Shirley Smith High School in Kenny is close to Harrison and Throsby and bounded by the Federal Highway to the east and Horse Park Drive to the north.
Kenny is about 4km from the Gungahlin Town Centre and 9km from the Canberra Centre and has good public transport connections from the nearby Well Station Drive light rail stop.
Shirley Smith High School is Canberra’s 91st public school and will cater for up to 800 students in years 7 to 10, providing quality public education in this high-growth region.
Shirley Smith High School welcomed more than 80 new year 7 students on Tuesday, 30 January 2024.
Shirley Smith: compassion, courage and commitment
Shirley Smith High School is named after prominent activist and Wiradjuri woman Shirley Smith.
Shirley Smith (‘Mum Shirl’, born Shirley Perry) was born near Cowra in 1924. She moved to Sydney in the mid-1930s with her family. Soon after arriving in Sydney, Shirley began her work supporting and visiting Aboriginal people who were in jail and facing criminal charges in the courts.
She also supported children placed in her care to regain health and focus and helped find their families.
Shirley Smith was a founding member of many important community services in Redfern, including the Aboriginal Medical Service, the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Aboriginal Housing Company, and the Aboriginal Children’s Service.
Shirley helped to establish the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs and in ongoing activism for land rights for Aboriginal people.
Shirley Smith’s advocacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people influenced other communities to establish similar services.
The valuable contribution Shirley Smith made through her lifelong commitment to helping and advocating for others was recognised by the award of the Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1977 and the Member of the Order of Australia in 1985.
You can read more about the naming of Shirley Smith High School in this article on the ‘Our Canberra’ website:
New logo and uniform: community’s choice
In 2023, the community was invited to provide feedback and preferences on three potential design options for the school’s logo and uniform.
The final design concept chosen by the community is the ‘Curly S’.
The Curly S logo represents the initials in the name Shirley Smith, as well as the handwritten and the mechanical coming together, to show the relationship between people, community and the institution of education.
The community also selected ‘fresh green’ as its preferred colour for the logo.
The student uniforms have the Curly S logo on the chest and the handwritten S design on the uniform body.
You can read more about the Shirley Smith High School’s logo and uniform in this article on the ‘Our Canberra’ website: