ST George Girls High School is inviting former students to contribute to its centenary archive collection.
The Kogarah school will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2016. There will be a series of events, including the launch of a centenary book.
Before then, former students are being asked to share old photos and documents with the school, so staff can start to gather material for a historic display.
Before 1916, secondary education in St George was available at Kogarah Intermediate High School.
In 1913, it was decided that Kogarah would be a suitable site for a new high school. On October 31, 1914, the land occupied by the Harrow Villa cottage was purchased from its owner.
Portable buildings housed a temporary St George Girls High School until the official opening in February 1916. It had 143 students and nine teachers.
Cheddar Street Nursing Home resident, Fay Burgess (nee McGhekan), 82, was a student at the school in 1945.
She said at least three generations of her family were "old girls of the school".
Her mother Vera May Knight was among the first intake of girls after she emigrated from England in 1914.
Mrs Burgess has fond memories of her time there, from learning French and Latin and singing the school song in a chorus led by the headmistress, to being marched up to the blackboard and forced to write with her right hand.
"We begged to study law or chemistry," she said. "But the only positions available to girls were as checkout chicks or nurses.
"Teaching was also an honourable profession. It was period when women were regarded at housewives and mothers, not as studious young women.
"My mother said 'get married and have children', so I did. But I also studied arts at university, worked in art galleries and for an insurance company."
Details: sgghs.com.au/our-school/our-archives or 9587 5902.