Eclipse House News

Welcome back to another year in Eclipse boarding. On returning this year it was wonderful to meet new faces and reconnect with returning families in Week One. When the boys were arriving, you could sense a strong positive energy and excitement for the year ahead. This year we welcome the following boys into our Eclipse community: 

• Eden Bairstow, Dumbleyung
• Ollie Murphy, Moodiarrup

Eclipse House is a unique environment where students from diverse backgrounds come together to embark on a journey many their age will not experience. Eclipse has a calm, authentic atmosphere that is based on respecting individual differences. Our house is heavily built on a foundation of listening to others and allowing everyone to share their voice, passions and unique abilities. It is an active house comprising many different activities throughout the week. 

As we start the new year, we instantly recognise some new dynamics at play. There are new friendships being forged within the boarding community. Some examples of this have been an increase in connection to the senior girl’s house and junior boy’s house. This has looked like combined recreation activities, ad hoc basketball games, smoothie making, movie nights and shared dinners. It has been wonderful to witness.

Within Eclipse we have a wonderful team of supervisors who bring with them their own unique strengths and skills. They are invested in Eclipse House and truly want to support your child through this journey. Supervisors in Eclipse currently are Sam Forward, Mikaela Burton, Bryce McLean, Sally Mellows and Tobias Merkle. As families visiting the boarding house, please come in and sat G’day as we would love to chat over a bite to eat, coffee or cup of tea. 

Birthdays

Our first two birthdays of the year were Kaleb Germain who turned 17 in January and Zane Cairns who turned 15 in Week Two of term.  Many happy returns boys.

For the first half of the year in the Buzz articles, I will be including a piece of writing from one of our own. This week Harrison Greenup will be sharing his thoughts on boarding life and what it means to him. 

Mr Taylor Colton | Head of Eclipse House

Hi, I'm Harry, and my journey to boarding school has been quite the adventure so far. After living most of my life overseas, my family and I decided that it was about time to return to my home country.  So, I took the leap and began boarding school at the start of Term Three in July 2023. 

At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by the new environment and routines but with the help of the supervisors and my peers, I quickly adjusted to the boarding lifestyle. It was a lot stricter than home but if I’m honest it's probably for the better. This sort of environment has helped me find ways to manage my time effectively with various routines to ensure my day was productive.

When I first joined, I noticed there was a very strong culture within Eclipse, there was a lot of focus on both academic and sporting excellence. The Year Twelves led by example by being very serious about getting work done in prep and by being committed to all the different sports they played. This was a great example of the standards that needed to be met. 

The Year Ten group at the time was a lot smaller than the other year groups with only the three of us. Being in such a small group I had the opportunity of getting to know the two other boys pretty well. 

Most of the demographic of Great Southern Grammar boarding is comprised of students with farming backgrounds. The two Year Ten students who I board with also happen to have farming backgrounds. So, as you can expect I now know a lot about their family farms and life in regional WA. 

Boarding has been great for what I’ve wanted to achieve academically as we are given plenty of time allocated to our studies each night. These study sessions are often supported by a tutor who is always willing to give a helping hand. I have now started Year Eleven, this is when things start to get serious. With our new Principal Mr Irving, the values in boarding have been really focused on culture, engagement and excellence and just in the first couple weeks I have already seen some of these things be put into action. I am confident that with all the overwhelming support I have going into this year from boarding I will achieve everything that I want to achieve while at the same time building up the culture of excellence. I wish all boarders a successful and fun-filled year. 

Harrison Greenup | Year Eleven