Sydney Grammar School

History

Foundation

The Sydney Public Free Grammar School was opened in 1825 by Laurence Hynes Halloran, born County Meath, Ireland (1765–1831). Previously, Halloran had operated a private school in Exeter, England, however fled in 1796 due to debts, after being accused of immorality. It subsequently emerged that his degrees (in divinity) were self-awarded. He eventually returned to Britain but was arrested for forgery and transported to the penal colony of New South Wales, arriving there in 1819. He was immediately granted a ticket-of-leave.

In 1854, Sydney Grammar School (SGS) was incorporated by an Act of Parliament and acquired the land and building in College Street which had been temporarily occupied by the newly founded University of Sydney in 1852. It was opened on 3 August 1857, specifically as a feeder school for the university.

The preamble of the Sydney Grammar School Act 1854 states:

It is deemed expedient for the better advancement of religion and morality and the promotion of useful knowledge to establish in Sydney a public school for conferring 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.

The act provides that the trustees of the school shall consist of twelve persons, of whom six shall be persons holding the following offices respectively:

• The Honourable the Attorney-General of New South Wales
• The Honourable the President of the New South Wales Legislative Council
• The Honourable the Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
• The Chancellor of the University of Sydney
• The Principal Professor of Classics of the University of Sydney
• The Senior Professor of Mathematics of the University of Sydney

The act also provides that the Governor of New South Wales shall be the official visitor of the school.

Site history

Sydney Grammar School is the oldest school still in use in the City of Sydney, and is historically the site on which the University of Sydney began. The school buildings also contain examples of early building materials and techniques in pre-Federation Australia.

The site was founded as The Sydney College in 1830, and the following year began operations in a new building in Hyde Park designed by Edward Hallen. It consisted of a single large room (now known as "Big School") with basement rooms beneath. Sydney College continued despite financial difficulties until 1853, when it was taken over by the fledgling University of Sydney until such time as the present Grose Farm site was ready for occupation. The site was then sold in 1856 to the trustees of the newly incorporated Sydney Grammar School, which had been established and endowed with a building fund by Act of Parliament. Edmund Blacket was commissioned to design extensions to the south and north of the Hallen building (now the North and South Blacket rooms), which were completed in 1856 and 1857 respectively. The "Big School" building became central to the Colonial Architect, James Barnet's vision for the cultural focus of Sydney Town.

The War Memorial wing, named for its position behind Big School's monument to the Great War, was built at the northern end of Big School in 1953 by the Scott brothers, at the cost of its double staircase. In 1876, the main building was extended to the east by Mansfield Brothers, and this extension was itself extended to the north and south in 1899 by John W Manson. The Science classrooms on Stanley Street were built in 1889–90. Other early buildings on the site, now demolished, included the Sergeant's Lodge, an ablutions block (known as the "White House") on Stanley Street, and a former postal sorting office on Yurong Street (now the Palladium building).

Today

Sydney Grammar is a private school. Each year up to 26 full scholarships are offered to students who show academic promise and who perform well in the scholarship examination. It is also regarded for its academic results: for example, in national government testing ('NAPLAN' testing), it is one of the best performing private school nationwide, |access-date=17 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226083041/http://bettereducation.com.au/school/secondary/national/au_top_secondary_schools.aspx |archive-date=26 February 2019 |url-status=live }} and a high performer in the New South Wales Higher School Certificate with over 50% of graduates receiving a 95 ATAR ('Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking') or higher between 2009 and 2023.

Sydney Grammar is near the Sydney central business district. The campus consists of multi-storey buildings (of up to eight floors) in a concrete landscape setting. The school is on the eastern side of Hyde Park, Sydney, next to the Australian Museum, and extends from College Street to Yurong Street. The designs of the school's buildings illustrate many different architectural eras: "Big School" (dating from the early 19th century colonial era), the Blacket buildings (annexed onto either side of "Big School" and completed in the 1850s), the original Science building (1891), the Science laboratory block (1960s), the Palladium building (an example of 1970s Modernist architecture), the Stanley Street building and Alastair Mackerras Theatre (1980s), and the A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson Library (1990s).

