Support Services

Career development and further studies become increasingly important for students reaching their final years at Canberra Grammar School.

90% OF CANBERRA GRAMMAR SCHOOL GRADUATES CHOOSE TO ATTEND UNIVERSITY AND FURTHER THEIR ACADEMIC EDUCATION.

To prepare them for life beyond the campus, students participate in career days and work experience. Students are also encouraged to make appointments with our Careers Adviser to discuss and implement strategies to achieve goals.

The Senior School Counsellor at Canberra Grammar School is a registered teacher and psychologist who has worked in private and government schools across the educational spectrum from pre-school to university level. 

COUNSELLING CAN BE DEVELOPMENTAL, EDUCATIVE AND PROACTIVE, EXTENDING A STUDENT’S ABILITY TO ACHIEVE THEIR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL.

We encourage the CGS community – including students, parents and staff – to access counselling where needed to improve their personal, organisational and learning skills.

The School has a fully operational health centre staffed by registered nurses with doctor visits several times a week. The clinic is available to boarders and day students who become unwell while at the School.

Defence School Mentor Programme

The Defence School Mentor Programme, through the in-school work of the Defence School Mentor, aims to provide practical assistance to Defence families and support the social and emotional wellbeing of Defence students who experience mobility and parental absence. This includes supporting students whose parents have transitioned from the ADF for the duration of their time at the school and may also include reserve members acting in a full-time capacity.

A Defence student is defined as a Primary or Secondary school student who is a dependent of a member of the ADF. The Programme’s objectives include:

1. Supporting Defence students to access school-based social and emotional supports, in line with school policy and procedure.
2. Providing Defence students with age-appropriate, social, and emotional support that enhances existing school supports.
3. Providing Defence families with information about the school environment and available Defence Member & Family Support (DMFS) Branch supports relevant to their student’s development.
4. Raising awareness and building capacity among school staff to respond to the social and emotional needs of students from Defence families.

Parents can contact the Defence School Mentor to discuss a student’s transition into the School, Defence-related issues that may affect a student (such as parental absence on service), or to obtain information if they are relocating by emailing defenceschoolmentor@cgs.act.edu.au

Canberra Grammar School recognises that all students bring skills, talents and diversity to its community. 

The Learning Development Team (LDT) uses evidence-based decision-making in teaching and learning for all students in the School, focusing on students with diverse learning needs. 

The team uses a Response to Intervention approach including universal screening, tracking and a three-tiered intervention model. In particular, the team focus on meeting the needs of:

• students who require academic support
• gifted and talented students
• students with a disability
• students for whom English is an Additional Language or Dialect.

The LDT Procedures for managing student needs are in line with ACARA Student Diversity and the Australian Curriculum. The team also creates and contributes the Senior School Procedures for the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with a Disability cantered on the Disability Standards for Education 2005 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.