Ivanhoe Grammar School vs Melbourne Grammar School
🇦🇺 Melbourne · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
Reviewed by Priscilla Han
Which should you choose?
Both run National, so the difference is inspection rating, boarding, and fees rather than the curriculum itself; Melbourne Grammar School offers boarding while the other is day-only. The choice comes down to target curriculum, whether you need boarding, and budget — verify fees against each school's own figures.
Neither Ivanhoe Grammar School nor Melbourne Grammar School sits in a market with a public inspectorate, so both are assessed on verifiable accreditation, curriculum authorisation, and published data rather than an official quality rating. One practical difference: Melbourne Grammar School offers boarding while the other is day-only — decisive for families who need a residential option. Verify current fees against each school's own figures (see the table below).
Key Facts
| Ivanhoe Grammar School | Melbourne Grammar School | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | IB / National | National |
| Ages | 3–18 | 5–18 |
| Languages of instruction | English | English |
| Annual fees | not public | not public |
| Enrollment | 2,600 | 1,782 |
| Boarding | Day only | Yes |
| Accreditations | VRQA, IB World School, AGSV, AHISA, Round Square | VRQA, CRICOS, AHISA, IPSHA, ABSA, AISV, APS |
Strengths
- ✓Genuine dual senior pathway — both VCE and the IB Diploma (confirmed on the school's own page), rare among Melbourne independents
- ✓Deep, long-standing IB credibility — IB World School since 1994, Diploma since 1996, not a recent addition
- ✓Full continuity of education, ELC (age 3) through Year 12, under one school
- ✓Multi-campus model lets families match setting to stage, including a distinctive experiential Year 9 at a university campus
- ✓Internationally minded ethos via Round Square membership (one of four in Victoria)
- ✓Heritage and prestige: founded 1858, founding APS member, one of Australia's most recognised independent schools
- ✓Flagship South Yarra campus on St Kilda Road opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens
- ✓Strong, publicly listed VCE outcomes (2025 state rank 9 per Better Education; school-reported)
- ✓Day plus genuine boarding pathway for boys (Years 7–12) with structured entry points
- ✓Broad scholarship programme — Academic, Music, Boarding, General Excellence and First Nations
Trade-offs
- !The IB Diploma is available at the Ridgeway campus only — families at/near the Plenty campus get VCE only
- !Academic results (VCE ATAR, IB Diploma averages) are not published publicly, so outcomes can't be independently verified
- !Fee figures are not retrievable as text on the website (PDF-only schedules), reducing cost transparency
- !No boarding (ended 1977) — unsuitable for families needing residential placement
- !Large enrolment (~2,600 across campuses) may feel less intimate than smaller boutique IB schools
- !Boys-only from Year 7 — families wanting co-education throughout secondary are not served (co-ed ends after Year 6 at Grimwade House)
- !Explicitly Anglican — a faith-based identity that may not suit secular or other-faith families
- !Premium fees: specific AUD tuition/boarding figures were not publicly retrievable, but Melbourne APS-tier schools sit at the top of the market
- !VCE-only senior pathway — no IB Diploma, limiting families who want an internationally-portable curriculum
- !A median VCE study score of 36 (Better Education 2025) is solid but not the very top of the state despite the rank-9 listing — read the public aggregate cautiously
Best Fit For
- • Internationally-mobile / expat families wanting a globally portable IB Diploma with an established provider
- • Families wanting genuine VCE-vs-IB choice within one school rather than committing up front
- • Families seeking continuous schooling from early learning through Year 12
- • Students drawn to an internationally minded, Round Square co-curricular culture
- • Families seeking a heritage Anglican boys' school with a strong VCE track record
- • Boarding families (domestic regional or international) needing Year 7 or Year 9 entry
- • Co-ed-in-early-years families comfortable transitioning boys to a single-sex secondary
- • Internationally-mobile families wanting a CRICOS-registered, established Melbourne institution
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
School-reported, unverified: the school runs a Future Pathways evening featuring Victorian universities (Monash, Deakin, La Trobe, Melbourne, RMIT, Swinburne, ACU, Collarts) and provides one-on-one futures mentoring; no specific destination statistics were published.
School-reported, unverified: Better Education 2025 VCE rankings list the school at state rank 9, median VCE study score 36, 29.3% of scores at 40+, Unit 3–4 cohort 377 — aggregated and not verified against primary records.
More Comparisons
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I choose Ivanhoe Grammar School or Melbourne Grammar School?
Ivanhoe Grammar School is best for: Internationally-mobile / expat families wanting a globally portable IB Diploma with an established provider. Melbourne Grammar School is best for: Families seeking a heritage Anglican boys' school with a strong VCE track record. The right choice depends on target curriculum, budget, and family priorities — the two are not linearly comparable.
How do fees compare between Ivanhoe Grammar School and Melbourne Grammar School?
Ivanhoe Grammar School: not public. Melbourne Grammar School: not public. Verify against each school's own published fees; some figures are sourced from third-party aggregators.
What curricula do Ivanhoe Grammar School and Melbourne Grammar School offer?
Ivanhoe Grammar School: IB, National. Melbourne Grammar School: National.
Do Ivanhoe Grammar School or Melbourne Grammar School offer boarding?
Ivanhoe Grammar School: day school only. Melbourne Grammar School: offers boarding.
Questions parents ask
This comparison is BrightKey's independent assessment using verifiable public data only. University-placement figures are school-reported and not independently verified. BrightKey takes no payments from schools. Our method →