Grandview Public School – New Hamburg

Grandview officially opened in September of 1950 as a K-8 elementary school. Students were transferred from the old New Hamburg Elementary and Continuation School located on the corner of Huron and Webster Streets near the village center. The school continued as a secondary school until 1954 when Waterloo-Oxford DSS was opened. The old school was demolished in the summer of 1958.

Initially Grandview consisted of the gymnasium and six classrooms. Classes consisted of a kindergarten class, a grade 1/2 split, a grade 3/4 split, a grade 5/6 split and a grade 7/8 split.

A four-classroom addition was built in 1963. The school continued as a K-8 school until the opening of Forest Glen in 1974. Grandview’s Grade 7 and 8 students were transferred to Forest Glen and Grandview became a K-6 school. In 1989, Grade 6 students were transferred to Forest Glen and Grandview became a K-5 school. Beginning in 1999, Grade 6 students came back to Grandview.

In 2000 an office and staffroom addition were built. The former administrative offices became custodial offices and work areas. The former staffroom became a Special Education Resource Room.

Over the last fifty years, as generations of students filled the hallways and classrooms at Grandview, the school became known as the little school with the big heart.

On October 14, 2000 Grandview celebrated it’s fifty year anniversary. Most of the day was dedicated to informal social time allowing former students and teachers a chance to meet and reminisce about their days at the school. A tea room provided refreshments while a variety of entertainment was performed by former students. Visitors spent the day browsing through displays of old pictures, artifacts, registers and trophies. A student display compared education of 50 years ago to the present. A time capsule was presented and sealed for opening at the schools centennial celebrations in 2050! Six trees were planted on the school ground, (one for each decade the school has been in operation) by students who attended Grandview in each of those six decades.