Caulfield Grammar School

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Caulfield Grammar School is a coeducational independent school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and was founded in 1881. The school is a member of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria, and is of Anglican denomination.

Caulfield has three day campuses in Victoria - Caulfield (Years 7-12), Wheelers Hill (Kindergarten-Year 12), Malvern (Kindergarten-Year 6), an outdoor education campus at Yarra Junction, and a student centre in Nanjing, China. Caulfield's Yarra Junction Campus was the first country centre, and its Nanjing Campus the first overseas study centre, for any Australian school.

Caulfield Grammar's vision statement is, "Caulfield Grammar School is a community of learners committed to best practice and visionary, innovative learning experiences that foster the skills, values and attitudes needed in the active pursuit of a sustainable global future." The school motto Labora Ut Requiescas, which means "Work hard that you may rest content", encourages students to peresevere in achieving the goals of truth and knowledge represented by the star above the school's shield of faith and protection.

History of CGS

Caulfield Grammar School was founded on 1881-04-25 by Joseph Henry Davies as a school of Christian denomination, and began with just 9 pupils. Davies' aim for Caulfield was "that the School should be a thoroughly Christian one" that looked to render "Christian service". A year after it had opened, the school had grown to one with 32 boys in attendance. Caulfield Grammar was built on a property near Sir Frederick Sargood's Rippon Lea Estate, and by 1909 the current site of the school had been purchased in what is now St. Kilda East.

The school's boarding house opened in 1912, and with time the total attendance of the school grew, with 500 Caulfield students in 1931 - the anniversary of the school's first 50 years. Caulfield was still considered a small school by Melbourne standards, as schools such as Xavier College and Melbourne Grammar School had much larger campuses and enrolments.

In 1932 the Caulfield Grammar School Council was formed to manage the school. The Council was responsible for all managerial decisions at the school, while leaving control of curriculum and educational policy to the management staff at Caulfield. The Council is a governing body still in place today, and its 15-member board of Council members consists of the President of the Council, elected Caulfield Grammarians' Association members and parents, and Presidents of the three Parents and Friends Associations at Caulfield, Wheelers Hill and Malvern campuses. The School Principal and various Emeritus Council Presidents and members also attend the monthly Council meetings.

1958 saw the school's Memorial Hall open in memory of Caulfield Grammarians who had died in war. It was also in 1958 that Caulfield Grammar School was admitted to the Associated Public Schools of Victoria. Admission to the APS showed that Caulfield was now recognised as one of the most prestigious independent schools in Melbourne, and entitled CGS membership to the most competitive schoolboy sporting competitions in Victoria.

2006 will mark the 125th anniversary of Caulfield's founding, and the School Council has commissioned author Helen Penrose to write a history of the school entitled Educational innovation: 125 years of Caulfield Grammar School. The book is scheduled for release to coincide with the 2006 anniversary celebrations. ^[1]

Caulfield Campus

Opened as the original campus of Caulfield Grammar, the campus has over 1000 students in Years 7 to 12.

The Lindsay Thompson Centre was opened in 1997 as a state of the art sports and function centre, and is named after former Victorian Premier and Caulfield Grammarian Lindsay Thompson. The Thompson Centre seats over 400 people and is used for various indoor sports including basketball and netball. The Centre's facilities have been used by numerous AFL teams, including the Melbourne Demons and the Richmond Tigers.

Boarding at Caulfield Campus

Caulfield Grammar is the only Melbourne-based school in the APS to provide boarding for both boys and girls, and has a boarding community of nearly 100 students. Students come from rural and regional Victoria, as well as fom overseas and from Melbourne itself.

The boarding house and boy's dormitories is located inside the school's boundaries, and next to the main classroom buildings. The girl's dormitories, located adjacent to the boarding house and across the road, were opened shortly after girls began attending Caulfield Campus in 1993.

The boarding community is a strong and proud one, and Morcom - the Boarders' school house - is the perennial favourite for the Caulfield House Cup, and is currently the two-time reigning champion of the competition.

Malvern and Wheelers Hill campuses

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The Valentines Mansion at Malvern Campus

In 1961 Caulfield Grammar became affiliated with Malvern Memorial Grammar School, which became the School's Malvern Campus and was located in Malvern's Valentine Mansion. In 1963, the Principal of Caulfield Grammar - at the time Reverend Kurrle - became the principal of both schools, and shortly after the amalgamation was complete as the two Schools' councils became one body and took over governance of both Malvern and Caulfield Campuses. [2]

In 1981, the school's centenary year, a second senior school campus was opened at Wheelers Hill on April 26. Wheelers Hill began as a coeducational school for all year levels, and was the first campus of Caulfield Grammar where girls were educated. Twelve years later in 1993 girls began attending both Malvern and Caulfield Campuses. Caulfield Grammar School now has over 2500 students throughout its three day campuses.

