Pulteney Grammar School

Our story

Pulteney is the second-oldest independent school in South Australia. A group of Adelaide citizens met in May 1847 to plan a new school, and Pulteney Street School opened on 29 May 1848 at the corner of Pulteney and Flinders streets. It was Anglican from the start but open to children of all denominations, with fees set low so that ordinary families could afford them.

Its early decades were bumpy, with closures, renamings and girls’ classes that came and went. In 1916 the trustees bought land on South Terrace facing the Park Lands, which is still the school’s home. Pulteney returned to co-education in 1999. Today it is an Anglican co-educational day school from Reception to Year 12 on a single city campus, with about 839 students (2025).