From the Deputy Principal

A Thriving Community 

Great Southern Grammar is a community of great warmth and support for one another. Our community is developed first and foremost in the meaningful relationships between staff and students and extends to the trusting partnership between the school and our families. 

At Grammar, we believe ourselves to be of the community and here to serve our community in Albany and surrounding regional areas. It is important to nurture collaborative partnerships with our families and the wider community and to build a sense of belonging. 

At a recent staff meeting I posed a question to the staff, “Why do parents choose GSG as the school for their children?” It was a question aimed at having our staff reflect on our greatest strengths as a community. The answer that came back the loudest and the strongest from our staff was that GSG is a place where every student is safe, known and cared for. There is a sense of individualised care within our pastoral and academic tracking of each child. We get to know the whole child, not just the one who spends time in our academic subject. As we build meaningful relationships with each child, it helps us to walk their journey alongside them.

By extension, a strategic project is underway this year to engage more with our alumni, so that students can continue to feel a connection and sense of belonging after they graduate. We are coordinating events throughout this year to welcome our alumni back onto campus and also to meet them when we are in Perth and on our regional community tours. Our music trip to MOJOs in Fremantle earlier this year was a fantastic event, well attended by alumni.  

It is so important to us as educators that we share this experience alongside our parents/caregivers. As we all know, parents are the primary educators of their children. Parents also join our community seeking connections and meaningful partnerships. We hold community events at school for families to get to know one another and to get to know our staff. We have a shared understanding of our values, traditions, and expectations. I would like to acknowledge the important work that our P&F and parent representatives do in this regard. I encourage families to get involved in our events and visit our school to participate in assemblies, carnivals and other events. It was wonderful to see so many families at the recent athletics carnival and Primary School grandparents and special carers day. 

In terms of the wider community, our strategic priority for 2025 sits with our marketing team to design and implement a new marketing strategy, including the redesign of our school website. This project is currently in the prototype phase and a new website will be ready to launch soon. As well as the new website, we are considering how we best communicate to our current families and broader community, including our prospective parents wanting to find out more about our community. Parents would have noticed our GSG Bulletin coming out on Tuesdays which, alongside our Anchor, is designed to streamline our communication to avoid our parents be inundated with emails. The Bulletin is designed to focus on things that are upcoming and the Anchor is designed to celebrate the things that are going on at school each week. 

GSG is more than just a school, it is a thriving community where we work each day to build a sense of belonging. 

Mr Jordan Owenell | Deputy Principal - Head of Secondary