
• Elizabeth Gunn (paediatrician)
  Elizabeth Gunn (paediatrician)
  Dr. Elizabeth Catherine Gunn was a pioneer in the field of children's health in New Zealand.Gunn was born in Dunedin, the daughter of an ironmonger whose interests in medicine led him to change career initially to pharmacy and then to dentistry. She attended Timaru and Otago Girls' High Schools,...
  
  - paediatrician

Controversy

In September 2011, a school girl wanted to support the country's Blue Friday, a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of prostate cancer. She was banned from supporting it because students were only allowed to support female causes, even though the girl's own grandfather had died from this cancer. This raised issues in the newspapers