Toowoomba Grammar School

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Welcome to Toowoomba Grammar School. For over 140 years, the School has continued to pride itself on delivering the highest quality of education and utmost care for its students.
The School's comprehensive education encompasses several core values underpinned by students' intellectual, physical, cultural, and general well-being. We would be pleased to meet with you to discuss our educational philosophy, our programs, and the School's commitment to being a specialist provider of an education designed specifically for boys. The School has been a specialist in boys and young men's education since 1875, and now our current student enrollment approximates 1,150 from the Preparatory Grade to Year 12. Toowoomba Grammar School is also incredibly proud to be recognized as one of the premier boarding schools for boys throughout Australia.
The Vision of Toowoomba Grammar School is to provide a "quality education designed for boys." But it is much more than this. We seek to offer an education that will enable our boys and young men to develop life-long values and qualities that will set them apart from others, not so fortunate to have been educated at this School. Behavioral traits of our young men and Old Boys should include a consistent demonstration of integrity, honesty, resilience, compassion, friendliness, kindness, empathy, a sense of humor, humility, a solid work ethic, an interest in life-long learning, and the desire to improve the welfare of others, particularly the disadvantaged in society.
Several key elements are contributing to the attainment of this Vision. Clear guidelines of appropriate behavior for our students are required to recognize the value of the highest expectations of behavior and student involvement. Friendly, respectful, and supportive relationships between the boys and the teachers and the students are crucial. The Vision can also be more readily attained by having highly professional and well-qualified teachers, and infrastructure and resource base in which quality teaching can occur, a self-disciplined and aspirational environment in which students want to learn and succeed in community, history, and school spirit.
Since the first students enrolled in our School in 1877, Toowoomba Grammar School has always been a school for boys. The School is one of nearly 200 all-boys' schools which are members of an association known as the International Boys Schools' Coalition.
This organization involves boys' schools worldwide (USA, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, and China). As a school, we remain committed to single-sex education. We acknowledge that boys are different from girls – biologically, developmentally, and psychologically. The educational philosophy behind single-sex schooling reflects the differential rates of maturity exhibited between boys and girls, the different learning styles typically displayed by boys and girls, the effect of the presence of girls on boys' academic self-esteem, and the tendency for boys to revert to a perceived stereotypical form of masculinity when in the company of girls in the classroom. We acknowledge that boys are generally more impulsive than girls. They can sit still but prefer not to for too long unless engaged and challenged. Our teaching styles are "boy-friendly," our curriculum is relevant to the boys, and we harness their natural competitiveness, inquisitiveness, and humor.
Due to girls' absence in the classrooms, we witness boys expressing themselves more freely and taking more positive academic "risks" without worrying about what girls would think of them or how their academic contribution would be judged. In the past, we have witnessed in a co-educational setting, many boys who have been somewhat intimidated by girls' presence in the classroom. Girls are generally more focused in their studies and also possess a maturity which perhaps exceeds that of boys by some sixteen months, as aptly demonstrated by their superior linguistic skills at the same age. If forced to face this competition in a co-educational environment, some boys take a more comfortable option and disengage from academic pursuits.

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