The
Public Instruction Act 1880 (New South Wales) began a period described as the "great reforms". In 1883 the first six state high schools were opened: for boys and for girls at Sydney, Bathurst and Goulburn. The following year, in 1884, Maitland Boys High and
Girls High were opened. The four schools at Sydney and Maitland succeeded but the other High Schools failed to compete with established local private schools and the Superior Public Schools (which did not prepare students for matriculation); at the end of 1886, the two Goulburn schools and Bathurst Boys' High School closed. This arrangement continued until 1906 when
Newcastle High School opened, the first new state high school since the 1884 opening of the Maitland High Schools. The founding headmaster was the capable
John Waterhouse who was recruited from
Newington College to guide the Boys' High School through its early years; The building was completed in June 1892 and opened in July 1892.
Co-education and new names From Term 1, 1987, the Minister for Education directed that the former Maitland Boys High and the former Maitland Girls High were to be co-educational; he announced that the schools would be renamed Maitland High School and Evatt High School in honour of the Evatt family whom he described as "the finest family that Maitland has produced, arguably that Australia has produced". The decision caused public controversy and the former Maitland Boys High School was renamed Maitland High School, and the former Maitland Girls High School was renamed Maitland Grossman High School in honour of Jeanette Grossmann who was headmistress of Maitland Girls High school from 1890 to the end of 1913. == Co-curricular activities ==