The Twin Halls Project

After Caulfield Campus' historic Memorial Hall was burnt down in an electrical fire on November 14 2000, a Melbourne Cup public holiday, CGS began to plan the construction of major halls at both Caulfield and Wheelers Hill campuses. The Twin Halls, as they are known, will both include performance stages for concerts and theatre productions, seating for over 600 people, and media equipment to help improve assemblies.

Caulfield Campus' new Memorial Hall will also rebuild the Art and Music departments destroyed in the 2000 fire, and will include classrooms, rehearsal rooms, and a dance studio.

Yarra Junction Campus

In 1945 the Cuming family, who have a long association with Caulfield Grammar, donated land to the school to allow it to pioneer the concept of a country centre. 1947 saw Cuming House open as the first rural campus in Australia, set in the Australian bush and close to the Yarra River.

The Yarra Junction Campus is now at the forefront of environmental education, as students live in fully sustainable eco-cabins with rainwater tanks and solar power technology ^[3]. The Earth Studies Centre, Wadambawilam (Aboriginal term for 'learning place'), operates on wind and solar power, and uses many environmentally-sound practices to teach students about long-term environmental sustainability ^[4]. The campus also features a commercial dairy which produces over 1 million litres of milk annually for sale to Pauls Milk ^[5].

On UN World Environment Day 2001 the Yarra Junction Campus won an award for Best School Based Environment Project in recognistion of its energy-saving eco-cabins project. [6]

Nanjing Campus

On 1998-05-06 Sir James Gobbo opened the Nanjing, China campus of Caulfield Grammar School. As Caulfield focuses on Mandarin Chinese as its major Language Other Than English and recognises that China is the centre of industrial and economic growth in Australasia and Asia, the establishment of a campus in Nanjing allowed Caulfield Grammar to strengthen ties with the region and give students the opportunity to enhance their personal development and their understanding of the world beyond Australia ^[7].

The Nanjing Campus was the first overseas campus for any Australian high school, and Caulfield Grammar was congratulated for its initiative by Australian Prime Minister John Howard and then-Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. The Nanjing Campus allows Caulfield students to complete a five-week Internationalism Program and study five key themes of Chinese culture: heritage, work, family, education and challenges.

During their five-week programs, students travel to the cities of Nanjing, Shanghai, Tongli, and Beijing, and visit such landmarks as the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Ming Dynasty Tombs, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, The Bund, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Students also complete homestay visits with students from The Affiliated High School of Nanjing Normal University, and the Internationalism program aims to let students succeed in a new and challenging environment.

Controversy arose in 2001, when a group of Caulfield students at the Great Wall of China were found to have graffitied a section of the Wall. The story made headlines in Melbourne, and was reported on the front page of the city's major newspapers, the Herald Sun and The Age. The issue was resolved between the school and the Chinese government with the students responsible suspended from school and returned to Australia immediately.

Senior school academics

Caulfield offers a wide range of subjects including core mathematics, science, English, IT and humanities courses.

Students learn Mandarin Chinese and German as compulsory studies in Years 7 and 8, and electives thereafter. As well as learning Chinese to help on the Year 9 Internationalism trip, Year 11 students may return to China on a two-week language-focused study tour. For students studying German, there are places available for exchanges to Germany during the Christmas/summer holidays.

The Arts are a major component of learning curriculum, and subjects such as Dance, Theatre Studies and Music are offered to students. Art and photography subjects are also offered, and the Wheelers Hill campus hosts local art exhibitions in its Creative Arts Centre.

The VCE

Caulfield Grammar School senior students study for the Victorian Certificate of Education, achieved after graduating from Year 12. While the VCE is usually completed over two years, in 2003 Caulfield became one of the first schools in Melbourne to encourage Year 10 students to take as many as three Year 11 VCE Unit 1/2 courses. This program is seen to give students a taste of the VCE a year earlier, giving them a chance to prepare for what is to come. This also allows Year 11 students to undertake Unit 3/4 studies, so that they may complete a full VCE over two years, maximising their ENTER scores by studying up to six subjects over this time.

Caulfield achieves highly in statewide rankings of schools offering the VCE, and the annual Dux of the School often achieves an ENTER score of above 99.

The school does not offer the International Baccalaureate.

Year 9 program

Year 9 at CGS is seen as a transitional year where students leave the Middle School (Years 7-8) and prepare to undertake the VCE (Years 10-12). Students study maths, science, English and a number of electives while also participating in the innovative Learning Journeys program. Students do not have examinations, as would happen in any other senior school year at Caulfield, but rather focus on their classroom studies and the Learning Journeys program.

