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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.auto 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
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