From the Head of Junior School

I am delighted to share with our community a new initiative for Year Six.

Year Six represents a significant milestone for young people, and their families, as it marks the final year of their Junior School experience and a transition period towards Year Seven – Middle School.

The transition from Primary to Secondary schooling represents a significant change for students at any school, which can be daunting for many reasons. At GSG, we believe this transition should be an affirming experience for students, where they feel confident and prepared for the next phase of their schooling.

We have designed a programme of initiatives to enhance the experience for our students and prepare them specifically for our Middle School precinct. Our Year Six experience incorporates three core elements:

People
Preparation
Personal Development

People

Our Year Six class teachers provide a familiar Junior School structure whilst partnering with Year Seven Middle School teachers in some subject areas from the beginning of Term One. This partnership incrementally grows throughout the year, offering Year Six students a strong connection with the Junior School whilst forming a relationship with Year Seven teachers.

The value of these relationships cannot be understated, students forming connections between Year Six and Year Seven teachers is incredibly important and will aide the transition tremendously. Collegially, our teaching staff working closely together also benefits their own professional practice and ability to support students across all aspects of their development during this transition period between Year Six and Year Seven.

Preparation

Year Six students begin preparing for Middle School by using many of the same processes for learning. The bookwork, technology devices, software applications, timeframes for project work and support structures complement each other between Year Six and Year Seven. The daily schedule is largely aligned, with subtle differences for Junior School events like assemblies and programmes that recognise their roles as leaders in the Junior School.

Individual learning needs are mapped for every student in Year Six, and plans constructed with families to identify key areas to develop throughout the year that will best prepare students for Year Seven. Timetabled sessions are devoted each week to developing in these key areas for students, and targets set to measure progress with regular updates provided via school communication tools MyGSG and SEQTA portals for families to access.

A tailored Year Six/Seven Transition programme completes the final stages of their preparation with designated sessions in Terms Three and Four where Year Six students spend time with Year Seven as part of the Middle School programme. This familiarises students with regular activities in Year Seven, and builds rapport amongst students and the broader teaching staff in the Middle School.

Personal Development

Our capstone experience for Year Six, launched this year, is the personal development programme we call ‘The Anchor’, incorporating character, leadership, service and an exhibition of learning. 'The Anchor' is a programme designed for students to explore their own character, develop leadership and service skills with genuine weekly leadership experience across the Junior School, culminating with an exhibition of their learning amongst peers and family. The purpose behind ‘The Anchor’ is for students to experience a deep sense-of-self at this phase of their schooling, drawing confidence from their capabilities and aspirations as they transition into a Middle School setting to further their learning.

These three elements are unique to Year Six at GSG, and complement our broader school experience of:

Specialist music programme
Great Southern Griffins sporting teams
House pastoral system
Camp
After School activity clubs
Calendared events throughout the year including carnivals, concerts and special occasions.

We are immensely proud of our Year Six experience and the calibre of young people it develops. These new initiatives for Year Six, we feel, will provide a milestone experience that celebrates their Junior School years and prepares students for a confident transition to the Middle School.

With warmest regards,

Mr Ken Raven | Head of Junior School

You Can Do It!

This week we have been looking at the social-emotional key of Organisation. There are three steps to basic Organisation - Listening carefully, putting things away, being on time. At our briefings for the next two weeks will be looking to award the heroes for this key.

At our briefings this week, we awarded our final Persistence Hero awards for the term. Congratulations to:

Kindy: George Taylor

Pre-Primary: Rose Bane

Year One: Harry Osborne

Year Two: Oliver Schaeffer

Year Three: Noah Sanders

Year Four: Bo Anning

Year Five: Marnie McCormack-Mason

Year Six: Flora Rogers and Gracie Shuttleworth

Our ECC Stars of the Week have their work displayed outside the Junior School office. This week our stars are:

Kindy: Isamika Tozana

Pre-Primary: Dash Mulder

Year One: Amity Wegner

Year Two: Leah Watkins

Mrs Leah Field | Assistant Head of Junior School

Green Team Update

With a massive thanks to the commitment of our Green Team and the parents and children of our amazing Junior School we were able to reduce our lunch box waste in the Junior School by a whopping 83%! Well done to each class for taking on this challenge and becoming more aware of the amount of single use plastics we use just in our lunch boxes. Our class tallies are as follows:

1st Year 60 – 91%

2nd Year 6F and 5E – 87%

3rd Year 3H 86%

4th Year 4G 85.3%

5th Year 1G 85%

6th Year 2D 62%

We also had 30 students who were able to cut down their single use plastics by 100%! These students will be awarded at our next assembly. Well done: Paige Raven, Blake Ravenhill, Stephanie Siripun, Amity Wegner, Gracie Williamson (Year One), Boyce Sprigg (Year Two), Stella Hick, Sophie Raven, Noah Sanders, Maggie Stephens (Year Three), Parker Bowey, Max Gavin, Lachlan Pages, Jessie Rotoff (Year Four), Lachlan Ellis, A’ine Galbraith, Marnie McCormack-Mason, Levi Ravenhill, Lenny Williamson (Year Five) and Edward Baker, Harriet Swain, Darcey Perkins, Charlotte Berryman, Cate Broberg, Lauren Buis, Menari Deegan, Jessica Gatti, Thomas Rochester, Tim Smit and Kari Taylor (Year Six).

Term Three 'War on Waste' Initiatives

Take Home Tuesday

This is when you take home all of your waste in your lunch boxes.

Waste Free Wednesday

Students who wish to participate see their Green Team leader at recess with their lunch box to have their name ticked off as “waste free” and receive a House point and a point towards their class’s tally for the term.

Containers for Change

The Green Team are helping to collect containers for change in small bins in the ECC and Junior School (those with the 10c symbol on the back) and transferring them into the larger bin near Middle School. Green Skills will collect these for us and the money we raise will purchase trees to plant around the School.

Sofia, Charlize, Lachlan, Myla, Matilda and Samuel and Mrs Field

Community News

Up Coming Arts Exhibitions

Albany Wind Festival