Ipswich Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, day and boarding school for boys, located in Ipswich, a city situated on the Bremer River in South East Queensland, Australia. The school is sited on the eponymous Grammar School Hill, with its original buildings occupying the crown of the hill. Some of the Ipswich Grammar School Buildings are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. Founded in 1863, Ipswich Grammar was the first secondary school established in the colony of Queensland under the Grammar Schools Act 1860, but a small number of other schools were already offering secondary education in Queensland. Today the school operates a P to 12 educational model, offering preparatory, primary and secondary education to approximately 1,080 students, including 105 boarders. Ipswich Grammar School is affiliated with the Australian Boarding Schools Association (ABSA), the Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), Independent Schools Queensland (AISQ), the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), and is a founding member of the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland Inc. (GPS). History Background Ipswich Grammar School was the first of ten grammar schools established under the Grammar Schools Act, passed by Queensland's first parliament in 1860. The Act allowed for the establishment of a grammar school in any town where £1000 could be raised locally. At the time of the Act, there was a push for the new system of education in Queensland to be free of denominationalism. The Grammar Schools Act was passed to reflect this. Despite these intentions of the legislation, it was the Roman Catholic Bishop Quinn who, by mid-1861, had raised sufficient funds to open Grammar Schools in both Brisbane and Ipswich. Amidst an outcry from the Protestant section of the community, Bishop Quinn was informed by the Executive Council of Queensland that the intention of the legislation was to establish Grammar Schools on strictly non-sectarian principles. This decision may have been influenced by the fact that not a single member of either House of the Legislature in Queensland at the time was a Roman Catholic. Establishment Unperturbed, the Roman Catholic community in Ipswich raised the full amount of £1000. On 20 August 1861, the first meeting concerning the establishment of a Grammar School in Ipswich took place. Around 200 people attended. It seems that despite the drive of the Roman Catholic's to establish a school under their denomination, the majority of people did not support the