Welcome Lunch

Welcome to our first edition of The Boarding Buzz for 2023. What a start it has been for all our boarders, staff and parents. What has struck me from the start of this term when we first had our boarding BBQ was how good it is to be in the Great Southern Grammar community. My family and I are very familiar with this special place as we have holidayed each year at Ocean Beach Caravan Park in Denmark. I have walked boarders on the Bibbulmun Track many times into Albany during the March long weekend and I have spent weeks at a time walking the Stirling Ranges from the Ridge Top Walk to bush-bashing cross country from Mount Hassell to Toolbrunup Peak and onto Talyuberlup Peak to abseil and sleep in caves.

So, I was familiar with the area West and North of here but it wasn’t until I moved into Anchorage and found Gull Rock Beach, Nanarup Beach and Betty's Beach then drove around to Misery Beach, Little Beach and Waterfall Beach that I realised what a point of difference we have here at Great Southern Grammar Boarding.

In my brief welcome speech at the start of this term's BBQ, I touched on my vision for a healthy boarding community by promoting open, transparent and honest relationships between staff, students and you the parents where ultimately every person who lives, works or visits our boarding community feels like they belong to a special community within Great Southern Grammar. I am confident our team has the foundations to develop and build upon a healthy vibrant culture here at Great Southern Grammar and I look forward to working with you and your child(ren) to value add to their learning experience.

In line with the values of GSG, our team will aim to provide a safe, secure and positive environment for your child where they can develop their knowledge, skills, self-confidence and maturity to respect and care for themselves and others.

I am passionate about boarding and I am very grateful for the chance to lead our boarding community. Our team aim to demonstrate why boarding can provide a great foundation for your child’s learning and wellbeing, so they see personal success while here at Great Southern Grammar and beyond.

Mental Health in our Boarders

I went to a presentation by Dr Donna Cross at a pastoral care retreat where she was the keynote speaker. Donna is at the forefront of pastoral care research and a revered figure in Western Australia. One of her key messages about the pastoral care and mental health landscape for adolescents is the importance of peers as pastoral carers and how trusted peers generate the most powerful response when a child is in distress. It is so important that we upskill our older boarders in Mental Health First Aid so that they know how to calm a friend in distress as well as how and when to pass problems on to trusted adults. It also reaffirms to me the advantages of a pastoral care structure whereby older student leaders are more integrated into our boarding system to be there to help guide the junior boarders on their boarding journey and give them good role models. We are fortunate at GSG to have our Counsellor, Ms Sheryl Moncur, who provides Mental Health First Aid training to all our Year Eight and Ten students.

I have also reached out to an old friend who ran the Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Albany Health Campus (hospital). She has put me in contact with a senior clinician who is an Alumni of GSG and can assist our boarders if they need to reach out and get support. She also has a background in OT and trauma-informed Yoga.

We also have the following agencies in our area if your child needs support:

Headspace - 9842 9871
Great South Mental Health Service - 9892 2440
Young House - 9842 2082
Four Families Counselling Service - Relationships Australia - 1300 364 277
Life Line - 131 114
Rural Link (Mental Health) - 1800 552 002

Please speak with our School Nurses, Ms Rebecca Davies or Mrs Liz Cosh if you need assistance.

Staffing

This term we welcome new staff on board in both Heads of Boarding House roles and Boarding Supervisors' roles and welcome back existing staff to whom I have been grateful for giving me some insights as to why some things are done and the reason for them being done at GSG boarding. I have seen, over my 18 years working in boarding environments, that staff will rotate in and out of this space. My aim will be to build a culture in our staffing model that is consistent in contact time for your child throughout the week and their roles and responsibilities are accepted as a privilege. Why? Because the role of our boarding staff is a worthy one, centred around us providing the care and support for your child.

Meet our New Gap Students

Tiffany Kok - South Africa

What are you studying?

I am currently doing a Gap year. Next year I would like to study a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science.

What are your interests in life?

