Whole School News
Buchanan Cup
On Thursday 18 August, the Girls Country Week team departed school at recess time and headed to Perth to compete in the Buchanan Cup, an annual schools' hockey cup. We arrived at our hotel in South Perth at 5.00pm and got our room arrangements. We then had an hour to kill, which was spent exploring the hotel and checking out the gym. After sweating it out on the treadmills, we got ready for dinner and headed into Vic Park. We grabbed a delicious burger at Grill’d before heading across the road to get ice-cream and cookies at Chunky Monkey which definitely caused some raised sugar levels in a few of the girls.
Back at the hotel we had a team meeting where we talked game strategies and received our playing singlets. After the team chat, we headed back to our rooms and fortunately got a good night’s sleep in before the morning. The alarms went off at 7am and we went downstairs for a continental breakfast to fuel up for the day ahead. We quickly packed up and left the hotel and arrived at Perth Hockey Stadium at about 8.30am with just enough time to practice penalty corners before our first game at 9.00am.
The first game was the game of the tournament with Grammar defeating Como 1-0. This was the first opportunity for us to play together and by the results of our first game it was clear to see we were going to be an unstoppable team.
After our first win, we had 30 minutes to rehydrate and prepare for the next game at 10am. Because the games where played in 25 minutes with no breaks, it meant for quick games with short breaks between matches.
Our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th games were won with us defeating the opposing teams by scores over four goals in each match.
By the time our final crossover came, we were beginning to feel the heat of a hot Perth day. The final game to enter the Grand Final was played between us and Carine SHS, and it was the game we needed to win. We started out hard possessing the ball for majority of the first 15 minutes of the first half as well as the second half. We had many shots on goal and disappointingly we couldn’t seem to get one in. Carine scored a lucky goal and we suffered a disappointing loss, despite our best efforts.
The carnival gave us a chance to bond and gel as a team and we all look forward to Country Week in the coming days.
Thank you to our coaches Mr Scott and Mr Ferreira who looked after us whilst away.
Ebony Anderson | Captain
GovHack 2022
Students from across Years Seven to Ten competed in GovHack on the weekend. GovHack is an annual open government data competition held all over Australia and New Zealand. Teams are formed and work on a range of challenges presented by government. The aim is to introduce forward-thinking and new perspectives to some of the biggest issues our society is facing. Sponsors of challenges included the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Regulator, the Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Great Southern Grammar partnered locally to support the Albany event with the City of Albany, Rio Tinto and Regional Development Australia.
Some previous GSG students formed a team with current students in Years Eight and Ten. Their solution ‘CleanRoute’ aimed to use open data around public transportation networks to help commuters and government agencies discover and plan more sustainable ways to move around our cities and regions. It was wonderful to see Kelvin Hands (Baudin, 2021), Josh Clark (Wilson, 2021) in person, with Taylor Spinks (Wilson, 2013) working remotely to support a team.
A group of Year Sevens worked on a product titled ‘Trash Terminator’, in response to the growing issue of Covid-19 waste created as a result of the global pandemic. They proposed and created a functional concept game to educate young people about Covid-19 waste in an engaging and intuitive way. Using open data on current Coronavirus cases by postcode and a threatened species database, the game's purpose is to increase awareness on these emerging issues.
The final group represented by GSG students in Years Eight to Ten focused on ways to connect young people and their local communities to facilitate learning life skills and finding employment opportunities post school.
Their app ‘Full Bloom’ aims to put young people in direct contact with training organisations and employers, using Census 2021 profiling data and ATO small business data to tailor opportunities for all users of the app.
Year Seven student Maxwell Cruse (Wilson) was awarded the Albany ‘Spirit of GovHack’ award for exemplifying cooperation, helpfulness, and team spirit at the event. Well done Max!
You can search each project and read in more detail at the GovHack Hackerspace: https://hackerspace.govhack.org/projects.
Judging of each challenge is happening in the coming months and we wish each of our teams the very best of luck!
Mr Kieran Bailey | Teacher and Head of IT Services
Extension Competition
'Pens Against Poverty' is a writing competition open to all students from Years Three to Ten. Entrants are to write a poem or short story, no longer than 500 words, around the theme of 'Finding a Home'. Entries are due by Friday 9 September and can be submitted by either emailing them to me at angelina.ross@gsg.wa.edu.au or via a parent, through the website Pens Against Poverty – Writing competition.
Ms Angelina Ross | Head of Humanities and Social Sciences, Learning Enrichment Coordinator (Gifted and Talented Education)