Canberra Grammar School

AT A GLANCE WHO: Canberra Grammar School WHAT: An independent, day and boarding school for boys and girls, located in Red Hill, a suburb of Canberra, the capital of Australia. WHERE: 40 Monaro Cres, Red Hill ACT 2603, Australia WEBSITE: cgs.act.edu.au to the CGS community. The school cur- rently offers boarding care to around 90 students, and we spoke with Ga- reth Downey, Head of Boarding, about boarding at the school, where it’s head- ing, and his time there. A life of variety Even in the three years he’d been there, Downey has seen the variety of boarders change as folk from different part of the country, and indeed, differ- ent parts of the world make their way to CGS. This has contributed hugely to the diverse, nurturing environment the school has cultivated. It has boarders from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, rural and coastal Australia and many more. Some students only live within one to two hours’ drive from Canberra, but are just that little bit further out to commute every day, and so take ad- vantage of the CGS boarding facilities. “We’ve also noticed a growth in the last three years of student coming in from Sydney. At the end of last year we peaked, we had 10 students from Sydney,” Downey tells us. This is par- ticularly interesting because these stu- dents are leaving a large city, with a large number of highly regarded and prestigious schools, in favour of CGS. “I think a lot of that is about the fact that we’re not in Sydney, if that makes ol