Weigall, the school's sportsground (named after former Headmaster Albert Bythesea Weigall), is located at Rushcutters Bay next to the Edgecliff Preparatory School and includes tennis courts, cricket nets and three fields for cricket, rugby and football. It is routinely used for Saturday sports matches, physical education and as a recreational area for Grammar's Edgecliff Preparatory School next door. There is also a gymnasium at College Street and rowing facilities at the school's boatshed at Gladesville.

In May 2005, Headmaster J. T. Vallance announced that the school would lead a consortium to purchase 30 Alma Street Paddington, known as White City, from Tennis New South Wales, thus extending the Weigall grounds substantially. In 2006, development applications to subdivide the White City tennis courts (numbered DA 20/2006 and DA 302/2006) were lodged with Woollahra Council to develop the site to accommodate more tennis and basketball courts; these were passed.

In 2009, the school began the construction of a new, underground multi-purpose hall featuring a seating capacity of over 1,500 seats, now called the John Vallance Hall (formerly The New Hall from its opening until 2017). The hall was officially opened by the headmaster on 18 August 2011 with a celebratory concert featuring performances from a large number of Grammar boys past and present.

Headmasters

The current acting headmaster of Sydney Grammar School is Philip Barr, who was appointed after the departure of Richard Malpass in August 2025. He will be replaced by the thirteenth headmaster Stuart McPherson in January 2026.

Co-curriculum

Music

SGS has won the AMEB Music Shield 23 times in the past 25 years. Two-thirds of pupils in the school play a musical instrument or are involved with music in some way. SGS has scores of musical groups in mostly classical, chamber and jazz styles. The School Orchestra engages in both national and international tours. In 2025, a combined schools orchestra will be performing in independent schools in Hong Kong. Grammar's choir program involves hundreds of students, old boys, and parents, participating in its many annual concerts. The school's senior a cappella group is known as The Grammarphones and is composed of the best tenors, basses and baritones in the senior years. The school's senior jazz orchestra, the Sydney Grammar School Jazz Orchestra, is a regular feature at the Manly Jazz Festival.

SGS embarked on a five-year program entitled "Bach: 2010", in which all the known choral cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach were performed in a series of concerts between 2005 and 2010. Sydney Grammar is one of the few institutions in the world that has engaged in such an exercise and was aided by the Mander organ in the Big School. A performance has been held every year since by head of practical music studies, Robert Wagner, on the Bach's birthday.

Under the current Head Master, an organic rock-&-roll movement has emerged and is currently thriving. The end of 2004 saw the consummation of years of practice in the first Grammarpalooza rock concert, which included the musical style of Old Boy band, Dappled Cities Fly.

Sport

Sydney Grammar School is a member of the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of NSW (GPS), Australia's oldest school sporting association. GPS sporting events include rugby union, football, cricket, tennis, volleyball, cross country, basketball, rowing, swimming, athletics, rifle shooting, and debating. The school also competes in fencing and chess competitions.

Grammar participates in the annual Tri-Grammar competitions, a series of cricket competitions between the Firsts teams of Sydney Grammar School, Melbourne Grammar School and Brisbane Grammar School. Sydney and Melbourne Grammar School also compete for "The Bat" in the same competition. The Sydney–Melbourne match dates back to 1876, and in 1976, to mark the centenary of this rivalry, a "Bat" was struck, with the winner of the annual match taking possession. The bat was donated by John Crawford, the father of the captain of the 1976 premiership winning side Andrew Crawford.

The school launched its rowing program in 1878, and has maintained it since. Competition in rowing culminates in the Riverview Gold Cup for Junior Crews and the Head of the River for Senior Crews. Grammar's boatshed is on the Parramatta River at Gladesville.

On 2 April 2011, Sydney Grammar School first eight won the Major Rennie Trophy at the AAGPS Head of the River. This marked the first victory for the school since 1978. In its history, Grammar has won the race sixteen times, the most after the Shore School. Many rowers have gone on to row in Varsity Crews at a university level. In the 2014–2015 Harvard University rowing roster, Sydney Grammar had the most rowers out of any high school globally and two Sydney Grammar rowers were in Harvard's top crew (First Varsity Eight).

