From the Head of Middle School

Last week the Middle School Leaders responded quickly to assist a GSG family, who had been affected by the recent Denmark fire. They brainstormed a variety of different ways they could potentially help the family. In the end they came up with the idea to bake and sell biscuits, to raise funds to help them out.

During Values and Christian Service, the students spent two hours baking chocolate chip and ANZAC biscuits in the Hospitality room. Later in the week on Friday, during recess, they sold approximately 600 biscuits, raising over $600!

Particular thanks to Chelsea, who organised the baking team and to Amy who made about 200 biscuits by herself in boarding on Thursday night. It was a great team effort.

After two weeks of school I have been extremely impressed with the way students have handled the changes in the school environment. Our staff have also adapted well, even though we have had some frustrations when we have organised events and then had to change or postpone them, in particular camps and carnivals. It is disappointing to postpone the swimming carnival, especially for students who love their swimming. We will look at putting an event on at a later date, hopefully when things are more settled.

With the cancellation of camps by the government we have put our thinking caps on and been able to salvage some great experiences for students, albeit in a different format. Our Year Nine students will now do an excursion based Outdoor Education program from Wednesday to Friday next week. Nine staff from the Outdoor Education Group (OEG) will travel from Margaret River to GSG to run outdoor activities during the school day. Year Nine students will be canoeing on the Kalgan River, walking trails around Nanarup and Two Peoples Bay, cooking their own lunches and participating in teamwork challenges and outdoor activities.

We are currently planning for Year Eight students to do two days of outdoor based excursions in Week Five of Term One. In Year Seven we have re-booked their camp at Camp Kennedy in Torbay for Term Four, and we are planning an exciting Albany Adventure for later in the term. More details to come!

Parent Teacher Information Sessions

Last week we put out videos in place of the Parent Teacher Information session.

The videos can be found here

Middle School PowerPoint can be found here.

There is some good information, especially for new families in regard to accessing SEQTA and the GSG app. Parents will be receiving communication from teachers about the start of the school year so please ensure you know how to access SEQTA. Out GSG IT helpline, 9844 0333, can assist if you need help.

In the past we have advised students to always have their school bucket hat in their bag so they can use it at any time. I would ask families to also ensure that students also have a spare mask in their bag at all times. Students have been fantastic at remembering and wearing masks but having a spare mask would reduce a bit of stress if one breaks or gets lost. Our staff have been mindful of having students sit in class for long periods of time with masks on so we have been having mask breaks or doing some schoolwork outside when we can. Students are encouraged to go outside at break times so they can be mask free.

Mr Adam Scott | Head of Middle School

Year Eight STEAM

A group of 20 Year Eight students have begun a semester’s work in the STEAM course. The students have been identifying real world problems that they find interesting. We will be working on the Business as (Un)usual Schools Competition from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) which invites students to imagine a future Australian City and send a postcard in from themselves 80 years in the future! As a precursor we are exploring what a car or vehicle may look like in 2100. Students have been designing a car using Lego and working collaboratively on the project.

What does STE(A)M stand for?

S: Science

T: Technology

E: Engineering

A: Art

M: Mathematics

STE(A)M promotes:

Problem solving and critical thinking.
Identifying real world problems
Hands on inquiry and open-ended exploration
Productive teamwork
Recognition that failure is a necessary part of learning

Ms Elinor Couper | Head of Library Services

Hospitality

Year Seven

Our Year Sevens have had a fantastic time in the Hospitality kitchen in the first couple of weeks this term. They have learnt about kitchen health and safety, kitchen routines, how to use the FOGO and recycling bins, introductory knife skills, and how to wash dishes! They had fun collecting and preparing ingredients to make fruit in a cone, and mini pizza recipes.

Year Eight

The students are learning about the importance of choosing to eat foods from the five food groups every day. The Year Eight class have investigated the fruit food group and learnt about preserving fruit in season. They packed strawberries in white balsamic vinegar, sugar, and basil leaves then made healthy French toast to serve with the macerated strawberries. Students realised the second food group, vegetables, are versatile, especially those in the fridge at the end of the week that often get thrown away can be made into vegetable fritters!

Year Nine

Preserving fresh fruit in season, by means of freezing and making jam, saw our Year Nines make delicious raspberry jam. The jam was stored in sanitised, recycled jars then students studied the requirements of food labelling to produce their own raspberry jam food label. They learnt about the rubbing-in method to produce delicious scones. This culminated in a Devonshire Tea held outdoors for invited teachers hosted by the Hospitality students.

Mrs Teresa McAllister | Head of Technologies

Canteen News

Week Four Specials

Daily Specials: