Secondary School

In Assembly on Monday, I reminded the Secondary School about Good Standing.  At the heart of how we operate here at school lie our four values of respect, integrity, commitment and compassion.  For a student to have good standing at school, we need to see these values in action.The sorts of behaviours we are looking for include respectful interactions with peers and staff, tidy uniforms all of the time, completion of set tasks from every class, good rates of attendance at school, and attendance at School Carnival events: swimming, cross country and athletics, whether that be in a participating role or a supporting role. 

For students to be considered for popular trips, tours and other opportunities, Good Standing is a key factor.  For example, if a student is keen to attend Country Week but has not come to school on the day of the Swimming Carnival or Cross Country, then they are unlikely to be offered a place.  Students who routinely have their shirts untucked or who try to bend around the hair or jewellery rules are less likely to be offered a place on the St George’s Tour than a student who turns up every day doing the right thing. Most of our students are shining examples of our school values and it is important to me that these students are recognised and rewarded.  Thank you for your support in ensuring that your child has every opportunity to gain and maintain their good standing.  

Our student leadership team is running many great projects at the moment and they ran this week’s Assembly beautifully.  I thought I would share Louis’ speech with you.

School Captain Louis Cosh’s speech from Monday’s Assembly

So today I would like to tell you about a story from my personal life. Recently on the 23 of February, one of my best friends Coco Smargiassi an ex-Grammar student participated in the Rottnest Channel swim as a solo swimmer. For those of you who have not heard of this event before, the Rottnest channel swim is a 19.7km open water swim. To put 20km into perspective it is like climbing Bluff Knoll to the summit 18 times - I still struggle to comprehend how far that is. My role for the day was to be a paddler, which meant paddling next to Coco so she didn’t follow the wrong course and head for Africa. 

I had planned on doing a few paddles before the event maybe joining Mr Fullarton and kayaking to school one day. However, admittedly I found myself the night before in Perth with minimal time spent in a kayak. I kept telling myself if Coco could swim that far I would be more than fine on a kayak. 

The event day was nothing like I had ever seen before, Coco’s start time was at 5.50am. And the only way to explain it was like an army of boats and kayaks in the dark littered with swimmers dodging in between. The conditions were cold, and rainy and we had extremely low visibility. Now for those of you who don’t know Coco, it is important to know she did not plan to have an easy swim, she was in it to do well.

Even with the less-than-ideal conditions on race day, the swim was cleared to go ahead. Coco had gotten a fast start breaking away from the majority of the pack, and to my surprise not getting run over by a boat because it was chaotic, to say the least for the first few kilometres. Each kilometre ticked over, and Coco kept swimming through big swell toward the view of Rottenest on the horizon. Even though I never doubted Coco the sense of belief had grown in all of us as we were already over halfway there, within a few hours.  At the 13km mark, she was in the top twenty of all solo swimmers. But as soon as we were able to start to feel comfortable about the race and her success, there was a twist. The race officials announced over the radio if you were not at the 14km mark you must withdraw immediately due to deteriorating conditions. And then shortly after, cancelling the whole event.

This result is what none of us had prepared for, and the feeling that followed is hard to explain. However, this story is not over as Coco is already planning to go again next year.

This week’s assembly theme is engagement, and you may wonder how this has anything to do with engagement. Well, engagement can be measured by motivation. And this is a great example of it, how being engaged and staying motivated can bring great things. If we are all able to show engagement in and out of school, it will not only build our relationships and school culture. But allow us to achieve many great things in our community. So today listen to some of the stories of how people are being engaged in our school and think what great things you could engage with today and what you can achieve.

School Captain, Maddie Warren shared her reflection on her attendance at the local International Women’s Day Conference.

Two weeks ago, on Friday, it was International Women’s Day. Along with three other Year Twelve girls, I was lucky enough to attend the Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry's conference for the day. They had eight amazing speakers, including a former Olympian Hockeyroo, now CEO of St Johns, and Natasha Short from Kununurra, who works in community development across the Kimberley.

