Sydney Grammar School - College Street

Founded by an Act of Parliament in 1854 Sydney Grammar School was officially opened in 1857. The modern College Street has around eleven hundred boys, St Ives over four hundred, and Edgecliff three hundred. Our boys now proceed from the School to a variety of Universities in New South Wales and beyond, but the basic purpose of Grammar as set out in the Act – ‘to confer on all classes and denominations of Her Majesty’s subjects resident in the Colony of New South Wales, without any distinction whatsoever, the advantages of a regular and liberal course of education’ – remains the same.

Since its foundation, the School and its old boys (called ‘Old Sydneians’) have played an important part in the history of this country. The secondary school (7–12) is located in College Street in the city of Sydney. There are two preparatory schools, one in Paddington (K–Year 6) and one in St Ives (Preschool–Year 6).

Our nurturing of each individual boy’s talents to his personal fulfilment is such that there really is no typical Grammar boy. What our boys have in common is that they emerge from Grammar as articulate, confident individuals with a strong sense of their places in society, ready for university and the wider world.

Interestingly, the minutes from an early Trustees’ meeting asserted that the school’s object would be “that it furnishes a superior general, not a professional education; its object is not to prepare its scholars for any determinate occupation, but to communicate such information, and such intellectual training, as may best assist them in the subsequent acquisition of special knowledge, and in the efficient discharge of their social and public duties”.

Given the inevitably changing nature of what will be considered professions in the years to come, it will be very important for our young men to have a pure academic grounding in order to be in a position to choose their path in the future. Thus, we remain true to our Trustees’ historical vision, and indeed with practical, contemporary purpose.

Edgecliff Preparatory School
Alma Street, Paddington NSW 2021 Australia
Phone: (02) 9366 0100

St Ives Preparatory School
Ayres Rd, St Ives NSW 2075 Australia
Phone: (02) 8302 5200