Seymour College

Our story

Seymour College opened in 1922 as Presbyterian Girls’ College, with about 100 girls across five year levels and the Reverend Dr Herbert Postle as its first principal. Its home at Glen Osmond centres on Barr Smith House, a mansion built in 1861 as Wootton Lea, which over the years has housed boarders, art classes, swimming lessons and principals. The motto ‘I grow by serving’ has been the school’s since its foundation.

The college’s Scottish roots still show. Since 1927 its girls have belonged to four Clans (Bruce, Cameron, Douglas and Stewart) rather than houses, and the Black Watch tartan, adopted after the second principal, Isobel Macdonald, sought the regiment’s permission in Scotland, is part of the uniform. The school took the name Seymour College in 1977, after the formation of the Uniting Church, honouring its founding chairman, the Reverend Dr J. A. Seymour. It celebrated its centenary in 2022 and today is a Uniting Church day and boarding school for girls, with boys and girls in its early years.