The principal of Canberra Girls Grammar School, one of the city's most exclusive private schools, has resigned.
Terrie Jones, who has been at the helm since 2022, will leave the school at the end of 2026 and return to Melbourne, where she will be principal of Melbourne Girls Grammar.
Announcing the resignation in an email to parents, board chair Jennifer Wyborn said Ms Jones wanted "to be closer to her daughters and their growing young families".
"The board recognises that a change of principal is a significant moment in the life of a school," she wrote.
"CGGS approaches this transition from a position of strength, with a clear strategic direction, a highly experienced leadership team and dedicated teaching and professional staff who remain firmly focused on the learning, wellbeing and development of every student."
She was 16th principal in the school's 100-year history.
The school has already started an international recruitment process for her replacement.
During her four years at the school, Ms Wyborn wrote, Ms Jones had "championed the school's enduring commitment to empowering girls to become fiercely independent young women, while overseeing year-on-year enrolment growth and reinforcing CGGS's position as the best school for girls in the capital region".
One of only three all-girls schools in Canberra, Girls Grammar first opened in 1926 with just a handful of students inside the old rectory of St John's Church.
The school moved to its permanent site in what was then the suburb of Blandfordia, now Deakin, in 1927, and struggled through the Great Depression with the help of the Anglican diocese.
The student body grew through the decades, the junior school moved to Grey Street in Deakin and the school dropped "Church of England" from its name.
It has also became an International Baccalaureate continuum school, one of just 10 schools in Canberra offering the program.
