The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney (PLC Sydney) is an independent early learning, primary and secondary school for girls, located in Croydon, an Inner West suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school has a non-selective enrolment policy, and caters for approximately 1,500 girls from age 4 to 18, including day students and 65 boarders. Established in 1888 by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of NSW, PLC Sydney is the oldest continuously running Presbyterian Church school in its state.

PLC Sydney offers the option of Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) in Years 9 and 10 to supplement learning, in addition to the NSW Education Standards Authority courses (the HSC), as it enables students to sit examinations in globally recognised courses. From 2025, Cambridge A-Levels was offered as an alternative to the HSC in Years 11 and 12. Students attend PLC Sydney from all regions of the greater metropolitan area, New South Wales, and overseas. The college is a founding member of the Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools and is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, the Junior School Heads Association of Australia, and the Australian Boarding Schools' Association. PLC Sydney is one of two Sydney schools in the Round Square organisation. Notable alumnae include the first qualified female architect in Australia and other pioneering women in education, law, and medicine.

History

Foundation In 1883 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of NSW formed a special committee to investigate a proposal to establish boarding schools for girls and for boys, to provide Presbyterian alternatives to the proliferating number of Roman Catholic secondary schools in the colony. The Minister at Richmond, Rev James Cameron stated: "Presbyterians should take prompt action because the Popish party, seeing the want that was felt throughout the colony in regard to higher education, has stepped in to supply that want, and if Protestants did not look to the matter, the Roman Catholics would take advantage of them." The General Assembly was also inspired to establish a school, particularly a Ladies' College, by less worthy motives. Other Protestant denominations in NSW had recently established their own Ladies' Colleges, and the neighbouring colony of Victoria had maintained a Presbyterian Ladies' College since 1875, and so it was felt that NSW Presbyterians should also have one. At the 1884 Assembly the Committee announced that while a boys' school was not needed, the secondary education options available to girls were not satisfactory, and they recommended that a Ladies' College, similar to the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne, be established as soon as possible.

A Ladies' College Committee was formed and by July 1887 they had leased a property in Ashfield. For principal, they unanimously selected Dr. John Marden, a science master from the Methodist Ladies' College (MLC) in Melbourne, "because of his high academic standing, his experience and success in teaching and his high Christian character". Marden was a strong believer in equal opportunity in education, and has been described as an "early feminist". He rejected the idea that PLC was to be merely a finishing school for the daughters of the wealthy, and was once quoted as saying:

I am ... out of sympathy with the cry that education is unnecessary for girls, and that all they require is a few accomplishments. Women have also to live their life - in most cases a harder one than men have. This notion of accomplishments being sufficient for girls is surely a remnant of those barbarous days when women were looked on as the plaything of men.

The Presbyterian Ladies' College was finally opened by Marden and lady superintendent, M. McCormick, on 30 January 1888, with 39 girls. It was modelled on the great English Public Schools, and was the first school to be established by the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales. Together with the Committee, Marden was responsible for organising the curriculum and hiring the appropriate staff.

During the opening ceremony the Governor invited his wife, the Countess of Jersey, Margaret Child-Villiers, to speak. She made what the Sydney Morning Herald described as a "capital impromptu speech". The Countess' speech was widely reported throughout Australia and elsewhere around the world, as at the time it was quite unusual for a woman to speak in public. PLC's Jersey Day, an annual event in which ex-students return to the College on the Sunday closest to 10 March, is named in honour of the Countess.

Growth In the early years at Croydon, girls tended to be enrolled at an older age, typically over fourteen. It was apparent that despite Marden's insistence, many parents viewed the college as a finishing school. As today, it was not a requirement for students to be Presbyterians, and early school records indicate there were a number of Roman Catholic and Jewish students. By 1900, the reputation of the school had spread, and pupils were starting to come from a wider geographic area, including New Caledonia, Fiji, New Zealand, the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia.

The increase in enrolments also convinced the Council of the need to set up a branch school on another site, preferably on the North Shore. In 1913, Marden reported that many applications were being refused because of "shortness of space." The Assembly approved the establishment of a branch at Pymble and gave the Council of PLC Croydon £5,000 to erect new buildings and lay out the grounds. The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Pymble was opened on 8 February 1916 with 48 day girls and 86 boarders. Marden became the principal of both schools. The opening of the Pymble campus necessitated a change of name for the Croydon College, from The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney to The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Croydon.

Marden retired at the end of 1919 and a principal was appointed to each branch. Dr E. Neil McQueen, a prominent educational innovator who had previously been the Vice-Principal of the two schools, became the second Principal of PLC Croydon.

