Melbourne Grammar School

Melbourne Grammar School is an independent school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, founded in 1858.

It is a member of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria. It is associated with the Anglican Church of Australia, and was formerly referred to as Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. The current principal is Paul Sheahan, a former Australian test cricketer.

The school is divided into three campuses:

Grimwade (Co-ed; Prep to Year 6)
Wadhurst (Boys; Years 7-8)
Senior School (Boys; Years 9-12)

Melbourne Grammar's Edwin Flack Park sports complex, named after Teddy Flack, an Old Melburnian and famous Australian athlete, was opened in 2004 and includes tennis, soccer, football, rugby and hockey fields. Edwin Flack was Australia's first athlete to compete in the Olympic Games.

In recent years the school has been recognized for its approach to technology & IT in education. All students from year 5 to 12 must have a laptop computer and much of the curriculum takes place using these. In the senior and Wadhurst campus most building are wireless networked to allow students easy access to the MGS portal, "a content management system for educational environments", made by the school, via which students obtain work, submit work, communicate with teachers, access house pages and forums and get school news and information on school sporting events.

History

Bishop Charles Perry (1807–91) opened a grammar school in 1849 at St Peter’s Eastern Hill to see if Melbourne could sustain a Church of England School. He established it could and so in 1858 a school, Melbourne Grammar was founded on a site in, then rural, South Yarra. Dr John Bromby, the first headmaster, under Bishop Perry’s guidance, established a school in the image of the Public School’s of England. In many material respects he succeeded, introducing the prefect system, a school motto, crest, magazine, song, library and significantly public school games.

In the years that followed, Melbourne Grammar established itself as one of Melbourne’s finest schools and excelled in academic and sporting competition. It is held as one of the most prestigious schools in Melbourne.

Houses

Houses at Senior School (9-12)

Students at each house has their own house tie, which has a differently striped tie according to the house colour.

Bromby - Est. 1914 - Named after the school's first Headmaster Dr. John Bromby

House Colour: Black Logo: Panther Bruce - Est. 1952 - Named after Lord Bruce, Captain of the school and Prime Minister of Australia from 1923~1929

House colour: Scarlet Logo: Lion with 5-pointed star

Creese - Est. 2005 - Named after a highly influential Headmaster of the school Nigel Creese.

House colour: Silver Logo: Phoenix rising from the flames.

Deakin - Est. 1961 - Named after the second Prime Minister of Australia and school alumnus Alfred Deakin.

House colour: Light Green and White Logo: Crown with a knights arm holding an axe

Hone - Est. 1979 - Named after Headmaster Sir Brian Hone.

House colour: Old gold, or orange Logo: Eagle

Miller - Est. 1961 - Named after Edward Miller, a student of the school.

House colour: Magenta Logo: Gnome

Morris - Est. 1914 - Named after Edward Morris, the school's second Headmaster and strong promoter of building the schools chapel.

House colour: Maroon Logo: Letter "M" with a dragon atop

Perry - Est. 1940 - Named after Bishop Perry, the first bishop of the Diocese of Melbourne.

House colour: Royal Blue and White Logo: Bishops hat

Ross - Est. 1914 - Named after the 'Ross brothers', exemplary students of the school.

House colour: Dark Green Logo: Fist clenching a wreath

Rusden - Est. 1914 - Named after G. W. Rusden, a well known Melbourne historian.

House colour: Yellow Logo: Wreath with letter "R"

School - Est. 1914 - Following the English tradition of naming their boarding house 'School House', which is situated next in the boarding precinct next to the Melbourne Grammar Senior School campus

House colour: Royal Blue Logo: Flame Witherby - Est. 1914 - On a cold winter night in 1875, a very sick young man Hubert Witherby arrived unnanounced at the door of Headmaster Edward Morris. Unfortunatly hospitality could not save Hubert and he died three weeks later. His father Mr. Witherby donated a sum of money to the school in thanks of their efforts. This donation materialized as the Witherby Tower, a bluestone clock tower located at the senior campus, arguably the schools most notable feature after the (also bluestone) Chapel of St Peter.

House colour: Light Blue Logo: Tower

Houses at Wadhurst (7&8)

'''Caffin

Cain

Cuming'''

Creswick (Junior Boarding House)

Houses at Grimwade (0-6)

'''Austin

Greysmith

Millear

School'''

Uniform

Following British public school tradition, the navy blue blazer is the most notable feature of the schools uniform. Years 7, 8 wear light blue shirts without ties in summer and join the year 9s and 10s in darker blue shirts with ties in winter, although years 9 and 10 wear these all year round, Years 11 and 12 wear white and blue striped shirts and ties with the exception of the school prefects and head boy who wear plain white shirts.

Academics

Melbourne Grammar offers its years 11-12 students the VCE, the main assessment program which ranks the students in the state. Melbourne Grammar School students performed well in 2004, with six students achieving the highest possible ENTER rank of 99.95. Only twenty-three in the state achieved this score. The mean enter of all Melbourne Grammar School students was in the low 90s.

In 2005, five Melbourne Grammar students achieved the maximum possible ENTER of 99.95; only 32 students in Victoria achieved this ENTER rank.

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