Janette Grossmann (1862-1924) was born in Braidwood, NSW, into a family that valued education. Her family moved between NSW and New Zealand.
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In NZ Janette was educated in a progressive education system. Attending The Girls High School, Christchurch she excelled, matriculated and won a University Junior Scholarship to attend Canterbury College, the Christchurch college of the University of NZ. Here she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1882) and a Master of Arts (Hons) (1883), being among the first women to do so in Australasia. In 1884 she gained her Teachers Certificate of Training.
Janette taught in NZ as a secondary teacher before returning to Australia in 1885, where she taught at the Methodist Ladies College in Hawthorn. After three years she joined her family in Sydney and obtained a teaching position at Sydney Girls High.
In 1890 she was appointed the fourth Headmistress of (West) Maitland Girls High School at a salary of £252 pa. At this time MGHS was one of only three public girls high schools in NSW and this appointment reflected the esteem in which she was held by the Education Department. The school was in the former Presbyterian manse in Free Church Street and had an enrolment of about 50.
Following the 1893 flood, the school was relocated to Entcliffe House in Church St where Janette lived in a small upstairs flat with her mother and sister. Entcliffe House was later renamed Grossmann House in her honour.
Janette taught French, Latin, English, Modern European and Ancient History as well as carrying the school administration and associated duties. She prepared her pupils for external examinations, the Junior and Senior Public Service Examinations as well as for University Matriculation, with the aid of only one assistant. She continually sought more staff, resources and spaces to teach in. By 1912, due to a curriculum change and increased enrolments, her teaching staff was increased to three. All four teachers taught 32 periods a week, without any free periods. Janette became the longest serving headmistress of MGHS guiding the school to becoming well respected. She was active in the Methodist Church and committed to women's issues, becoming vice president of Maitland's Women's Political Education League.
Distinguished ex-MHGS girl and later MGHS staff member, Eleanor Hinder, said of Janette: "She saw things in a balanced relationship. The school first, the subject next; the child first, external marks of success last. She was as wise in handling her young teachers as she was her pupils. She gave them freedom; she trusted them; they responded".
In 1914 she became the inaugural headmistress of North Sydney Girls High school. The Maitland Mercury wrote on her departure from MGHS that: "Character-building as well as scholarship has been among Miss Grossmann's supreme aims, and the influence for good that she has been enabled to exert upon the large number of girls who have passed through the school during her long presidency is Incalculable". Janette Grossmann is a worthy member of Maitland's Hall of Fame, inducted in 2017. Her name is incorporated today in the name of Maitland Grossmann High School.
