Primary School
Looking Forward to Orientation Day
We are eagerly preparing for Orientation Day, a wonderful opportunity to connect with the incoming 2026 year level and warmly welcome new families into the Great Southern Grammar community. This special day allows future students to experience our campus, meet our dedicated staff and start building the relationships that will support them throughout their educational journey.
What we offer at Great Southern Grammar is truly unique − from our beautiful learning environment to our broad academic and cocurricular programmes, strong pastoral care and commitment to developing the whole person. Orientation Day gives us the chance to share these strengths with new families and highlight the values that make our school such a vibrant and nurturing place to learn and grow.
We are excited to open our doors, expand our community and showcase all that makes Great Southern Grammar exceptional. We look forward to welcoming everyone and beginning this next chapter together. Whilst teachers will not be announced until the end of the year, the students will get to see their classroom location for 2026.
Classroom News
We hope you enjoy reading about what has been happening in our Early Childhood and Primary School classes.
Kindergarten
Last week Kindergarten had a very special visit from Alby’s dad, Carl, who is a paramedic, along with his volunteer helper, Kylie. They even brought the ambulance to school! We were excited to see the flashing lights and hear the sirens! The students asked lots and lots and lots of questions as Paramedic Carl showed us his special machine that measures how a person’s heart is working and how much oxygen they have. We also loved exploring inside the ambulance, lying on the bed and pressing the buttons for the lights and sirens. It was an unforgettable experience for our curious Kindergarten class, and we are grateful for the wonderful helpers in our community who keep us safe.
This week we have been excitedly working towards the end of year as Christmas draws near. Christmas craft is always so much fun and learning about the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus has a birthday, but we are the ones who get the presents! Amazing! We are also busily rehearsing our dance performance for the Christmas concert. We cannot wait to show you!
Pre-Primary
What would you do if you were an elf? That is the question the Pre-Primary students have been trying to answer. With the very exciting antics of Jingle the ECC elf, we have gone into elf mode.
Some of the things we would do as an elf include:
Hudson - I would be called Stitch and I would climb on Ms Youens’ sunglasses.
Sophie - I would be called Snowbell and I would get up to a lot of mischief.
Alfie - I would be called Messy Mess Mess and I would mess up the house!
Larni - I would be called Twinkle and I would eat chocolate and I would put toilet paper
around the classroom everywhere.
Year One
The classroom has been magically turned into a Christmas wonderland and the students have enjoyed playing eye-spy to identify the changes. From the variety of ways to say ‘Merry Christmas’ around the world, to the transformation of the Post Office into the Christmas Pixie Post Office (even the stamps are Christmas themed!) and the sparkly class Christmas tree. Perhaps the most popular addition has been the new Tuff Tray activity to ‘Decorate the mini Christmas Tree’ with a range of mini baubles, lights and trinkets to dress up the tree, providing lots of fine motor and coordination opportunities. While the Nativity play is in its rehearsal stage, Nativity reading and Nativity sequencing tasks have been popular. The mini stick puppets have spread a lot of joy around the classroom as the students’ names have been substituted in for the character roles in the oral recounts (as ‘Odin’, ‘Oakley’ and ‘John’ follow the shining ‘Ralph’ to find the baby Jesus!)
Year Two
This week in Year Two, we bid farewell to our final butterfly Jeremiah. The students were excited to see him fly off into the distance to start his new life and hopefully meet up with our other butterflies Jay Jay, Jenny, Jemima, Julia and Jack! We completed our class book Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly and in Art, the students have made both clay and paper butterflies and looked at symmetry. This has linked well into our Mathematics this week, where we have looked at shapes and objects that have symmetry, as well as discussing the properties of 3D shapes. We will begin our unit on protective behaviours and consent, where we will talk about who is in our safety network, learn how our body gives us signs to tell us we are unsafe, as well as learning the difference between safe and unsafe secrets.