I love being active (especially in nature), colouring in and going to the beach. I also enjoy interacting and working with people.

Why do you like working at Grammar Boarding?

I love working with the boarding staff because they are super welcoming and helpful. I always feel supported and confident in the environment. It is such a pleasure spending time with the boarders. They have such an adventurous spirit and keen attitude. I have learnt so much from the boarders in such a short time and I am very excited to see what else they can teach me throughout the year.

Lome (May) Botha- South Africa

What are you studying?

I am currently taking a Gap year, but I am wanting to study Bachelor of Business Management and Bachelor of Photography and Journalism.

What are your interests in life?

Helping athletes achieve their greatest accomplishments possible with the help of teamwork, determination and having a strong mindset. My interests in life are being outdoors and being able to explore the nature and different cultures around me and being able to understand the ways of life among their daily lives. I thoroughly enjoy being around people that bring out the best in me and being around people that I am able to share the word of the gospel with.

Why do you like working at Grammar Boarding?

I have never enjoyed being in a different environment as much as I have enjoyed being here. The people all around me are beyond friendly. I enjoy working with the children and being able to see how they do things differently, and coming from a boarding school myself I enjoy seeing how things are done from different perspectives. I enjoy being able to be part of a community where the main priority of the boarding houses is respect and where I am able to play a role in their lives where I am able to teach them some of my morals and be able to be part of the learning and growing stages.

Academic Support

Throughout this year I am inviting staff to watch some webinars based around boarding as part of their personal development. There is a great one around the three core ingredients to student success, by A Team Tuition founding director Hayden McEvoy. The notion ‘Any student can achieve success with the right Mindset, Strategy and Support’ forms the underpinning belief based on the three pillars of success.

Achievement = Skill x Effort (Duckworth & Psychol).

Success = Strategy x (Mindset x Support)

Three Pillars of Success

Pillar 1 – Mindset

Pillar 2 – Support

Pillar 3 - Strategy

Pillar 1 – Mindset

High-performance Mindset:

Resilience
Growth Mindset
Self-motivation
Independence
Self-Belief

This mindset is achieved through pairing with a successful mentor who embodies these traits. In boarding at Great Southern Grammar, we have them in the form of boarding supervisors in prep, tutors and other senior students. After the long weekend, we are educating your child on these traits and how to develop them using the ‘Pygmalion effect’ where staff believe in your child before they believe in themselves.

Pillar 2 – Support

“You are the average of the five people closest to you”. (A team tuition)

Driving accountability through support. Accountability and Data are key for this to work through:

Attendance
Engagement rating
Perceived confidence rating
Homework completion Y/N
Specific assessments preparation and progress
Term planning progress

Working on the rule “What gets measured gets done” will form the bases of our conversations with each student in boarding. The first few weeks in all the houses have seen our staff building relational over operational with all the students living in boarding, we are now shifting gears into creating the experience of importance around homework and assessment preparation.

This has been met initially with mixed reactions by our junior boarders in Anchorage and Endeavour and seems to be one area that will require some effort in developing.

Pillar 3 – Strategy

After the long weekend, Heads of Boarding Houses will start to interview each student to go through the strategy of what we can measure. This looks at “last year’s report/results” then what goals your child can set for this semester, and finally look at how we can achieve this through a structured study plan that works for them. We will coordinate this with the staff in the day school to support your child.

Boarding Contacts

If for any reason you need to contact a staff member in Boarding, please follow the guidelines below:

For any administration queries, please contact Mrs Dianne Franzinelli in the Boarding Administration office.
For any shift-related queries, please contact the Supervisor on shift in your child's boarding house.
If there are any concerns or queries around your child in boarding, please contact your child's Head of Boarding House.
If you need to contact the Head of Boarding, please contact me directly.

All contact numbers can be found at the bottom of the MyGSG Boarding page here.

Mr Ashley Keatch | Head of Boarding

Dates to Remember

Week Five, Term One

Week Six, Term One

Week Seven, Term One