The Sydney Church of England Grammar School (commonly known as Shore or Shore School) is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

school for boys located on Sydney's Lower North Shore,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The school operates across two campuses, offering early learning, primary, and secondary education, with both day and boarding options. Established in 1889 by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, Shore has a non-selective enrolment policy and serves approximately 1,600 students from

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

Year 12 Year 12 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes the twelfth or thirteenth year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-comp ...

, including 200 boarders from Year 6 onward. A separate campus in Northbridge provides co-educational classes from

to Year 2. Shore is a member of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the

Junior School Heads Association of Australia The Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHA) formerly Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), is an incorporated body representing the heads of independent primary schools in Australia. Officially established in Septem ...

(JSHAA), the Australian Boarding Schools' Association (ABSA), the

Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools ...

(HMC), and is a founding member of the

Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales The Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales (AAGPS) is a sporting association of boys' schools in New South Wales, Australia that contest Sport, sporting events among themselves. The AAGPS was formed on 30 March 1892, ...

(AAGPS).

History

The Sydney Church of England Grammar School was founded on 4 May 1889, and was the

initiative Popular initiative A popular initiative (also citizens' initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put direct ...

of Bishop Alfred Barry of the Sydney Diocese of the

, after the closing of the St James School in 1886. The site of the school was chosen by the first Headmaster to be the Victorian mansion of the famed

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...

Bernhardt Holtermann, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

migrant who discovered the Holtermann Nugget in the Australian gold fields. He used his newfound wealth to build a magnificent home in North Sydney, which is now a boarding house of Shore. His sons were among the first students enrolled at Shore. The St. James' School Compensation Trust Act (1886) provided for the foundation of: The school’s colours and diagonal stripes are drawn from Christ’s College, Cambridge, where the founding Headmaster studied. The school crest features symbols representing its values and affiliations: the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

and the

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

appear on the top row, alongside a shell, symbolising a connection to St. James' School, and a torch. The school motto is displayed beneath these elements. Moreover, the

boater __NOTOC__ A boater (also straw boater, basher, skimmer, The English Panama, cady, katie, canotier, somer, or sennit hat) is a semi-formal summer hat for men, which was popularised in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It is normall ...

, a piece of uniform which has become closely associated with the school, was first encouraged to be worn in 1912, before becoming compulsory in 1924. The school has two official names: the Sydney Church of England Grammar School and the Shore School, although it is more commonly known as the latter. The name 'Shore' was formally adopted in the early 1990s to distinguish it from other institutions. This change was partially driven by the difficulty of chanting 'Grammar' at sports events, as

Sydney Grammar School Sydney Grammar School (SGS, colloquially known as Grammar) is an independent, non-denominational day school for boys, located in Sydney, Australia. Incorporated in 1854 by an Act of Parliament and opened in 1857, the school claims to offer "c ...

students were already using the term, and to avoid confusion with SCEGGS (Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School), Shore's

sister school A sister school is usually a pair of schools, usually single-sex school, one with female students and the other with male students. This relationship is seen to benefit both schools. For instance, when Harvard University was a male-only school, Ra ...

. The name 'Shore' also reflects the school’s location in Sydney’s North Shore region.

Campuses

The Sydney Church of England Grammar School is situated on two

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

es: * North Sydney (including land formerly belonging to '' Graythwaite'') (8 ha) * Northbridge (9 ha) – ELC to Year 2 and sports grounds

North Sydney

In the senior school, in addition to the administrative centres and classroom blocks there are: * War Memorial Chapel (1915) * The War Memorial Hall (1953) * Ken and Joan Smith Auditorium (1994) * BH Travers Centre, including the Boer War Memorial Library and Basketball Courts (2000) * The Benefactors Building, including the Bob Gowing Museum incorporating the school archives, mainly of the accomplishments of previous headmasters to school academic and extra-curricular achievement. * The Centenary Building, including the art department * Sporting facilities, including one oval, cricket nets and tennis courts. In 2016, the school announced plans for an updated gym, squash courts, basketball court, an indoor/outdoor 50 metre pool and new classrooms as a part of the Shore Physical Education Centre. Construction began early 2018 and has been completed. The Preparatory School, originally constructed in 1926, was completely renovated in March 2006.

Northbridge

An Early Learning Centre (ELC) for boys and girls in the two years prior to starting Kindergarten, as well as a Kindergarten to Year 2 learning facility for boys and girls, was opened at the Northbridge campus in 2003. With Long Day Care facilities, the ELC is open 48 weeks per year. The school's main sports facility is also at Northbridge, on land bought in 1916. The school was given a choice of either buying the neighbouring '' Graythwaite'' property (the former home of Thomas Allwright Dibbs), or the land at Northbridge. The school chose the land at Northbridge as playing fields, of which the school was in desperate need. This campus now features six full-sized ovals, tennis courts, pavilions and dressing rooms. The grounds were opened in 1919 as a

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

to the 880 old boys who served, and the 122 who died in the

Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The grandstand and associated facilities were redeveloped in 2008 (officially opened on 11 November 2008) at a cost of $9 million .

