Canberra Grammar School is a co-educational, independent, day and boarding school located in Red Hill, a suburb of Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
The school is affiliated with the Anglican Church of Australia and provides an education from preschool to Year 12 for boys and girls. In October 2015, the school announced that it would extend co-education to all years, commencing in 2016 with an intake of girls in Years 3 and 4. By 2018, the school became fully co-educational.
The school was founded in 1929 when the existing Monaro Grammar School was relocated from Cooma to Canberra. The foundation stone was laid on 4 December 1928 by Prime Minister Stanley Bruce. Initially, Grammar was attended by only 63 students, but the school has grown considerably since the early 1950s to a total attendance of 2,227 students as of 2025 (57.25% Male, 42.66% Female and 0.09% "Other").
The school has educated one Australian prime minister, Gough Whitlam, who was in the Class of 1934. School also has had a long list of notable alumni.
The school consists of 5 main campuses: Red Hill Southside, Red Hill Primary, Red Hill Senior, the Early Learning Center (ELC) and Northside Campbell.
Contents
Curriculum
In the primary school, the Australian Curriculum and Early Years Learning Framework requirements are incorporated through International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme.
In the senior school, from years 7 to 10, the school follows the Australia Curriculum and the IB Middle Years Program (MYP). Unlike other schools in the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra Grammar School does not follow the ACT Year 12 Curriculum. Instead, it is the only school in the ACT where students in years 11 and 12 have the option to study either the New South Wales Higher School Certificate (HSC) or the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). In 2012, Canberra Grammar became an International Baccalaureate World School.
Co-curricular
Canberra Grammar School is a member of the Associated Southern Colleges (ASC). The school offers many activities outside school hours. These include sport, music and other activities.
Junior School: athletics, adventure club, ball games, basketball, chess, cricket, cross country running, drama, European handball, gardening, golf, indoor soccer, mini volleyball, multimedia, orienteering, rugby, art, swimming, taekwondo, tennis and triathlon.
Senior School: athletics club, alternate reality club (ARC), badminton, basketball, CGS Academy (Yr 11 & 12 tutoring for younger students), chess, Code Cadets, community service, cricket, cross country, Cru (Christian Group), debating, dragon boating, Theatre, Duke of Edinburgh awards, Equestrian Club, football (soccer), golf, hockey, mountain biking, netball, orienteering, outdoor education, rowing, rugby, sailing, snowsports, strength and conditioning, STEM Club, Sustainable CGS, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, Thucydides club, water polo and Dance.
Junior School Music: Junior School Chorale, Junior Choir, Senior Choir, String Orchestra, Concert Band and the Canberra Grammar School Stage Band.
Senior School Music is made up of two streams of performance groups:
The Advanced Musicians Program consists of a senior (higher level) concert band, Chamber Orchestra, senior jazz band, senior percussion ensemble, brass ensemble and Motet. These students have high level performance opportunities.
The large ensemble program provides larger ensemble-based experiences, including two concert bands, junior (lower level) jazz band, two string ensembles, a choir, an electric guitar ensemble (both advanced and intermediate), junior percussion ensemble and a piano ensemble.
Many of the Senior School ensembles have done numerous tours overseas over the years.
Houses
List of houses
As with most Australian schools, Canberra Grammar utilises a house system. The Senior School consists of ten houses:
These houses were named after notable alumni and former staff, apart from Burgmanns that was named after Ernest Burgmann (Bishop of Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn), who was major in the foundation of the school and even personally appointed David Author Garnsey as headmaster, but he was never actually staff.
The school also has three Year 7 houses:
The Junior School has six houses introduced in 2022. These houses were named after local flora and fauna using the traditional Indigenous language of the Ngunnawal people:
The Junior School's original four houses, in place till 2021:
Garnsey And Edwards became senior school houses in 1982 (Garnsey) and 2003 (Edwards), though this was long after they became Junior School houses.
Notable alumni
Academia
Peter Garnsey (1961) professor of history at University of Cambridge.
Geoffrey Garrett, political scientist
Malcolm Gillies, vice-chancellor and president, City University, London; vice-chancellor, London Metropolitan University
Jeffrey Grey, Australian military historian
Toby Miller, sociologist
Business
Kerry Packer, publishing, media and gaming tycoon
Rowan Dean, advertising executive
Terry Snow, businessman and philanthropist
Media, entertainment and the arts
Richard Glover, author, journalist, ABC radio presenter
Francis James, RAF pilot and POW during WWII, journalist and publisher, activist against the Vietnam War
Peter Leonard, former WIN News Canberra reader
James O'Loghlin, ABC Sydney presenter
Daniel O'Malley, science fiction writer
Bill Birtles, ABC journalist
Politics, public service and the law
Wal Fife, Liberal Party of Australia Federal member for Hume, New South Wales
Robert Piper, Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with the rank of UN Assistant Secretary General
Shane Rattenbury, Member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, 2008–present and Speaker
Andrew Refshauge, deputy premier of New South Wales 1995–2005
Richard Refshauge, ACT Supreme Court Justice
Peter Webb, New South Wales State member for Monaro 1999–2003
Gough Whitlam (Dux three years running), Prime Minister of Australia, 1972–1975
Andrew Constance, New South Wales State member for Bega 2003-2021
Sports
Bob Brown, former Wallabies rugby union player
Josh Bruce, St Kilda, Australian rules football player
Andy Friend, ACT Brumbies former head coach
David Gallop, former chairman of the National Rugby League (NRL)
Charlie Hancock, a rugby union player
Rod Kafer, Wallabies rugby union player
Peter Kimlin, Wallabies rugby union player
Michael Milton, world and Australian record holder, Winter Paralympic gold medalist
Nick McDonald-Crowley, Olympic rower
Cody Meakin, Australian wheelchair rugby paralympian
Fergus Pragnell, Australian representative rower
Guy Shepherdson, Former Australian rugby union player
Ben Treffers, Junior World Champion swimmer
Nick Champion de Crespigny, Australian rugby union player
Other
David Eastman, former Dux found not guilty of murder on 22 November 2018, after a retrial on a quashed murder conviction
James Muecke, ophthalmologist, Australian of the Year 2020