From the Heads of Boarding
Chapel
Last week we celebrated our first Boarding Chapel service for the term. The focus of the service was on the boarding value, Integrity.
Integrity. Act in accordance with principles of moral and ethical conduct, ensure consistency between words and deeds.
Each Chapel service we have two boarders provide a reflection on this value and this time it was Zaydee Kiagoes and Brendan Quick. Both these young people spoke passionately from the heart about the need for integrity within a boarding setting. Zaydee began her talk with a reflection on words by Maya Angelo, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Both she and Brendan focused upon being true to your values and ensuring you are the same person, whether you are cleaning up in the kitchen or communicating online.
There was also the opportunity to celebrate five more boarders achieving their Marsh Awards. The Marsh Award recognises those students who have achieved 100 points in the four pillars of Service, School, Self and Spirituality. Congratulations to Madison Smart, Kate Squibb, Zaydee Kiagoes, Pierce Newman and Brendan Quick.
Staffing
We welcome Brodie Sarre to our boarding supervisory team. Brodie has just moved to Albany with his wife and will be teaching at GSG next year. He is already proving to be a calm presence in Anchorage and Eclipse. The staff roster for each House is available on MyGSG here.
Parent Forum and Sundowner
The Parent Forum was held last week with a lot of valuable feedback received. We appreciate the support our parents give when they commit to attending forums. If you would like to read the minutes from this meeting, please click here.
Thank you to all the parents who stayed on for the Sundowner. It was a lovely evening and the last parent event of the year. We thank everyone for their support in our drive to offer more social events for parents. The drinks supplied at this event were from Lange Estate and Alkoomi Wines. One of our GSG boarding families, the Lange Family own Lange Estate and Mr Andrew Cherry, father of Year Seven boarder Audrey Cherry is the Senior Winemaker with Alkoomi Wines. Feel free to feedback if you have any suggestions for social functions next year.
An idea, suggested at the Parent Forum, was to have a recreation event that parents can join after a parent forum. Four parents took up the opportunity and went ten pin bowling on Friday evening. We would like to arrange more opportunities next year. You are always welcome to join students on Recreation just as you are welcome to enjoy a meal with your child.
The parent survey went out by email last week, please complete the survey here, for each child and return ASAP. We would like to use your feedback in our planning for 2022. At the forum it was suggested that we also complete a student survey. We are finalising the survey this week and we will be distributing it next week to all boarders.
New Boarders for 2022 and Orientation
Next year we have 24 new boarders joining us. Two Year Ten boarders, one Year Nine, seven Year Eights and 14 Year Sevens. We are very pleased to welcome them all to GSG. It will be exciting to see our new Year Seven and Eights on campus for Orientation in a few weeks.
Mrs Tara Ball and Ms Anne Robertson have been busy out on the road visiting our 2022 boarders. Last weekend they spent a lovely day in Kojonup. This year we are offering a boarding sleepover for our new boarders in Michaelmas on Thursday 18 November. The students will then go to the Day School orientation the next day.
We are also currently looking at making some changes to our Peer Support programme, we will send an email out as soon as these changes have been finalised.
Kojonup and Katanning Shows
Ms Vanessa Bromhead has enjoyed attending the Kojonup and Katanning Shows over the past few weekends and is now an expert in beard competitions and agricultural machinery. These shows are a great opportunity to meet current and prospective families. Vanessa also met with some 2022 families whilst at these shows. Both Tara and Vanessa are keen to visit the communities of boarders, so if you have a function coming up in your local town, please let us know.
COVID Immunisations
COVID immunisations have been occurring, for those who desire to get this done. We have facilitated the immunisation of 27 boarders so far and many more parents have taken their own children along to be vaccinated also. You may have heard in the latest release from the Premier that all our boarding and school staff are required to be fully vaccinated by next year.
Dining and Leaders
Our student leaders met with Chef Nick Harvey last week to discuss the menu for the remainder of the term. This is a great opportunity for them to have input into their meals for recess, lunch and dinner. They would like to be involved when Chef Nick constructs the lunch menu and we will arrange this until the end of term. They provided great constructive feedback to Chef Nick around menu changes.
Healthy Relationships
The students of Breaksea and Endeavour are enjoying weekly visits from WA Health as
they run a series of talks and activities on Healthy Relationships. In the first week, the girls enjoyed creating collages of their support networks. We have scheduled more workshops early in 2022 for the Eclipse and Anchorage boarders.
Closed Weekend
Boarders will depart for the Closed Weekend this term after school on Thursday 11 November with students returning on Sunday 13 November from 4.00pm. Please contact your Head of House if you would like to request an alternative time.
Photo Competition
Please remind your child whilst they are home on the long weekend to take some photos for the annual Boarding Photo Competition. There is a prize for the winning entry and the top two photos are printed, framed and displayed in the Dining Hall.
We wish our Year Twelves all the best in their ATAR exams this week and next.
Ms Vanessa Bromhead | Head of Senior Boarding
Mrs Tara Ball | Head of Middle Boarding
Changes to REACH
We are making some changes to the login experience for REACH. Currently, REACH uses a separate username and password from the rest of our GSG online services. From Monday, your username in REACH will change to become your MyGSG user ID number. If you’re unsure of your user ID number, you can find it on your statement or use our guide here: Finding your MyGSG parent account number – Great Southern Grammar - Support.
With the new login experience, you will choose the ‘Use School Login’ button when accessing REACH. This button will take you to the same login experience you will be familiar with to access MyGSG and SEQTA. It also means only remembering one user ID and password across all GSG online services, and you can also use your browser’s ‘remember password’ feature to make logging in a breeze.
Other changes we’ve made in the GSG online services space include improvements to the GSG app, which will launch links to MyGSG and REACH in your device’s browser. These changes will allow you to save your user ID and password in the browser rather than entering it in every time you use the app. The GSG app is a convenient way for you to check the school calendar, view current and past editions of The Anchor, access key contacts across the school, and launch off to our other online services.
For more details on installing our app on iOS or Android, please see our helpful guide Accessing the GSG App – Great Southern Grammar - Support.
The GSG app now also prompts to launch the SEQTA app on your device. The SEQTA app will allow you to easily access your child’s timetable, upcoming assessments and course information and receive push notifications on your child’s academic progress. To install and configure the SEQTA app, check our instructions Accessing the SEQTA Engage App – Great Southern Grammar - Support (gsg.wa.edu.au)
As always, for support in accessing any of these online services, please reach out to the GSG IT Services team by emailing support@gsg.wa.edu.au or give us a call on 9844 0333.
Mr Kieran Bailey | IT Manager