Danebank Anglican School for Girls has appointed a new principal following a “thorough national and international search”.
Danebank was established on its current site in Hurstville in 1933 as a small co-educational Kindergarten with just five students. Today, it enrols more than 930 students and boasts outcomes well above averages for the state in competitions and external examinations.
In 2018, more than 38% of the school’s HSC students received an ATAR of 90 and above – the highest percentage in the last seven years.
Dr Emma Burgess, who is currently head of teaching and learning at SCEGGS Redlands, has 25 years’ experience in senior positions, including head of senior school at St Michael’s Collegiate School and deputy principal at Guilford Young College.
The Anglican Schools Corporation said Dr Burgess – who will replace current principal Maryanne Davis when she retires at the end of this year – comes to Danebank as a “brilliant thinker, strategist and a visionary educational leader”.
Corporation chairman, Philip Bell OAM and Danebank school council chair, Dr Richard Sharp, said Davis led the school for 10 years with “great wisdom, energy and clear Christian faith for ten years”.
“Mrs Davis will leave our school in a very strong position for the future. For this, the Board and the School Council thank her most sincerely,” Bell and Dr Sharp said.
They said Dr Burgess will bring a “deep commitment to the provision of an exemplary education that offers the best in learning and care for staff and girls”.
“She is well placed to lead across all key areas which the role demands – and the elements of the day-to-day operations of a school like Danebank,” Bell and Dr Sharp said.
“Dr Burgess knows Danebank to be a Christian faith-based, high-performing, non-selective girls’ school with a clear vision to provide quality, affordable education that will equip girls for all aspects of life.”
Bell and Dr Sharp said Davis, together with her exceptional staff, has positioned Danebank as “a leading school for girls”.
Dr Burgess said she was “delighted and honoured” to build on Davis’ “remarkable legacy, to lead and to serve the school in this next phase”.
“It will be a great pleasure to connect with the girls, staff, families and community of Danebank, soon,” she said.