Year Three
Preparations for the Year Three Icy Treat Stall are coming together quite nicely, with the final class receiving their order form on Tuesday morning. This year, our business has evolved to meet the needs of modern markets and we have moved from a fuddy-duddy old trestle table stall to a sleek and high-tech drop shipping operation. Students from Pre-Primary through to Year Six can order a slushie or an ice-cream sundae for only $3, and (as long as they bring their $3 into class this week) we will deliver their delicious desserts on Thursday 4 December.
These frosty delights are the culmination of our final inquiry into why we eat what we eat. We researched exotic desserts from our Asia-Pacific neighbours, created surveys, analysed data and identified trends. We chose two types of slushies, with a berry flavour to satisfy our comfortable customers and a tropical variant to entice the more experimental among us. We followed the numbers and chose two flavours of ice-cream: cookies and cream as well as mint choc chip. And, being the generous folk that we are, we let our customers choose two toppings from the confectionery buffet: wafers, rainbows, Oreos, hundreds & thousands, M&Ms or ice-magic!
Year Four
This week we have been finishing our class novel, Ted Hughes’ Iron Man. We have followed the journey from the Iron Man’s hand crawling from the foot of the cliff to his eventual battle against the demonic monster. To celebrate our text, we have done a STEM project called ‘The iron hand’. This used tin foil, cardboard, straws and string to create a real hand that can bend, grab and even pick things up, all by modelling our own network of bones, tendons and ligaments. These should be coming home by early next week for a creepy Christmas present.
Year Five
This week students have been strutting their stuff at the pool. It has been impressive to see how everyone is taking to the water like dolphins in a wave or turtles in the sea. The smiles and efforts are to be commended. We are slowly piecing together our Christmas performances and have also had some of our Secret Santa gifts coming in, all adding to the joy that is to be Christmas. In the classroom, we are also tying up loose ends and polishing assignments in Mathematics, Science, HASS and Technology in what is proving to be a very full week.
Year Six
Year Six students Hamish King, Lachlan McGill and Xavier Warne demonstrated impressive initiative and community spirit through their Anchor programme by organising a charity cricket match in support of breast cancer research. Alongside the game, they encouraged Primary School students to join in by wearing pink accessories for a gold coin donation and running an icy pole fundraiser at lunchtime.
The much-anticipated cricket match proved to be a highlight of the week, with the student team claiming victory − thanks in part to a spectacular catch from Banjo John and strong batting across the team.
Congratulations to Hamish, Lachlan and Xavier on their outstanding effort in uniting the school for such a meaningful cause. They would like to thank everyone for helping them raise a grand total of $256.15.
Upcoming Events
Week Seven
Monday 24 November to Friday 28 November, In-term swimming lessons, Pre-Primary to Year Six. Please label all items with your child’s name.
Friday 28 November, Orientation Day for 2026 Kindergarten to Year Five, 9.00am to 11.15am; and 2026 Year Seven, 9.00am to 1.30pm
Week Eight
Monday 1 December to Friday 5 December, In-term swimming lessons, Pre-Primary to Year Four, and Year Six. Please label all items with your child’s name.
Week Nine
Monday 8 December, Christmas Service, 10.15am to 10.45am, Multi-Purpose Sport Complex
Tuesday 9 December, Year Six Learning Celebration Breakfast, 7.45am to 8.40am, Multi-Purpose Sport Complex
Tuesday 9 December, Primary School Awards Ceremony, 9.00am to 10.30am, Multi-Purpose Sport Complex
Tuesday 9 December, Tea and coffee will be provided in the undercover area of the Multi-Purpose Sport Complex, whilst classes prepare for the Christmas Concert
Tuesday 9 December, Primary School Christmas Concert, 11.00am to 12.30pm, Multi-Purpose Sport Complex
Have a wonderful weekend.
Ms Leah Field | Head of Primary and
Mrs Hayley Ranger | Head of Early Childhood