In 1918, the school magazine Aurora Australis was first published. On the cover, it bore a quotation from Thomas Carlyle: '. . . here hath been dawning another blue day. Think wilt thou let it slip useless away.'Thomas Carlyle, Today (1840)

Second World War In 1941, both the Principal Mary Hamilton, and the Senior Mistress (novelist, critic and historian) Flora Eldershaw, left the school to fill wartime positions in the bureaucracy. In 1942, the new principal, Dr Helen Wilkie, arrived to find falling enrolments, staffing problems and food shortages due to the effects of the Second World War. Word was soon received that Australian military authorities wished to inspect the school with a view to taking it over. On 24 March 1942, it was requested that PLC be occupied by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for the purpose of establishing a top secret Radar Unit and military barracks known as No.1 RIMU (Radio Installation and Maintenance Unit). In order to accommodate PLC's students and classes, the Council approached Meriden School in Strathfield. Meriden agreed to house the boarders and the singing, domestic science, and physical education classes. PLC also purchased Lingwood, a property in Strathfield, as a centre for the school's remaining activities.

At the end of 1942, the Meriden authorities indicated that they could no longer house the PLC boarders, so Lauriston, Strathfield, on The Boulevarde, and Welbeck, at 18 Margaret Street, were rented for them. In July 1944 the Council agreed to purchase Lingwood, at 16 Margaret Street, to house a Kindergarten feeder school for the college, or as a site for a permanent move. A few months later the Council decided that the future of PLC lay in Strathfield. The Croydon campus was offered to the military for £36,500 and plans were made to purchase Welbeck and Lauriston to form the new PLC.

The Council's preference for Strathfield as a permanent location for the school was not shared by most of the school community, and after an intervention by the Education Trust of the NSW General Assembly it was decided that PLC would reopen once again at Croydon in first term 1946. The military agreed to pay for the extensive renovations that were required, with the final cheque handed over by the government on 21 March 1949. Lauriston and Welbeck were disposed of in 1946, but the Lingwood property was retained as a preparatory school. The Council negotiated with Margaret Thompson, the owner and principal of Branxton, a private school in Strathfield, about moving her school to the Lingwood property, where it would retain the name Branxton and come under the control of the PLC Council.

Evidence of PLC's wartime occupation remain, with tunnels and bomb shelters accessible from below the stage of College Hall. A plaque presented to the school by the RAAF, in commemoration of PLC's wartime involvement, can be found on the school verandah at the entrance to the Main School.

Postwar

Freda Whitlam, sister of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was principal between 1958 and 1976. It was a period of great social transition. In 1968 Miss Whitlam wrote: 'Ours is a world where each year we become more conscious of how quickly and radically our environment is changing. Technology is taking the drudgery out of our lives and opening up exciting opportunities for those who have a good general education and are willing to think positively and creatively. Here we help the girls with this aim in view.'F. L. Whitlam, 'What this School Means to Me', 80th Anniversary: 1888–1968: An Historical Review, Presbyterian Ladies College, Croydon, p. 7. In 1970, after Bill McLeod spoke to some of the seniors and advised those intending to become a nurse or a teacher to learn Greek or Italian (to aid communication with immigrants), Miss Whitlam took up the suggestion: 'We have people with time to do something after the exams at the end of each year – let's organise Greek classes for them'.ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΝΕΑ P.L.C. Croydon Greek News, March 1972, In March 1972 the school also produced a newsletter ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΝΕΑ providing background on Greek culture and language and a bibliography of relevant books in the school library.

In 1977, a Union of the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches took place, forming the Uniting Church in Australia. Approximately one third of the Presbyterian Church decided to remain Presbyterian, and consequently the property of the Church had to be divided. In May of that year it was announced that PLC Croydon was to remain Presbyterian and PLC Pymble would be transferred, with its name changed to Pymble Ladies' College. Then in 1978 it was decided that PLC Croydon should return to its original name: The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney. Freda Whitlam took part in the movement to form the Uniting Church and thus ended her principalship of the school. She was moderator of the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia (1985–1986).Who's Who in Australia 2012, p. 2349.

In late August 2005, due to financial troubles at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Armidale, it was announced that PLC Armidale and PLC Sydney would join to form an alliance, with both schools coming under the executive leadership of Dr William McKeith, the Principal of PLC Sydney. Members of the PLC Armidale Council formed part of the new joint school Council, essentially making the two PLC's true sister schools.