Norwood International High School (NIHS) is a single-campus, co-educational, public high school located in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.
Founded as Norwood District High School in 1910 on Osmond Terrace, Norwood, the school relocated five years later to Kensington Park for nearly half a century, and changed its name to Norwood High School in 1947. This school moved to its present location in Magill between 1960 and 1962.
Morialta High School came into being in 1975, and was merged with Norwood High in 1993, to become Norwood Morialta High School (NMHS), across two campuses. The Morialta site in Rostrevor became Middle Campus, for Years 8 to 10, while known as the middle campus, while the Magill site was known as senior campus (Years 11 to 12).
In 2022 the both campuses were amalgamated to form Norwood International High School, and the Morialta campus was closed down, with construction starting on the new Morialta Secondary College on the site.
History
Norwood International High School's history spans over 100 years across numerous campus locations and name changes.
Norwood High School (1910 - 1993) Norwood High School first opened on 25 January 1910 on Osmond Terrace, Norwood, as Norwood District High School. In 1915, it moved to new premises at Lossie Street Kensington Park. In 1962, the school moved to what is now the NMHS Senior Campus on The Parade, Magill. Norwood High School shared common origins with Norwood Boys Technical School, a school that later became Norwood Boys High, then Marryatville Boys High, and subsequently amalgamated with Kensington and Norwood Girls Technical High to become Marryatville High School, a school that shared a strong rivalry with NHS and continues to with the current NMHS. The school provided an alternative to parents living in the eastern suburbs that wanted to enrol their children in a public school rather than one of the many private, selective and technical schools that were also in the area. During that time Ivan Coward was principal, and he met the needs of those enrolled in the public system who sought entry to the academic world.
Morialta High School (1974 - 1993) Morialta High School's founding principal was Ian "Joe" Laslett. He was appointed to the position in 1974, in the year before its opening, so was able to liaise closely with the architects during the construction of the school, appoint his staff in preparation for its opening in 1975 and provide opportunities for all who were to be part of the school community to have a say in formulating its philosophies and practices.
Although not due to take up their appointments until 1975, the senior staff met regularly towards the latter part of 1974 and a whole staff conference was held at Graham's Castle conference centre in December of that year.
The school was not ready to open in February 1975 so, for the first weeks the initial 540 students (Years 8 and 9 only) and 45 teachers were housed at Murray House, a grand old building, part of the Murray Park College of Advanced Education (now the Magill Campus of the University of South Australia) until the completion of the main building ("B Block") at Rostrevor. The staff then voted to move into B Block although construction of the other buildings and facilities still continued. The toilet block was not finished, so buses were provided with a timetable to transport students to the nearby McNally Training Centre until the school's facilities were ready.
The buses were also used to provide outdoor education opportunities in the early weeks. These endeavours helped develop a cohesive spirit amongst all members of the school community.
Morialta had an open plan design. "B Block" housed an extensive science teaching area on the ground level and open plan classrooms on levels 2 and 3. Whilst the majority of the eight teaching areas on levels 2 and 3 were designed as Mathematics and Humanities areas, each level had one area also dedicated to Science teaching. The school won awards for its design in the 1970s, as it was considered modern and futuristic for its time.
Morialta was not a specialist High School but had many experienced specialist teachers and ancillary staff. One staff member was senior lab technician Charles Jennings, who worked for 32 years at the school and, later, Norwood Morialta High School, setting up accurate data records and hazardous substances folders for the science area, which helped the school gain level 3 occupational health safety and welfare (OHS&W) accreditation.
Another founding staff member was Deputy Principal, Peter Lang, who later returned as Principal of the amalgamated Norwood and Morialta High Schools.