The Armidale School
The Armidale School is an independent, Anglican, co-educational, Pre K–12 boarding school located in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
Founded in 1894 as the New England Proprietary School, TAS uses a non-selective enrolment policy. As of 2026, approximately 625 students were enrolled, including around 225 boarders from years 6 to 12. The school includes a preschool, a Junior School, a Middle School, and a Senior School.
The school is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, the Junior School Heads Association of Australia, and the Australian Boarding Schools Association. It is also one of three Round Square schools in New South Wales. A member of the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales.
History
The Armidale School was founded in 1894 as a boarding school, mainly for the sons of the gentry. The school's origins can be traced to 1838, when Patrick Grant, a magistrate at Maitland, initially conceived the idea of a proprietary school for boys in the Hunter Valley. This idea was taken up by prominent members of the Church of England in the northern districts of New South Wales, and £500 was obtained from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This was the result of the efforts of the first Bishop of Australia, William Grant Broughton. A site for the school was purchased at Honeysuckle Point in Newcastle in 1840. The property was transferred to William Tyrrell in 1846. Finally, in 1854, the land was resumed by the Hunter River Railway Company.By 1877, the school had still not been established, and Tyrrell continued advocating for the school's establishment. Thus, a plan was created with land selected at Blandford, near Murrurundi. In 1881, it was determined that the Blandford plan was too costly, and a suggestion was made that instead it should be built on the New England Tablelands at Armidale. The additional required capital of £6,000 was raised by James Ross, Archdeacon of Armidale, and his leading laymen.
The New England Proprietary School Limited was incorporated on 5 June 1891 with 100-pound shares, at £50 each, allowing each shareholder to nominate one pupil per share purchased. The directors purchased in Armidale in September 1891, adding to the obtained in 1889.
The foundation stone of the main building, designed by noted architect Sir John Sulman, was laid on 22 February 1893 by the Governor of New South Wales, the Rt. Hon. Victor Albert George, Earl of Jersey. The Opening Ceremony was performed by the Rt. Rev Arthur Vincent Green, Bishop of Grafton and Armidale, on 15 May 1894.
The names of the company and school were changed in 1896 to The Armidale School. In the same year, TAS joined the AAGPS in Sydney.
In 1950, the school site was transferred to the trustees of the Church of England Diocese of Armidale, and was administered by a School Council comprising members from the Diocese, Old Boys' Union, and P&F through to 2009.
On 1 January 2010, the school was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee under the Corporations Act with the name "The Armidale School."
In March 2015, the school announced it would commence full co-education and began taking enrolments for Year 12 students, who would begin tuition in October 2015, and for Year 6–11 students, to begin tuition in 2016. This expanded upon the Junior School, which became co-educational in 1989, and was announced following a nine-week consultation process. The school began in 2016 with 53 girls, including 14 boarders, and the first female students to complete their entire education at the school did so in 2022. By the start of 2023, girls accounted for around 43 percent of total enrolments.
Headmasters
Campus
The campus covers 25 hectares and is situated in Armidale, a university city on the New England Tablelands of New South Wales, midway between Sydney and Brisbane. The school features a mix of historic and modern buildings, all of which reflect design elements of the original building designed by the architect Sir John Sulman in 1892. Other notable buildings are the Chapel, designed by Cyril Blacket, and the War Memorial Assembly Hall, which features three large stained-glass windows designed by Napier Waller.The facilities of the school include the Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre, which incorporates a 240-seat performing arts theatre, drama classrooms, and visual arts studios. The centre is used by various local and visiting performing arts organisations including the Armidale Drama & Music Society. Other facilities include a heated indoor swimming pool, rifle range, cattle stud, chapel, gymnasium, library, music centre, computer rooms, climbing wall, weights room, an indoor cricket centre, several indoor and outdoor basketball courts, seven tennis courts, sports fields, and cricket wickets.
Boarding
TAS currently has six school boarding houses, named Abbott, Croft, Dangar, Tyrrell, White, and the new 64 bed 'Girls Boarding House'. Broughton house was a boarding house from 1964 to 1998, when it was reassigned as a house for day-boys.The senior boys' boarding houses each accommodate up to 60 students, with 10 to 15 boys in each year group. In the lower years boys are accommodated in dormitories, and as they progress through the school are moved into private study/bedrooms. Middle School boys are accommodated in White House, while Middle School girl boarders reside in Dangar House, the school's original primary school.
Originally, all girls boarding at the school lived in the renovated Dangar House. However, within 12 months, the school expanded its girls’ accommodations to include the former languages building, Moyes House. Continued growth eventually led the school to construct a new boarding house in 2018 to accommodate additional female students.
Co-curricular Activities
Co-curricular activities available to TAS students include: Debating and public speaking, drama, band, orchestra, choirs, art, photography, Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and a school Poll Hereford stud which exhibits cattle at local and regional agricultural shows. Annual theatrical productions are staged in the School's Hoskins Centre theatre; previous productions include The Addams Family, Oliver!, Wizard of Oz, Sweeney Todd, Rhinoceros and Legally Blonde.Community service
Year 8 students may volunteer for a service trip to St Christopher's Orphanage in Fiji, where they participate in the upkeep and daily maintenance of the orphanage and establish friendships with the children. In the past, a similar Christian service trip has been offered to Year 10 and 11 students to Thailand, assisting at the McKean Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre and the Agape AIDS Orphanage near Chiang Mai. Other service offerings have included a visit to predominantly-Indigenous Yipirinya School in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Locally, for more than a decade senior TAS students have participated in a lunchtime reading and play program with the neighbouring Minimbah Primary School, an independent school in east Armidale with a predominantly Indigenous student enrolment. Other student-led initiatives include donating blood to the NSW Red Cross Blood Bank and support raising awareness for mental health most recently through the not-for-profit social agency, Batyr.Sport
The Armidale School is one of the nine members of the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales and participates in GPS sporting competitions as well as several non-GPS or traditional sports. Students may participate in a variety of sports including: athletics, basketball, canoeing, cricket, cross country, hockey, mountain biking, netball, rugby union, rifle shooting, soccer, squash, rowing, swimming, tennis, triathlon, volleyball and water polo.The school hosts the TAS Rugby Carnival annually in April; with over 40 participating school and club teams, it is recognized as largest rugby event for primary-aged players in Australia.
The school also holds a swimming carnival and an athletics carnival once a year, with students participating in inter-house competition. Boarding students compete for either Abbott, Croft or Tyrrell house, while day students are members of Broughton, Green or Ross houses. Green and Ross were inaugurated in 1983 by Prince Edward, during a private visit to the school. Inter-house competitions are also held for debating, public speaking, and the creative arts.