INTRODUCTION

Welcome once again to CGS Outlook. Receiving an advance copy of this magazine each semester is always one of the joys of my job. It should no longer come as a surprise, but it still does, that every edition is so brimming with the vibrancy of our School’s life and endeavour. So much happens in any given day that it’s easy to forget what happened only yesterday, let alone a term ago; but here it all is with boundless enthusiasm and variety, and with the countless smiles of students, staff and members of our extended community who are so rightly proud of all that they strive to achieve.

At Presentation Night at the end of 2024, I suggested that, after a period of tremendous growth and change, with the turbulence of a pandemic thrown in the midst, our School was finally no longer in a period of transformation. That is not to say that our evolution is complete; far from it. We will always develop. Any school that doesn’t stagnates; but, fundamentally, we are who we now are, at last.

Yet that begs the question: if we are who we are, then who are we? Amidst all the abundance of activity and opportunity that we celebrate on occasions like Presentation Night and in volumes like this, what makes the essence of Canberra Grammar School?

As I flip through these pages, the answer is not necessarily simple to articulate, but it is nonetheless clear. When I read the aspirations and values of our School Captaincy team – their CORE commitment to Connection, Outreach, Responsibility and Empowerment – I know who we are. When I see students honoured for service and citizenship, grappling with the challenges of contemporary democracy and globalisation, I know who we are. When I see students thriving intellectually in the pursuit of academic enrichment beyond the curriculum and then flourishing equally in outdoor pursuits, in sport, in music and drama, it’s obvious who we are.

When the same applies to staff recognised within and beyond the School for their dedication to nursing and boarding, to teaching and coaching, it’s evident who we are. Likewise, the broad and deep contribution of our alumni across generations and around the world – to music and education, finance and business, medicine and science, and so much else — is the proud expression of who we are. So too is the image of our entire Year 12 graduating cohort standing honoured to embrace and be embraced by the Indigenous heritage of this land.

In short, in the copiousness of this edition is to be found our School’s defining purpose: the chance for every individual, in the infinite variety of our diversity – captured in that extraordinary central 95th Anniversary whole school photograph — to discover what it is that stirs them: a hunger for ever greater understanding in whatever fields of learning pique their curiosity; a joy in innovation and cultural creativity; a confident knowledge of themselves and of others; a compassionate commitment to the betterment of all; and a fundament impulse to give, not just to get, as citizens of the world.

For all our change, that is not too different to what we’ve always been. As the School’s founding Headmaster, William Edwards, insisted almost a century ago, the explicit mission of Canberra Grammar School from the very start was to educate the facets of our humanity; the intellectual, physical, social, cultural and spiritual dimensions of every individual. Our 5Cs now are just the contemporary expression of that.

We should be so proud in our 95th year to carry our School’s legacy forward and to celebrate all that is captured in these pages. Thank you, as always, for who we are and who we strive to be.

Sincerely,

Justin Garrick , Head of School