Learning Journeys is seen as a combination of various subjects previously studied at Year 9 - history, geography, religious education and personal development - and focuses on both academic and social learning.

Students work in groups of around 15 pupils per teacher, and work on skills that will help them both in their VCE and also enhance life skills for both the China Internationalism program and beyond.

Years 7 and 8 learning mentors

Introduced in 2004 at the Year 8 level, and expanded to Year 7 in 2005, the learning mentor program ensures that every class during these years has two teachers to around 30 students. Caulfield Grammar is the first school to introduce such a program.

Each class is designated a learning mentor, who attends all of that group's lessons and focuses on assisting each student with their improving own learning style. The mentor focuses on both academic and pastoral issues regarding their students while the designated subject teacher is responsible for preparing and teaching the set curriculum.

This program increases the individual attention given to each Year 7 and 8 student, and allows subject teachers to focus on delivering their curriculum thoroughly to prepare students for future schooling.

"The virtual campus"

Caulfield Grammar School has not followed the trend of other Australian independent schools in making laptops compulsory for students. The school provides an online login system for students and staff, who can use existing entry passwords and usernames to access email and files from the school network over the internet. This capability is referred to as the School's sixth "virtual campus".

The school established a computer network in 1997, with all students and staff having individual log in details, email accounts, and file space ^[8].

Extra-curricular activities

Student leadership

Caulfield and Wheelers Hill senior school

The School Committee is a student body comprising 40 Year 12 students - 20 from Caulfield Campus; 20 from Wheelers Hill Campus - who meet regularly to represent the students from Years 7 to 12 at their respective campuses. The Committee is responsible for organising such events as fundraisers, Year 12 formals and school assemblies.

Each campus has two co-captains - one boy and one girl - who are seen as the leaders of the student body. The school co-captains are the senior members of the School Committee.

Members of the Committee are appointed based on the results of elections when the candidates are in Year 11. Teachers and students in Years 10 to 12 may vote, and Committee members are appointed after an interview process with the School's Principal and their relevant Head of Campus.

House captains are also appointed for each of the houses at each campus, and they are appointed after a student vote within the house, and an interview process with their relevant Head of House.

Sport at Caulfield

Caulfield Grammar School has played in school sporting competitions since its establishment in 1881. Students from Years 5 to 12 participate in school sport as part of the APS competition.

The school has been a member of four school sporting associations since 1892:

Schools' Association of Victoria (1892-1910)
Schools' Amateur Athletic Association of Victoria (1911-1920)
Associated Grammar Schools of Victoria (1921-1958)
Associated Public Schools of Victoria (1959-)

Caulfield was one of the founding members of the Schools' Association of Victoria, but when the legitimacy of the association's amateur status was questioned, CGS and Brighton Grammar formed the Schools' Amateur Athletic Association of Victoria (later renamed the Associated Grammar Schools of Victoria), and were joined by other Melbourne private and church schools in the competition. The invitation to join the Associated Public Schools of Victoria came in 1958, and Caulfield accepted the offer as it meant playing sport against Victoria's strongest schools in its most prestigious association.

Sports played include cricket, football, rowing, athletics and swimming. Caulfield currently holds an APS record for winning 11 consecutive Boys' Athletics Championships, and has won numerous 1st Division premierships throughout its history. The First XVIII football team won 18 consecutive premierships from 1913 to 1930 - the longest championshipship run for a Caulfield Firsts team.

The main facilities for sport are shared over both Caulfield and Wheelers Hill campus. Caulfield boasts the Lindsay Thompson Centre, used for indoor sports such as basketball and netball, and the Alfred Mills Oval - the traditional home of the First XI cricket and First XVIII football teams, and host venue to matches in the 2004 Commonwealth Bank Under 19 Cricket Championships ^[9]. Wheelers Hill includes four sports ovals, AstroTurf tennis and hockey courts, and outdoor netball courts. Other venues used for Caulfield sport include the Yarra River - home of the CGS boat club and rowing sheds - and Duncan Mackinnon Reserve.

The Arts

Music

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James Morrison with "No Strings Attached"

Primary students in Year 3 learn to play either the violin or cello, and for most students this is their first introduction with the Caulfield music program. School bands, choirs and orchestras are open to students from Year 3 onwards, and many of these musical groups are on show at the annual Caulfield Grammar School Concert at Melbourne's premier performance venue, Hamer Hall. Senior choirs and bands also take part in such events as the Kodaly Choral Festival and Melbourne Bands Festival. [10]

In 2005 as part of celebrations to mark the proposed opening of the Twin Halls, renowned Australian jazz musician James Morrison performed with the school's "No Strings Attached" stage band at Monash University.

