From the Head of Boarding 

I recently went online with the Heads of Boarding in WA and from around Australia to discuss all things residential. One theme that seemed to resonate amongst all Heads of Boarding was ‘what is going to hit us next in boarding?’ With all the uncertainty in the world currently and the demand on resources and market forces to cater for our ever-increasing demand on supply. I was drawn to an article by a friend in Perth who is the CEO of Multiplex, John Flecker. I have taught some of his boys and coached one of them in AFL football at Swanbourne Tigers. He recently wrote an article on the notion of 'is volatility the new normal?'  Whether it be a pandemic, climate change, politics, the economy, financial markets there seems to be a higher degree of volatility than we remember in decades past.  

I was reflecting on this notion and looked at what we can control in our space here at Grammar, one constant for me in boarding at GSG is our aim to provide a safe, secure and positive environment for your child where they can develop their knowledge, skills, self-confidence and maturity to respect and care for themselves and others here and beyond school.  

We have been working on 'relational' over 'operational' at the start of this term with every staff member in boarding developing a relationship that encourages trust, respect and empathy with your child. I am currently working with the Community Relations team to develop our 'Values' poster in boarding which will include staff and student feedback before we place them around each boarding house. This will be a visual reminder of what we stand for as a community and something we can all say is our constant when we look for our culture in boarding here at GSG. 

'Know your role, play your role' has been another area I am looking at with our staff and student leadership groups. We have just finalised student leadership roles in each of the houses and over the rest of this term, I will be looking at knowing what their role is within our team and working with our Heads of Boarding Houses to ensure students and our staff are playing their roles. Our Boarding system has extensive networks of people working within their direct teams (houses) and across teams. I am keen to not be working in silos in each of the houses but ensure we have a consistent message and connection through our boarding system. 

Along with this theme of connection is an activity we started this week with our senior and junior boarders by bringing them together on Tuesday night for an evening meal. The Eclipse boys made their way from the back block to share in a few games and have a BBQ with our Anchorage boys. I am always impressed when I see boys step up and start cooking or grab a ball and get others involved. It was a great start to something that I think will develop and grow over the term. 

The Breaksea boarders did the same thing with the Endeavour boarders but went into the dining hall and shared a meal. Students were put into birth months on each table and shared and chatted about school and life. We will rotate this each week, so all of our boarders get to experience both ways of interacting and coming together. 

Federal Government Announcement

This week, the Federal Government has announced a Commonwealth Regional Scholarship program to provide better support for boarding school students from regional Australia.

This pilot scheme will have 50 scholarships of $20,000 per year for six years of schooling to support low-income families, and 50 scholarships of $10,000 per year for six years of schooling for low to middle-income families experiencing financial hardship.  The Media Release can be found below.

Mr Ashley Keatch | Head of Boarding