Breaksea House News

Farewell

As this will be my last Boarding Buzz contribution as Breaksea Head of House, I take this opportunity to thank all the girls, past and present, of Breaksea House. You helped make my settling into both Australia and GSG a more connected and memorable experience. I certainly have a few more grey hairs and certainly more pounds due to the abundance of afternoon tea and morning tea that is on offer here in boarding, and a few shenanigans from my teenager charges. I will miss this relationship I have with you, but I look forward to my new role in the day school and my continued passion for having conversations with the girls on what happens in the Senior School and what happens after school.

Flat-Week Challenge

As my last initiative as Breaksea Head of House, I set the Year Eleven girls a task in Week Five, while the Year Ten girls were on camp week. They had to fend for themselves as if they were in Perth, house sharing and with a budget of $350.00. It was a real-life experience in Woolworths on day one as they stood around initially and then as they worked it out later in the house as to who, when and what was going to be cooked. The atmosphere in the house was very special and I thank the girls involved for their positive attitudes and their companionship and support of each other.

Finally, thank you to the Breaksea House parents. It has been a pleasure to be a part of your daughters’ boarding journey at GSG. All girls that come into Breaksea leave much more confident and self-reliant than when they arrive and it is both due to the staff in Breaksea House, the Gap Assistants over the years, and the support you give your girls as they grow into the young woman they become.

I wish you all the best for next year and I am sure you will all be very impressed with my replacement. There will always be a seat in my office in the day school for the girls to pop in and have a good chat when they want.

Mrs Angela Ferreira | Head of Breaksea House

Year Eleven Flat-Week Challenge

"During the Year Ten Outward Bound week, seven of us Year Eleven students had to cook by ourselves. I learnt a lot about each member of our small boarding year, and about cooperation and resilience. At the end, it was a successful week, and I’m glad we had the opportunity to do it."

Amberley Daw | Year Eleven

"I really enjoyed cooking for ourselves this past week because it allowed us to band together and come up with our meals for the week. I really enjoyed the dinner party as we easily had the best meal of the week. Thanks, Amy and I, for cooking up some gourmet spaghetti bolognaise. Jade topped the night off with her delicious brownies. Thank you to Mrs Ferreira for giving us the opportunity to experience what cooking for ourselves is really like."

Jessica Dolan | Year Eleven

"This week was very eye-opening as it taught us girls how to cope under the pressure of providing each other with edible meals. Thanks to Jessica Dolan for just cooking the pasta and leaving me to do everything else for the dinner party. Also thank you to Miss Smith and Mr Barnett for attending our dinner party. It was an entertaining night."

Amy Gillam | Year Eleven

"This past week has been quite an experience. I learnt a lot about cooking as a group and I feel it has bought our little year group closer together. I enjoyed planning our meals for the week and going to Woolworths and buying our own food on a set budget. It taught us how to appropriately spend our money. I’m glad that we were given this opportunity."

Kayla Peacock | Year Eleven

"In Week Five we had to cook and plan all our meals. It was very hard to decide what meal everyone wanted and on what night we were going to make it. I found that we didn’t really take into consideration how long each meal was going to take to cook. After that week, we were all dreading going out on our own and having to cook for ourselves every day."

Jade Richter | Year Eleven

"Last week we had to cook all our own meals; breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. At the start of the week we didn’t think we’d have enough money to cook good meals, however, with choosing the right foods on special food plan, we got past this. The experience really helped us understand budgeting and how to cook to everyone’s taste."

Livia Alvarez de Toledo| Year Eleven

"Week Five was something that I will remember for a while. The 2019 Year Eleven Breaksea House girls and I all had to fend for ourselves and organise all our meals for the week on a budget. I believe this experience has opened many of our eyes to what housemate life may be like beyond boarding, as well as bringing us together as a year group."

Annabelle Cunningham | Year Eleven

House Photos

Please enjoy a selection of photos to wrap up the term.