From the Head of Boarding
The last few weeks have been very busy around boarding. We have seen a lot of movement in and around our space at Great Southern Grammar with our senior boarder's in Years Eleven and Twelve sitting their Semester One exams. The ATAR students have sat through their exams and were able to use boarding as a base during the week with the assistance of Miss Tiffany Kok and Miss May Botha, our Gap Assistants who based themselves in Breaksea and Eclipse Houses. Sitting through exams and experiencing the pressure of what life can bring is a great lesson. Our Year Seven boarders went bush for three days to Dwellingup on Year Seven camp and Tristan Harris did a great job standing up on stage at assembly to speak about their experience to the school. This left Endeavour and Anchorage House very quiet for the week for our Year Eight and Nine boarders. This week we have the opposite with Country Week as our Seniors are competing in Perth. It’s fair to say our boarders and staff have been very busy this term and are looking forward to a break.
I was away last week on a Wilderness First Aid course in Dwellingup, and this gave me a chance to reflect with some other colleagues from Perth on what we do well and what we can improve on in our boarding spaces. One of the areas I discussed was the way we as a rural boarding community looked at building our culture of equity. This conversation linked into a course I have been doing online from the Harvard Business School.
We know all students can flourish and achieve at high levels if adequately supported by their boarding and school environment, regardless of their background and identity.
Every boarder is different and will have different needs. It is not enough for boarding to provide the same structures and supports to students – that is, to treat students equally – because this ignores their differences. Equity means creating the conditions that enable every boarder to succeed.
As Head of Boarding, my aim is to ensure that we build a culture that supports the success of all our boarders. Focusing on inclusion and belonging and its importance, so our staff ensure our boarders feel welcomed, included and that they belong as this can deeply influence how they can perform. This is something that can challenge our boarding community as like any community there can be an array of complex issues. We need to be able to celebrate and identify ways in which we can better communicate that, so we can recognise, welcome, value and appreciate this diversity.
Instilling a growth mindset in boarders is important to advancing equity because boarders who believe that their capabilities can be developed and that their intelligence is malleable are more receptive to feedback, work harder, and are better equipped to deal with setbacks.
As boarding staff, we need to show our boarders what a growth mindset is and why it is important, so they can see that their own behaviour and attitude in the boarding house is a model for our boarders.
At the end of the day, we all have some degree of unconscious bias, and it affects how we interact with others. Unconscious bias can show up in different ways in boarding: the boarders or boarding staff we call on or spend time with, the feedback we give to them, the extra supports that we provide, the way we react to their successes or failures, and the special opportunities that we do or don’t make available to them.
As Head of Boarding, my aim is to work alongside our wonderful boarding staff, boarders and our community to address the effects of unconscious bias by discussing it as a group and implementing specific practices to mitigate its effects.
As the term comes to an end, I would like to wish you all a safe, enjoyable well-earned holiday with your family, stay safe and see you all next term.
Mr Ashley Keatch | Head of Boarding