Macarthur Girls High School is located in New South Wales, Australia. Macarthur is (as the name suggests) an all-girls high school. Macarthur is also designated a technology high school, and has computing programs that span grades 7 through 12. See the Computing Studies portion of their web page for details about the computing programs.

The school motto is Vis Viva, the living force. This website describes part of the living force as the bonds between women and education, specifically technical education. Excellent! Technology is coming to all facets of life, whether we realize it or not, and Macarthur's women will be well-prepared.

They've already got a head start on the rest of the academic community -- Macarthur entered into the web-scene early when their site went up in 1995.

Why do we like this site?

Macarthur's site contains both student and professional content. The student content appears to be the main focus, which we like quite a bit.

The virtual tour of the school is excellent, as is the school history. Lisa, Shivani and Emma did an excellent job of choosing sights of interest and added informative and helpful text with each photograph. These girls must have done some research to know so much about their school!

We were particularly please with the attribution of each section -- each student who worked on the project (even the student who keyed in the work) was recognized. This gives each girl a chance to see her name attached to something of importance.

Like other sites we have seen recently, Macarthur publishes a version of its school newsletter on the web. We like this idea, as it gives parents and other far-away relatives a way to keep up with students activities. What is notable about this site, however, is the concern with student security and privacy. Certainly the internet is a very large place, and many students (or their parents) may be uncomfortable with releasing information. Macarthur (and their school district) has already addressed this problem with a district policy and by pulling information that could be invading student privacy. They are certainly thinking ahead.

The overall design of the site is excellent -- all information is easily accessible and there is an excellent site overview available in the sitemap.

Congratulations to Macarthur Girls High School! Keep up the good work.

Who are the people behind this site?

Peter Ware, who teaches computing studies for grades 9 to 12 at Macarthur, is responsible for maintaining the school's website. Students from his classes contribute to the website as part of class projects.

Student projects that are appropriate for the web are added as they are created; currently the projects displayed are a year old. Check back with the site soon for new student projects!