Sunshine Coast Grammar School

History

The School was originally started as a non-denominational educational institute, by the founding headmaster John Burgess.

The Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association purchased the school from Burgess after he was forced to relinquish financial possession of the school. Nigel Fairbairn took over from the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association's Dr Evans.

On July 1, 2006 the school officially opened its Early Learning Centre for children 6 weeks old to school age. This added to the size of the school area-wise.

On June 2, 2008, the school flooded after an overnight deluge of rain. The overnight rain came on top of the rain from the prior week. No major incidents were reported, although one car was caught in a creek at the school.

Academia

Sunshine Coast Grammar School separates its student body into four parts: Early Learning, Junior, Middle and Senior. They cover the traditional school years of kindergarten to preschool, year 1 to year 6, year 7 to year 9 and year 12 In the Senior School, Year 10 students face a difficult curriculum, to prepare them to meet the state-regulated "Senior Education and Training Plan", which leads students to set their direction, i.e., choose a career area.

In 2003, students in year 4 won awards for Creative Writing at the Ekka

Schools of excellence

The school offers "Schools of Excellence" in Tennis, Mathematics and ICT for Years 8 and 9. They are designed to encourage the expansion of knowledge and skill of the students taking part. They take the place of regular classes for students involved.

OP results

At the end of 2006, there were nine OP 1's and seven OP 2's awarded to the Year 12's with 33% of the students getting OP 5 or better. These were the top results of any school on the Sunshine Coast. An OP (Overall Position) is a ranking score used to place Year 12 students into tertiary courses.

Languages

SCGS offers language courses in French and Japanese. France and Japan tours are available for those who are studying the language in Years 9-12. Courses once existing in Italian and Indonesian were discontinued. Mandarin Chinese was discontinued at the start of 2009.

Sister schools

The school has sister schools in different countries around the world. Students may participate in student exchange programs with any of these schools.

These schools are;

Houses

The school has four sporting houses which the students are divided into. They are as follows:

Ensembles

The school has a senior choir, covering the Middle and seniors schools; a year 3/4 choir and 5/6 choir in the junior school.

Grammar also has a number of instrumental ensembles including a junior concert band, senior concert band, string orchestra and big band.

All of these groups perform at different events and in various competitions.

Sport

SCGS has set traditions in the sporting arena. From its rugby union program to its involvement in the Sunshine Coast Independent Schools Sports Association.

The school has sent teams to New Zealand, the UK, and Japan. The teams, namely in the sports of rugby union, netball and cricket, have drawn comments from the then Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and then Premier of Queensland Peter Beattie.

Both the first XV rugby team and the first XI cricket team have become state champions, by competing in the Ballymore Cup and Australia Post cricket competition respectively.