Theatre

Each year, Caulfield students participate in over 20 theatre productions across the three Melbourne campuses. With the opening of the Twin Halls, a project to build school auditoriums at Caulfield and Wheelers Hill, these plays will be performed in locations capable of seating 600 audience members.

Caulfield also organises theatre tours for drama students - in the past, locations have included Europe and Asia.

Debating and mooting

Caulfield Grammar School competes in the Debaters' Association of Victoria Schools Debating competition, and Caulfield Campus is the host venue for the Caulfield regional competition. Five debates are held each year, and Caulfield teams debate against other Melbourne schools - both independent and government schools - on various current interest topics.

Students are also involved mooting, where teams argue legal matters based on evidence and precedent, and compete in the Bond University Mooting competition. In 2003, Caulfield Grammar won the prestigious competition.

Tuition details

Fees

As with all Australian independent schools, Caulfield Grammar is a full fee paying institution. Full fees range from AUS$8,000 to AUS$14,000 per year for day students, and in excess of $25,000 for boarding students. [11]

Scholarships

Caulfield Grammar awards scholarships to students for achievement in various fields of excellence. For academic scholarships, applicants must sit an examination, and similar testing occurs for most other scholarships.

Caulfield offers the following scholarships (taken from CGS Scholarship information):

Academic Scholarships: Based on achievement in an examination and an interview with the Principal.
Founder's Scholarships (General Excellence): Based on the ability to demonstrate achievement in several different fields of endeavour relating to school life and an interview with the Principal.
W.S. Morcom Rural Boarding Scholarships: Based on the ability to demonstrate contribution to school life in several different areas and an interview with the Principal.
Theatre Scholarships: Based on ability to demonstrate involvement and background in Performance or Stagecraft and an interview with the Principal.
Music Instrumental Scholarships: Based on ability to demonstrate outstanding musical ability and an interview with the Principal.
Music Choral Scholarships: Successful students will have had professional vocal training and experience in solo performance and choral groups.
Visual Arts Scholarships: Successful students will demonstrate outstanding abilities in both the practical and theoretical aspects of the Visual Arts and an interview with the Principal.
The Caulfield Grammarians' Association Scholarship: Awarded to a child of a past student.

School uniform

Caulfield Grammar School, like all other Australian independent schools, requires students to wear full school uniform at all times. Two school uniforms exist for boys and girls for both summer and winter, and the main colors featured are blue, white and grey.

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An example of a CGS awards pocket.

The navy blue school blazer with the school crest on the breast pocket is the central item, and students in Years 10 to 12 are allowed to wear blazers with white braiding and award pockets that represent achievement within the school - a similar concept to military decorations, where initials representing different activities are worn (for example, MU for music) and the school crest is threaded appropriately (the crest is threaded in the color of the highest award).

The three levels of awards are:

Emblem - recognising distinguished participation (for example, one season of inter-school debating). Initials and crest are white.
Half Colours - recognising distinguished participation and service over a long term (for example, two-year membership of a senior choir and orchestra). Initials and crest are silver.
Full Colours - recognising outstanding participation and leadership over a long term (for example, captaining the First XI cricket team at the end of a three-year membership of the team). Initials and crest are gold.

Principals of Caulfield Grammar

Mr J.H. Davies, 1881-1888
Rev. E.J. Barnett, 1888-1896
Mr W.M. Buntine, 1896-1931
Mr F.H.J. Archer, 1932-1954
Rev. S.W. Kurrle, 1955-1964
Mr B.C. Lumsden, 1965-1977
Rev. A.S. Holmes, 1977-1992
Mr S.H. Newton, 1993-

Famous alumni

Sir John C.V. Behan - first Australian Rhodes Scholar; warden, Trinity College of the University of Melbourne
Nick Cave - musician, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Hans Ebeling MBE - Australian Test Cricketer
Chris Judd - AFL Footballer, 2004 Brownlow Medallist
John Landy - Governor of Victoria, student of Malvern Memorial Grammar School
Tamsyn Lewis - Olympic Runner
Stuart Maxfield - AFL Footballer, former captain of Sydney Swans
Trevor Ashmore Pyman - member, Australian Delegation to form United Nations
John Schultz - VFL Footballer, 1960 Brownlow Medallist
Christopher Skase - controversial Australian businessman
Lindsay Thompson - former Victorian Premier
Ron Walker - Australian businessman

References

History of Caulfield Grammar School, 2005 Caulfield Grammar School Record Book, Pages 2B-7B
One School Six Campuses

External links

Caulfield Grammar School Website
Caulfield Grammarians in the AFL
The Caulfield Grammarians' Association (alumni association)