Hunter Valley Grammar School is an independent

Independent school

An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

, co-educational, non-denominational, day school

Day school

A day school—as opposed to a boarding school—is an institution where children are given educational instruction during the day and after which children/teens return to their homes...

, located in Ashtonfield

Ashtonfield, New South Wales

Ashtonfield is a suburb in the City of Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. It is the location of the new Ashtonfield Public School...

, a suburb in the city of Maitland

City of Maitland

The City of Maitland is a Local Government Area in the Lower Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the New England Highway and CityRail's Hunter line.-Demographics:...

, in the lower Hunter Region of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The school was founded in 1990 and is situated on 13 hectares (32 acre) of land. In 2009 Hunter Valley Grammar School catered for approximately 950 students from pre-school to Year 12. Since then it's had 4 principals.

History

Hunter Valley Grammar was established in 1990. The founding principal was John Weeks, who was followed by Michael Clapper in 1997. In 2005 Geoff Millar took up the position. He was succeeded in 2008 by Paul Teys, who served as acting principal for most of the year before being appointed as principal in September 2008.

Curriculum

Students have the opportunity to be accelerated in mathematics, and participate in a range of electives including woodwork, hospitality, film and video, languages, metalwork, photography and drama.

Co-curriculum

Hunter Valley Grammar School offers a wide range of opportunities for students in a wide range of areas.

Sport

Sporting opportunities include equestrian, Taekwondo

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...

, rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

, cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

, badminton

Badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...

, athletics, tennis, cross country running

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

, hockey, swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

, golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 and rowing. Most of these sports are able to be undertaken on the school premises, which includes a sports centre, rugby oval, soccer oval, cricket oval, basketball courts, tennis courts and cricket nets. The school also has a rowing shed located in Berry Park on the Hunter River.

Music

Hunter Valley Grammar School has an active music program. It runs all Higher School Certificate (HSC) relevant music courses.

Associated schools

The Hunter Valley Grammar School is the sister school

Sister school

The term sister school has several meanings:*a definite financial commerce between two colleges or universities*two schools that have a strong historical connection...

 of the Erasmus-Gymnasium in Grevenbroich (NRW) in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

which visits the school yearly with German students learning the English language in the school.