SENIOR SCHOOL
FIRM plans for new boarding facility
There has been a great sense of genuine
excitement and anticipation amongst our
boarding community as we have now
officially ‘turned the soil’ on what will soon
be one of the finest residential boarding
facilities in the world.
After months of research, planning and
designing the School has now appointed
FIRM Construction as the builder of choice
for our new state-of-the-art, co-educational
boarding facility.
Underground electrical and water works
have been completed and the foundations
are well and truly underway. The next 15
months will see the construction of a 130
Robert and Charlotte Harris.
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The design of the building allows for students
to feel safe in age and gender specific areas
while supporting staff to effectively supervise
interactions in the many co-educational spaces.
bed facility with co-educational media
lounges, recreation rooms, study facilities,
gender and age specific socialisation zones,
three overnight staff residences and two
permanent staff residences.
In April 2018 I was afforded the
opportunity, via the School’s annual Stewart
Scholarship Program, to visit England and
some of the finest boarding schools in
the world to complete research for our
new facility. I visited Ardingly College,
Eastbourne College, Brighton College,
St.Bede’s International School and Caterham
College all located in Surrey, Sussex and
Kent. It was a wonderful opportunity to
see these schools who had all recently
built or renovated their co-educational
boarding infrastructure and to borrow ideas
to develop for our own facilities back in
Guildford.
Having shared this research with Daniel
and Jeff from With_Architecture, I was
amazed to see the concept they created to
accommodate male and female boarders
from Years 7-12, under one roof. The
idea of living under one roof is simple, yet
fundamental to our boarding philosophy
‘to provide a home away from home,
giving boarders the opportunity for a first
class education, while building strong
Holly and Blair Dunne.
relationships and developing lifelong
friendships.’
I believe Guildford Grammar School’s
boarding program will be unique in the
Australian context in this regard as there are
very few facilities across our country that