[2] The Normanhurst School was established in 1882 by Ellen Clarke, who was an English national.

[2] In 1884, her sister Marian Clarke arrived in Australia from England to join the faculty, and founded Abbotsleigh the following year.

[3] At its foundation, the school operated out of a cottage located on Bland Street, Ashfield.

[2] Later as the school expanded, it moved to another larger campus in Ashfield at the intersection of Orpington and Chandos streets (pictured right).

[2] Through the initiative of the then headmistress, Evelyn Tildesley, the Normanhurst School became a founding member of the Headmistresses’ Association of NSW (which has since become the Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools) in 1916.