St George’s Anglican Grammar School

ST GEORGE’S ANGLICAN GRAMMAR SCHOOL

BUILDING HOUSE SPIRIT

School spirit is at the top of the agenda at St George’s Anglican Grammar School with a renewed focus on building on House spirit and unity in 2022. Head of Pastoral Hilton Hardman said a commitment to continuously review and improve the School’s Pastoral Care Program led to a focus on building House identity through a range of initiatives. “Students with school spirit do more than show support for their school. They perform better academically, are more socially and civically engaged, and are happier in general than their less-spirited peers,” he said. At the beginning of the year, St George’s introduced a school-wide Token System awarded for commendations, with each token representing one House point.

“The Token System has allowed for in-themoment acknowledgement and reward for behaviour in line with the School values,” Mr Hardman said.

“The tokens have been directly linked to the School Houses, with students placing their tokens into their respective House Jars located on the Ground floor of the School. It is a visual summary of positive behaviours within each of our three Houses.” The token system means all students can support their House to be awarded the House Cup at the end of the year. “Everyone can get involved and contribution to the House Cup is not only limited to those students who excel in sport, academics or music. Each day when they enter or leave the School, they can see the number of tokens in their House jars beginning to increase and it has been a strong factor in increasing house spirit and friendly competitiveness between the houses this year,” Mr Hardman said. “It is a delight to see the students enjoying friendly banter and debate over which House will be the first to get their name etched onto the trophy.” To further create House unity and connectedness, each student received a House badge at a formal House Assembly, with the Year 12 House Captains sharing the importance and meaning behind their House identity. House badges have quickly become a key feature on school blazers and are worn by St George’s students with pride. All staff have also been provided with a House badge, creating House unity between staff and students, with only the Principal remaining neutral to support all Houses equally! House Flags are also prominent, displayed at reception and carried by the House Captains through the city to St George’s Cathedral for the School’s weekly Chapel Services. House activities are also allocated time each term as part of the Positive Pastoral Care Program. These activities rotate between the Houses and are changed each year. This year students took part in the St George’s Amazing Race around the city, a sausage sizzle in Kings Park, and team games throughout the School. These new initiatives have fostered friendships, heightened the sense of belonging to each of our House groups and built on the connections that were already established through our House based vertical PCG groups.