By January 1900, with the war in full swing, the Staatsmeisjesschool had been commissioned as a hospital, while the Staatsmodelschool had been turned into a prison.

Sir Winston Churchill was captured by the Boers and imprisoned in the school building, but managed to make his famous escape from there and took the railroad into Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique).

Mr Hope left 15 months later, along with the girls, who were finally accommodated into the old building of the Staatsmeisjesschool.

It consisted of four teachers and 126 girls under Edith Aitken, but contrary to the name, taught both primary and secondary school pupils until these two groups were separated in 1905.

[4] Teachers here taught Saturday morning classes to 50 standard 9 pupils as part of St Mary's DSG Outreach Program.

[4] It was one of the first public schools to integrate during the transition period in South Africa from a political system of apartheid to a multiparty, multi-racial democracy.

The first black pupil was admitted to Girls High in 1990 and was the daughter of a Malawian diplomat, SP Kachipande.

PHSG became the first white state school in Northern Transvaal (now Gauteng) to open its doors to girls of all races.

[11] They won a prize for Excellence in Mathematics because 138 students attained a higher grade maths pass mark.

Heraldic practice in English tradition is to depict the arms of unmarried ladies or widows on a lozenge, a diamond shaped shield.

These were policies ranging from black girls being forced to straighten their hair, rules that disallowed afros to being accused of conspiring when standing in groups and speaking in their mother tongue.

The black students protested at the school's annual Spring Fair, despite the presence of heavy security.

Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, met with the school management to address the issues.