Houses

Curriculum

Subjects

Shore offers a wide variety of subjects. Traditionally the school is most successful in

Business Studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource manageme ...

and

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

, producing 6 state rankings in the past 4 years including first in Business Studies in 2020. Shore has also produced strong performances in Mathematics - producing eighth in 2021, fifth in 2018 and third in 2017 in the Extension 1 course, and second and sixth in 2022 and first in 2017 in the Extension 2 course, in addition to Latin, where the school has produced 6 state rankings since 2016.

Rankings

Co-curriculum

Sport

Shore students may participate in a variety of sports, mainly within the GPS competition. Sports include

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missile ...

surf lifesaving Surf lifesaving is a multifaceted social movement that comprises key aspects of voluntary lifeguard services and competitive surf sport. Originating in early 20th century Australia, the movement has expanded globally to other countries, in ...

, and snowsports. Furthermore, the school is currently trialing new sports such as

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

and

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

. Until the arrival of Headmaster R.A.I. Grant (1984–2002), the choice of sports available to students was very limited. For example, during the winter months, there was only rugby union unless a medical exemption was available. That changed after 1984, with sports such as tennis and soccer being made available to all students. The school's boatshed and pontoon for its rowing club is at Gladesville on the north shore of Sydney's

Parramatta River The Parramatta River is an intermediate tide-dominated, Ria, drowned valley estuary located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With an average Altitude, height, and depth, depth of , the Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour ...

. Shore was the third Sydney school to take to the water (after Grammar and Riverview) and has been rowing in the GPS competition since the late 1890s, to great result.

Performing arts

Shore has a comprehensive

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

program, including Music Ensembles and Drama productions. Music ensembles include two concert bands, two stage bands, an orchestra, three string groups and the Shore Chapel Choir, as well as a number of other smaller ensembles. The Shore Performing Arts Centre features a proscenium arch theatre with 500 seats as well as a hydroluic orchestra pit, counterweight fly system and a state of the art lighting and audio control booth, and a multi-configurable black box theatre with seating arrangements ranging from 25 to 150 seats. The centre also boasts a wide range of orchestral rooms for both performance and rehearsals. Recent musical productions include ''Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'', ''Oliver!,'' ''West Side Story'', ''Anything Goes'', ''A Peculiar People'' (World Premier), ''Les Misérables'', ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'' Recent dramatic productions include ''

Our Town ''Our Town'' is a three-act play written by American playwright Thornton Wilder in 1938. Described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written", it presents the fictional American town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 ...

'', ''

Lord of the Flies ''Lord of the Flies'' is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that led to ...

'' and ''

The Cherry Orchard ''The Cherry Orchard'' () is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1903, it was first published by '' Znaniye'' (Book Two, 1904), and came out as a separate edition later that year in Saint Petersburg, via A.F. Marks Pu ...

.''

Publications

The school has a weekly

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Convention, articl ...

, ''The Shore Weekly Record'', which, along with informing boys and parents of upcoming happenings and sporting fixtures and results, gives certain boys the opportunity to express their writing and artistic talents in their own section, usually the inner part of the publication. Over the years this variously-named ''"inside section"'' has fostered the

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

talents of Chris Taylor from '' The Chaser'', and provided a unique perspective on the school and the wider world. Other publications are the ''Shore Reports'' (quarterly) and the ''Torch Bearer'' (yearly). File:ShoreSchool1930.jpg, Shore building in 1930, built by Bernhardt Holtermann in File:Shoreview1931.jpg, View from the North Sydney campus, 1931 File:Shorerowers1932.jpg, Shore eight-oar crew, 1932

Headmasters

Dr John Collier, the current headmaster, was appointed in 2022. There are four deputy heads in the senior school; Mr Andrew Holland (Academic), Dr Andrew Mansfield (Operations), Mr Derek Champion (Pastoral Care) and Dr Luke Gilmour (Co-Curricular). Previous headmasters of Shore: ''* denotes interim''

Notable alumni

Shore

alumni Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

are commonly referred to as 'Old Boys', and may elect to join the school's

alumni association An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students ( alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, school A school is the educati ...

, the Shore Old Boys Union (OBU). Shore is notable for its strong connections in banking and finance, having produced the current CEO of Challenger Ltd and Chairman of Magellan Financial Group, in addition to CEOs and Chairmen of the

Bank of New South Wales The Bank of New South Wales (BNSW), also known as The Wales, was the first bank in Australia. It was established in 1817 in Sydney. During the 19th century, the bank opened branches throughout Australia and New Zealand, expanding into Oceania ...

(now

Westpac Westpac Banking Corporation, also known as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney. Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, it acquired the Commerc ...

), the

Commercial Banking Company of Sydney The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited, also known as the CBC, or CBC Bank, was a bank based in Sydney, Australia. It was established in 1834, and in 1982 merged with the National Bank of Australasia to form National Australia Bank. Hi ...

