RURAL KIDS ALREADY KNOW HOW TO WORK HARD. WE BUILD A WORLD AROUND IT.

For a student coming from regional Australia, Canberra isn’t a compromise. It’s a choice. It isn’t a big city where your child disappears into the noise, but it is big enough to expand their world. Built with the infrastructure of a capital and the feel of somewhere familiar, Canberra is the right kind of step.

At Canberra Grammar School, we take what’s already there: the grit, the quiet confidence, the sense of self, and build a world around it. Bigger. Broader. Fuller of possibilities than the view from home. Being ready for the world isn’t about what your child is missing; it’s a description of where they’re going.

A CAMPUS WITH INTENTION

No other city puts this much within reach. The National Gallery, the War Memorial, and Parliament House aren’t a bus trip away; they are down the road. That changes how a student sees their place in the world.

Sitting on a magnificent campus in Red Hill, Canberra Grammar School has been educating students who go on to lead, create, question, and contribute since 1929. Walk the grounds once, and you understand why generations of families have chosen this school.

KNOWN, NOT JUST ENROLLED

The house system at CGS is not a pastoral care brochure. It’s real. Your child will be known, not as a year group or a roll number, but by the people responsible for them. Each house connects students across year levels, ensuring a Year 7 boarder isn’t navigating the whole school alone. They have a network from day one, older mentors, and a place to land.

PATHWAYS THAT OPEN DOORS (AND KEEP THEM OPEN)

At Canberra Grammar School, the learning journey is deliberately designed to expand, not narrow, over time.

In the Middle Years (Years 7 – 9), students undertake the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP). A framework that builds curiosity, critical thinking, and the ability to connect ideas across disciplines. It’s not just about what you learn, but how you learn: with purpose, with context, and with a global perspective.

Then comes Year 10, and CGS does something different. The Signature Year 10 Programme creates space… real space… for exploration. Students step beyond traditional subject silos, engage in interdisciplinary learning, and begin to understand where their interests, strengths, and ambitions intersect.

By the time students reach Years 11 and 12, they are ready to make a genuine choice.

You can pursue the Higher School Certificate (HSC), a pathway that offers breadth, structure, and strong preparation for entry to Australian universities. Or you can take on the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), a globally recognised, academically rigorous programme designed for students who want to think deeply and act with perspective.

Both are equally valued. Both are equally supported. The difference is not in quality, but in fit.

And that is the point.

This is a school that doesn’t ask students to conform to a single definition of success. It gives them the framework, the confidence, and the options to define it for themselves.

Then the bell rings, and the real breadth of the experience begins.

You row on the lake. You play rugby. You sail. When the snow season comes, you go to it, because that’s what CGS students do. There are 18 sports on offer at the senior level alone, from cricket to dragon boating, water polo, and equestrian.

If sport isn’t your thing, the school won’t leave you standing on the sidelines. The theatre programme produces full-scale musicals and plays performed in our own Performing Arts Centre. The music programme runs concert bands, jazz bands, a string orchestra, a guitar orchestra, a cello choir, and multiple choral groups. There is a lot of music at this school. Good music. The kind where you feel it in the room.

And then there is the Snow Concert Hall. This is not a school hall with a piano. This is a world-class concert venue right on campus that hosts international touring artists like Wynton Marsalis and VOCES8. When those artists come, CGS students don’t just attend the concert; they get in the room for masterclasses and rehearsal observations, learning things that can’t be put in a curriculum document.

You don’t have to choose between being an athlete and being a scholar. Between the stage and the field. Between curious and competitive. The architecture of this school is built on the assumption that you are more than one thing.

COME AND SEE IT.

Visit cgs.act.edu.au to learn more, or take a virtual tour of our campus today.

Visit our website for the latest information about our upcoming Open Days, Expos, and Regional Visits.

Our Scholarships Programme supports students who demonstrate outstanding potential and a strong commitment to their learning, regardless of their background. Explore available scholarships.