The Anchor

Middle School 

From the Head of Middle School 

Mr Adam Scott | Head of Middle School
Mr Adam Scott | Head of Middle School

It was so nice to welcome back all of our new and returning students this week. While holidays are great it is also nice to see all of our students re-connect with their peers and teachers. It was quite a buzz on Monday morning.

 

Thanks to all the parents, families and boarding supervisors who had the students well prepared with school uniform, stationery, timetables, bus cards, school bags, sports uniform and all the other items that are needed to start school. I was really impressed with the number of students who had their hair in order for the start of term. I know that can be a point of concern for some students but they all looked fantastic on day one. All of our new students have received their shiny laptops and had a start up session, including how to look after their device. Our first excursion has already taken place with the Year Sevens attending the fish traps and hearing from some local elders about the indigenous history of this special area around GSG.

 

Over the next few weeks you will get quite a bit of information regarding camps. All students go on school based camps with:

  • Year Seven going to Camp Kennedy in Torbay in Week Five
  • Year Eight going to Camp Quaranup in Week Five
  • Year Nine going to Margaret River with the Outdoor Education Group (OEG) in Week Four

Please keep an eye out for information in the newsletter and emails home. The lists of equipment for each camp are currently on MyGSG under the Middle School tab and your child’s year group. If you have any queries please direct them to the Heads of Year.

I encourage parents to keep connected to school, especially if you have any queries. At the Parent Information session on Friday 11 February I will discuss the best lines of communication between the School and home.

 

Mr Adam Scott | Head of Middle School 

 

Year Nine leadership Camp

As someone who didn’t expect to become a leader, I was honoured to be chosen to co-lead the Middle School. In preparation for our leadership in 2022, our leadership group was invited to come on a camp in Michaelmas boarding house with Mr Scott and Mr McLean.

 

After we had gone through the programme, we settled into doing some fun activities in small groups such as going on a mini search for certain items of Mr Scott’s choosing. Later that morning, we collected a pre-printed photo of an animal that represented us in some way, and swapped them with someone else’s photo anonymously, the task being we had to guess whose animal represented who. 

 

After lunch we had a meeting with Mrs Franklin and Mr Sawle. Mr Sawle blessed us with words of wisdom and advice about the year ahead and our leadership journey. With Mrs Franklin, we completed a testing activity about what we value the most, and how we have been changed by the people and things around us. 

 

Dinner and dessert was made by us in two separate groups, my group on dinner, making spaghetti bolognaise and the dessert group making mini meringues. The process of making the food was accompanied by the women’s test match and the BBL final on the big screen. 

A night walk out to the bird hide was the next priority and Mr McLean and the boys had fun trying to scare the rest of us by playing spooky sounds on their phones and creeping around outside the bird hide where we were all sitting. After the night walk and showers, we all settled in for the night, excited for the early morning the next day.

 

Seven o’clock, and we were all on the bus, driving along the extremely bumpy road out to Gull Rock beach. The conditions were perfect, and we spent an hour at the beach, teaching each other yoga poses, throwing seaweed and swimming. When we got back to the boarding house, we had to complete an activity where we had to get a small ball to the top of a water filled pipe by blocking all the holes in the pipe. It was exhausting but fun. 

 

After breakfast, we reviewed the student Code of Conduct and discussed changes that we thought would benefit the school. This was inline with the values that we had discussed the day before. After a good discussion and some decisions being made, we packed up our stationery and the rest of our gear and prepared to head home. I very much enjoyed the camp, and I am looking forward to working with my co-leaders this year.

 

Matilda Comer | Year Nine Leader 

Year Seven Fish Traps Excursion 

On Wednesday the Year Seven students went to the Fish Traps. We were welcomed by some of the elders. Larry and Vernice and an archaeologist, Rob. Vernice taught us the words Kaya and Boodja, which mean hello and country, then we got to eat fish burgers for lunch. Then we all divided into our three classes to hear more about the Fish Traps.

 

My class went with Larry first and he taught us about a few different types of bush tucker. First we learned about the saltbush, aka samphire, which tasted very salty and is wiped out in Europe because it is a delicacy over there. Then we learned about a few other types of bush tucker and we even learnt how to make a type of natural insect repellent. And there is an osprey’s nest in one of the big trees!

Next we got to go with Vernice and learn about the Fish Traps. She showed us that there were nine fish traps originally, but now there is only eight because people kept throwing the rocks away and stepping on them which ruined the 9th set of fish traps. She also told us that the drawings at the Fish Traps were done by the first group of Year Sevens from GSG to go to the Fish Traps which is amazing. We also found out that the fish traps are between 6500 and 10 000 years old which is old.

 

We then got to learn about the archaeological side of the fish traps and even made paint using some of the bush tucker to crush it into a paste. We used some old artefacts that the Menang people used thousands of years ago, which was awesome and we even got to look at a fossil which looked kind of like a curly shell. Rob told us that the oldest things he had discovered were 50 000 years old. 

 

It was an amazing day learning about the Aboriginal history right next to our school.

 

Menari Deegan | Year Seven