Academic extension

The school operates academic extension programmes in both sciences and humanities, which includes olympiad programmes and hosting visiting scholars who spend time teaching and giving a public lecture. Notable scholars have included metaethicist Simon Blackburn, science and medical historian Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, zoologist Andrew Parker, astronomer and 1999 Young Australian of the Year Bryan Gaensler, historian Sir Christopher Clark, professor of English Dame Marina Warner, professor of Greek Richard Hunter, and composer Robin Holloway.

As part of an academic extension activity, a group of year 11 students attempted to prepare the medication pyrimethamine (sold as Daraprim) in 2016. Pyrimethamine is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system, for both adults and children. It is used to treat toxoplasmosis, cystoisosporiasis, and malaria (in combination with sulfadoxine). It received significant attention when its manufacturer in the United States was acquired by Turing Pharmaceuticals, and its CEO Martin Shkreli decided to increase the price from US$13.50 to US$750 a dose. Hence, a group of year 11 students from Grammar, supported by Matthew H. Todd from the University of Sydney and the Open Source Malaria consortium, have prepared pyrimethamine. The students started with 17 g of (4-chlorophenyl)acetonitrile (which is available from Sigma-Aldrich for $36.50 per 100 g) and prepared 3.7 g of pyrimethamine, which is about US$110,000 at Turing's prices.

Their work has attracted attention from around the world, being reported in The Independent, the Daily Telegraph, and BBC News in the United Kingdom, the Washington Post, New York Daily News, and U.S. News & World Report in the United States, among others. By replacing expensive chemicals with alternatives available in a high school laboratory, they demonstrated that the synthesis can be carried out fairly simply and safely, and at a cost of approximately per dose. Business magazine Forbes described the work as figuratively "punch[ing] Martin Shkreli in the face" and as raising questions about pharmaceutical companies which do not do substantial amounts of research. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the closed distribution model which Turing employs in the United States, any competing company seeking to market a generic alternative to Daraprim (including using the approach the boys developed with their teacher) would need to compare their product with a sample of Daraprim provided directly by Turing; if Turing refuses to provide that sample, the competitor would need to undertake a complete new clinical trial, which creates a prohibitive barrier to entering the market. The boys are quoted making comments highly critical of Shkreli's and Turing's behaviour, and have been applauded on social media with comments that their work highlights Shkreli's greed, though he has minimised their achievement.

Shkreli subsequently posted a video about the achievement, declaring his "delight" about students entering the STEM field, describing them as "proof that the 21st century economy will solve problems of human suffering through science and technology", and stating that "[w]e should congratulate these students for their interest in chemistry and all be excited about what is to come in the STEM-focused 21st century." The students presented their work at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's NSW Organic Chemistry symposium alongside students at fourth-year undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as postdoctoral researchers.

Clubs and Societies

The school has numerous clubs and societies for students. Notable examples include:

• Australian Air Force Cadets (Established in 1942)
• Australian Army Cadets)
• Creative Writing Club, run by notable author John Hughes
• Chess Club
• Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme
• Debating

A number of boys also assist in editing the school's yearly almanac, The Sydneian, over 400 editions of which have been produced since 1875.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Old Sydneians

Alumnus of Sydney Grammar School are commonly referred to as Old Boys or Old Sydneians, and may elect to join the schools alumni association, the Old Sydneians' Union (OSU).

Grammar is notable for having educated many Rhodes Scholars, High Court judges (Australia's highest court) and the equal highest number of Australian Prime Ministers, out of any school in Australia. Its alumni also include influential figures in business, international sport, science and medicine, and the performing arts, like David Gonski (leading Australian philanthropist, chairman of the Future Fund, chancellor of the New South Wales) and Rowan Gillies (former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières).

Notable alumni also include Sir Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia (1901–1903), Sir William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (1971–1972), Malcolm Turnbull, 29th Prime Minister of Australia (2015–2018), Bruce Gyngell, first person to appear on Australian television, Andrew "Boy" Charlton, an Olympic gold medallist swimmer, and also Banjo Paterson – bush poet and balladist, and author of "The Man From Snowy River" and "Waltzing Matilda," and who now has the school library named after him.

References

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