(now NAB), IAG, MLC, Perpetual Limited, and Rothschild Australia. However, some of Shore's most notable old boys have come from other walks of life, including: * 16

Rhodes Scholars The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

. * Famous actor

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Oliv ...

. * Authors

Kenneth Slessor Kenneth Adolphe Slessor (27 March 190130 June 1971) was an Australian poet, journalist and official war correspondent in World War II. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences int ...

and Russel Braddon. * Chancellors and Vice Chancellors of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

(Melville), the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

(Windeyer), and the University of New England (Wright). * The media mogul Sir Frank Packer. * The founders of Jim's Mowing, Mirvac,

Nine News Nine News (stylized as 9News) is a national News agency, news service on the Nine Network in Australia. Its flagship program is an hour-long ''9News'' bulletin at 6:00 pm, with editions produced by Nine's owned-and-operated stations in TCN, S ...

, and Woolworths. *

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

winner and former world number 1

John Newcombe John David Newcombe AO OBE (born 23 May 1944) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in both men's singles and men's doubles. Newcombe won a combined 26 major titles: seven in singles, a former ...

. * CEO of Rugby Australia and former Wallabies captain Phil Waugh. * Former Wallabies representative David Codey. * High Court Justices Sir William Owen, Sir Dudley Williams, and

Dyson Heydon John Dyson Heydon (born 1 March 1943) is an Australian former judge and barrister who served on the High Court of Australia from 2003 to 2013 and the New South Wales Court of Appeal from 2000 to 2003, and previously served as Dean of the Sydn ...

. *

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

and Chief Justice of Queensland Sir Alan Mansfield. *

Reserve Bank of Australia The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority. It has had this role since 14 January 1960, when the ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank. Th ...

Governors Sir John Grant Phillips, Sir Leslie Melville. * Minister for Foreign Affairs Sir Gordon Freeth. * Prime Minister Sir John Gorton. In 2001, the school was ranked seventh in the

Who's Who A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...

of boys' school rankings in Australia, and second in New South Wales based on the number of alumni mentioned in

Who's Who in Australia The pronoun ''who'', in English language, English, is an English interrogative words, interrogative pronoun and a English relative words, relative pronoun, used primarily to refer to persons. Unmarked, ''who'' is the pronoun's subjective form; ...

Controversies

Fights

Two students at Shore were suspended in May 2023, after a video surfaced displaying a student throwing a table to physically attack a classmate. In a letter sent to parents, the headmaster John Collier stated that the school had taken "decisive action" after the incident took place, and that the police would work with the school to "educate students" about the inappropriateness of violent behaviour. It also stated that it was “utterly unacceptable and goes against the core values" instilled in students”. The fight wasn't a spontaneous act of aggression, but rather a "carefully orchestrated event" staged for voyeuristic purposes.

Scavenger Hunt

A "Year 12" challenge run by a student labelled the "Triwizard Shorenament" (referencing the Triwizard Tournament from Harry Potter) emerged in September 2020, which included a range of inappropriate sexual challenges, racist, harmful and illegal activities (such as spitting on a homeless man). The headmaster at the time, Dr Timothy Petterson, stated that it was "extremely disappointing to all of us that their thoughtless actions have cast a shadow, not only over the considerable achievements of their classmates, but the reputation of our school generally which strives to be a respectful, inclusive and caring environment for all.”

TikTok Videos

In September 2020, students filmed a TikTok video showing off the campus’ luxury facilities, including a “recovery pool”, a “harbour view library” and a “$50 mill gym". After going viral, the school demanded that it was deleted. The same month, a TikToker who goes by the name of "Fonzie Gomez" interviewed students from Shore. The boys were asked to name the worst suburbs in Sydney, which arose controversy over the mocking of some of the poorest suburbs in Sydney. One responded "

Blacktown Blacktown is a suburb in New South Wales, Australia, west of the Sydney central business district. It is one of the most multicultural places within Sydney, Greater Sydney. History Before the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the area of ...

", and another student added "Yeah, druggos". One claimed there were "Too many eshays" in the suburb. Another student stated that the worst suburb was "

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

" because of the "Rich Kids" living there. The school didn't respond for comment, and the video was deleted.

Antisemitism

In 2017, an "end of year" photo was taken of a group of year 12 students in the school, with the past Deputy Headmaster Rod Morrison, holding a Nazi flag and holding up the

Nazi Salute The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute, or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. The salute is performed by extending the right arm from the shoulder into the air with a straightened han ...

. Morrison, after realising what had happened, confiscated the flag off those responsible and called for the photo to be deleted, however it still circulated. The former headmaster Timothy Wright dismissed it as an "“ill-conceived prank and a display of very poor judgment by those caught up in the euphoria of the end of school”.

References

External links

Sydney Church of England Grammar School website

Shore Old Boys Union website
{{authority control Boarding schools in New South Wales Educational institutions established in 1889

SHORE A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

Anglican secondary schools in Sydney Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Boys' schools in New South Wales Junior School Heads Association of Australia Member Schools North Sydney, New South Wales Anglican primary schools in Sydney 1889 establishments in Australia