The theme of International Women's Day this year was ‘count her in’, which relates well to this assembly’s theme of engagement. It talks about counting everyone in and engaging everyone with all opportunities, challenges, and experiences, including counting yourself in. 

One of the key messages I took away from the event was that it’s okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are how we grow, and also what makes us human. The feedback people give you after is never about you, but for you. It’s not a reflection of what they think of you as a person, but their perspective on the work you have done.

How we make our way through mistakes is with resilience. I’ve always been taught that resilience is where you bounce back after something goes wrong. However, the Albany Chamber of Commerce CEO challenged this, saying that resilience is bouncing forward. It’s not just going back to where you were before the mistake happened but learning and changing in response to it. 

We also heard from two Year Seven students with their thoughts about their camp this term:

Year Seven Camp - Sophia MacKinnon

Two weeks ago, the Year Seven students embarked on their first camp of Secondary School. We spent three days at the beautiful Jarrahfall Bush Camp in Dwellingup. 

Excitement was in the air as we boarded the bus early on Wednesday morning as this camp had been anticipated for many weeks. 

We arrived at camp in the early afternoon and were welcomed by the friendly staff of Dare Adventures. After being shown to our dorms, (everyone sprinting to the beds to claim the top bunk) we were called back to the dining hall for our first activity. The dorms were very comfortable, practical and welcoming and we all felt right at home. 

The dining hall was a place where we often gathered and it was a very friendly and inviting space where we shared many meals and fun times. 

Our camp was filled with fun and engaging activities and many shared memories. A few personal favorites of mine must include, my group and I trying to find our way back to camp on the night walk, falling into the river before my teams' raft had even left the safety of the stairs and going on the flying fox for the first time. 

We left camp both physically and mentally exhausted, but also satisfied and pleased by the challenges we had overcome and friends and memories we had made that will last us for a long time to come. 

Year Seven Camp - Digby Skinner, read by Tyler Ravenhill

Year Seven camp was an exciting experience I am sure we all won’t forget. 

Our Camp days were filled with lots of challenging, fun activities such as: abseiling, rock-climbing, raft building, archery tag, orienteering, bush walks and riding the flying fox. 

A highlight for me was the flying fox; it went up to 80 kilometres an hour and was 11 metres high. 

We also did amazing night activities including an outdoor movie and a Night Walk, where we had to find our way back to camp in a small group, without any teachers, in the pitch black, with no torches, and by using our night vision. 

I enjoyed getting to know all the new Year Sevens and completing the challenges that made us push ourselves a little. 

Overall, I think it was an awesome camp and all of Year Seven had a great time. Thank you to all of the teachers who came on camp with us, Miss Denholm, Ms Simpson, Mrs Sounness, Dr Watson and Mrs Berryman. 

VACS Easter cupcakes

Some Easter fun in VACS this week. 

ABC Heywire - 2025 Competition now open! Seeking Next Great Southern Winner!

Hear from our own Sienna (Class of 2023) , the 2024 Heywire winner from Great Southern’s story: Every year, we go to Gnowangerup to tidy the graves of our ancestors - ABC Heywire

Aged between 16 – 22? Got a story to share? The ABC Heywire competition wants to hear from you. Heywire is a lived experience storytelling competition for young people living in regional, rural and remote Australia. For more than 20 years, we’ve been championing the bravery and vulnerability it takes to tell your story, your way.

The things that might seem every day to you are epic to us. We’ve seen the impact sharing stories has on communities and the country; that’s why we want to hear yours.

So tell us what life’s like living in your part of the world; or tell us what you care about; or what you’re frustrated by. You can share your story in writing, by recording some audio, shooting video or taking some photos; as long as it’s a true story about some aspect of your life living regionally. 

Our competition closes on September 1 this year and until then, we’re on the hunt for stories about your epic, everyday lives. You could win a once in a lifetime chance to be heard on the issues that matter to you, a chance to work with ABC Producers and an all-expenses paid trip to the ABC Heywire Regional Youth Innovation Summit next year.

For more information and to enter now, here’s the link: https://www.abc.net.au/heywire