From the Head of Secondary

Our first session of Values and Christian Service (VACS) for Term Three took place this week. Years Seven, Eight and Nine began their Sport rotation and students in Years Ten, Eleven and Twelve started their Arts & Culture rotation. Energy levels were high and I enjoyed watching the students engage in this different kind of learning which has no assessments but challenges students to act on their values. Flourishing in each activity and supporting others to do the same is wonderful to watch; I particularly love to see a different group of students show leadership and empathy to those that lead and support in the classroom.

Crazy Hair Day – message from the Year Twelve leaders

This Friday 28 July will be 'Crazy Hair Day' for the whole school. Everyone is encouraged to change their hair in any way they want to, just as long as by Monday next week all remains of the crazy hair is gone, for example hair dye must be completely washed out.

A gold coin donation will be collected during homeroom on Friday by some of our student leaders so be prepared with a gold coin to help donate towards our worthy cause.

Crazy Hair Day is inspired by our World’s Greatest Shave event which took place earlier this year on the 15 May by 12 of our Year Twelve students. We raised $12,200 through this fundraiser and we hope that this crazy hair day can raise even more for the charity.

Please participate in this fun event as it goes towards a very good cause.

Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (TISC) visit

Following last week’s visit from TISC, I am pleased to share a recording of the evening session here.

Early offers and applications for University in 2024 are now available to all Year Twelve students, regardless of their pathway. We have had students receive offers from all Universities in all manner of courses from Human Rites to Mechanical Engineering. Students on ATAR pathways, Cert IV Business pathways, UniReady pathways and VET/General pathways have all been successful in receiving early offers to University.

TISC will visit Great Southern Grammar next year in Term Two before the opening date for applications for Early Offers to University.

Elevate

Upcoming webinar for parents – How to Help Get (& Keep!) Your Child Motivated

We’re excited to announce that on Wednesday August 2nd, Elevate Education will be hosting its first free webinar of the term for parents.

Elevate Education works with our students, delivering high impact workshops on study skills, motivation, wellbeing, and exam preparation. By tuning into their webinar series you will learn how you can help better support your children at home through reinforcing the skills they learn at school:  

Wednesday 2 August How to Help Get (& Keep) Your Child Motivated Click here to register for free

Here’s what Elevate will be covering on the night:

✅ What impact does praise and reassurance have on your child’s motivation?

✅ What are the best type of goals to be setting with your child? 

✅ How can you help your child create meaningful and lasting motivation?

Please see Elevate’s flyer for all upcoming webinars here.

Mrs Victoria Turnor I Head of Secondary

Year Eleven Certificate IV in Business – Albany’s BIG Sleep Out

The BIG Sleep Out is an event to raise awareness and money for homelessness within our local area. The event is held on Saturday 26 August 2023 and will be located at the Agricultural Pavilions. Everyone can make a difference to this fundraiser! It can be small or large, and you can get excited to join us on the event night.

“The Albany community will benefit immensely from this BIG sleep out event. The event consists of a night of fun activities, food, and people from all over the community coming together to raise awareness for homeless people of Albany. The Year Eleven Cert IV Business class play a pivotal role and are participating in the planning of the BIG Sleep Out event, we assists to connect even more people to the event, opens new ideas, develops our own skills, and benefit the greater community. Within our work, we will be reaching out to even more schools and individuals, expanding the already vast network of associations already surrounding the BIG Sleep Out.” – Will Dal Pozzo

George Bockman writes: “My role with the Albany Community Foundation, which created the BIG Sleep Out event is within the Analysis and Feedback group, along with Ella Belfield. In this role we are reviewing last year’s Sleep Out feedback data and seeing what can improve and what was done well. We are also creating feedback forms and other mechanisms for attendees so that we can hear their thoughts on how the event is perceived after it has finished. Once we have our data, we will analyse it and create a presentation on how the Sleep Out went, what we all did well as a group, and give insights for improvement for next year's organising group. On the night of the Sleep Out Ella and myself will also be helping other groups if needed and be talking to the people that attend about their experiences and enjoying the night with them."

This is an important issue and effects many people. So far, the event has raised over $17,000 - and are excited keep the fundraising going.... If you would like to be involved, follow this link to join us:

https://albanys-big-sleep-out-2023.raisely.com/t/gsg

Tiffany Butterworth, on behalf of the Year Eleven Cert IV in Business class.

Mr Kyal Rose I Teacher

Peer Support Program

This year we have been running our Peer Support Program. This is where Year Eleven students meet with Year Seven students to mentor them and help them adjust to being in High School.

“It’s a good chance for us to meet the younger students.”

“It’s nice that we can make connections in other years that we wouldn’t normally get to do.”

In Terms One and Two, the Year Eleven students met with their assigned Year Seven students every fortnight in their Homeroom. On the other Wednesdays during this time, the Year Elevens planned an activity of what they would do the following week. Most of the activities run were 'getting to know you' activities and finding common interests in the group.

On Tuesday this week we had a sausage sizzle for all the Year Seven students and Year Eleven leaders. Thanks to Katie, Grace, Lucy and Patrick for cooking.

“We were hoping the students would sit together and play games in the hall, but most of the Year Sevens ran off to play. We played a domino game with some Year Sevens.”

“It was good to catch up and see each other after the holidays.”

We have a morning tea event planned this term for Week Eight. We are asking the Year Sevens to bring in some food to share and the Year Elevens will plan some activities. More information about this event will be emailed to parents closer to the date.

Lastly, the Year Sevens will be joining the Secondary School homerooms for a few visits this term. The Year Eleven students are really looking forward to having them and helping them adjust to the new Homeroom structure that they will be in for 2024.

“The Year Elevens were very helpful in providing us with information about what it will be like in High School.” (Sarah Arnold, Year Seven)

“It was good to talk to them about the questions and activities that they bought. They were interesting.” (Nicholas Hams, Year Seven)

Swim Teacher course.

Careers at GSG