From the Boarding Captains

As the spread of COVID around boarding has slowed down, I am grateful to see the community recovering from what was a hectic couple of weeks. With the implementation of separated dinners and social distancing in the dining hall, we started to really appreciate the normal dinner layout, where we got to see students from other houses and sit in unison. Although it felt pretty lonely, these social distancing and isolation strategies helped stop the spread of COVID through our community and kept our students safe from illness, which has paid off as we begin to see boarders coming back from their time away sick. 

Our seniors are especially thankful for the crack down on the spread, due to the quickly approaching event of Country Week. In previous years, this week of sport has been cancelled and postponed due to the pandemic, with buses even turned around halfway to Perth in 2021. After the success of last year's trip, students in Years Ten and Eleven are eager to play again alongside other country and rural schools in WA. This year’s Country Week squad departed on Sunday morning, and we wish the best of luck to our boarders competing. 

I’d like to remind everyone of preparations for the P&F Kingfisher Fair next term, which is a significant fundraising event for the school. As a boarding community, we are seeking everyone’s support in getting our projects rolling for the day. Endeavour and Breaksea will be making up decorated jars of rocky road to sell, so we would appreciate any home recipes you may have and donations of Moccona coffee jars. I am excited to see our students working together next term to create stalls for the Fair, and to see you all supporting the event.

I can’t believe Semester One is already coming to an end! I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday, and I look forward to the start of Term Three with you all.  

Ava Smith | Boarding Captain

As Term Two finally comes to an end, the weather down here in Albany has certainly changed. The Winter solstice was last week, and we are now well and truly into the cold and harsh winter of Albany. It has been raining, cold and windy over the last few weeks in Albany and there is certainly a lot of water laying around the school. 

The surge of COVID and the flu has certainly slowed down for the better as Country Week for our older boarders is upon us. We encourage everyone to keep sanitising, keep warm and eat healthy to avoid more boarders getting sick with either the flu or COVID over the break. 

On 9 June, Grammar held its annual Foundation Day assembly, but this year it was a special one because Great Southern Grammar was celebrating 25 years of establishment. We rehearsed for days in advance to ensure that it ran smoothly on the day which it certainly did. Ava and I both spoke about GSG boarding and its history. Below is the part I spoke at the assembly about the establishment of the boarding houses:

"Our first boarding House, Anchorage, was opened in 2000 and progressively the other Houses have followed, Endeavour 2003, Michaelmas 2010, Eclipse 2014 and Breaksea 2016. For a short period of time, some ten years ago, we had an extra house off campus called Flinders which was in Bayonet Head. Students were bussed to and from school daily."

The assembly was overall a great success with lots of former teachers and students attending. Several of the school founders also attended the assembly and spoke about their perspective when they were thinking of established a school out of town in a big open paddock, which is what GSG was 25 years ago.

I wish everyone a good rest of term, and a safe and happy holiday with friends and family. I look forward to seeing everyone in Term Three, to celebrate my last term of schooling forever.

Darcy Barrett | Boarding Captain