Northholm Grammar School

Education Philosophy

Northholm's academic curriculum is combined with a Christian community. The School seeks to be large enough to cater for wide academic choices and small enough to care for the individual student. High expectations and pastoral care are the School's stated ideals that guide the development of young people in their adolescent growth. Northholm offers many co-curricular activities, international cultural exchanges and opportunities for students to find new interests and skills. Senior students may choose to study TAFE vocational courses linking school and future work. The Middle Years program for Years 5 to 8 features a core curriculum taught by a core group of teachers who know them well and understand the social and intellectual needs of their age group.

Houses

In 1983 there were three Houses at Northholm. These were Capell, Patteson and Rowland. Capell was assigned the colour red, Patteson white and Rowland blue, these being the three school colours. However, when in 1984 Lincoln House was added and given the colour green, it was decided that since tradition had been broken Patteson could choose the more distinctive colour of yellow.

Capell

Capell House is named after Arthur Capell, who formally attended the school opening in July 1983. Rev. Dr. Capell was the a world authority on Oceanic languages and had taken part in a collaborative effort which resulted in the partial transcribing of several Papuan and Fijian languages as well as indigenous Australian languages.

Lincoln

In 1984 Lincoln was established as the fourth House at Northholm and given green as its house colour.

The house was named after His Honour Judge John Lincoln, Chairman of the School Council and a Judge of the District Court. He was also Deputy Chancellor of Macquarie University, Treasurer of the New South Wales Branch of the Liberal Party, Major of North Sydney ad Chancellor of the Diocese of Newcastle.

Rowland

Rowland House is named after former Governor of New South Wales, His Excellency Air Marshall Sir James Rowland, who formally opened the School in July 1983.

Rowland House was established in 1983 as one of the original three houses.

Patteson

Patteson House was named after the Bishop John Coleridge Patteson the first Bishop of Melanesia and a missionary. He was born in 1827 and died in 1871.

Publications

Northholm produces several publications throughout the school year, namely The Weekly Record, The Arcadian and Ilex.

The Weekly Record

The Weekly Record is Northholm's weekly news publication which is emailed to parents every Friday. It contains several columns such as From The Principal, Important Dates, Middle Year News, From the Registrar and the Parenting Advice among others. It also features the results from all Northholm's sporting teams for the week. It allows those involved with the school to keep up to date on current news as well as the successes (or otherwise) of students in both the Academic and Co-Curricular arenas. It is also available on the school portal.

Ilex

Ilex is Northholm's annual school magazine that features yearly reports from all departments of the school. Each of the houses also features a report on the year they had with summaries on each of the carnivals such as the Swimming, Cross Country and Athletics events. It also includes students individual photos, as well as selected photos of students from each grade.

Notable Alumni

The following is a list of Northholm alumni who have had significant success in their chosen field.