Perspective

s we emerged from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated turbulence, we commenced the new school year with an exuberant and somewhat aspirational theme - “Woo-hoo 2022!” With the theme’s encouragement to embrace joy, positivity and opportunity, our year unfolded with “woo-hoo” moments and gratitude; reflecting upon how far we’d come from the challenging and lengthy Victorian lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, we appreciated dearly the reconnection 2022 offered. In the constancy of Geelong Grammar School’s (GGS) ebb and flow, our spirits were constantly buoyed by the ongoing support and generosity of our community – a community that believes in the transformational strength of education.

Our annual Impact of Giving report highlights how fortunate we have been to move through the challenges of the past few years with the support, care, and cooperation of our benefactors. As our School navigated unprecedented obstacles, the leadership and philanthropy of the Geelong Grammar Foundation and its members enabled our learners to feel a genuine sense of belonging and a confidence to open their hearts and minds to the myriad of possibilities available at GGS. It is my great privilege to thank each and every one of you for your generosity that strengthens and sustains our School.

The theme of this year’s report is Creating Impact. Our School is committed to providing young people with the knowledge, faith, and compassion to create purposeful and enterprising lives: lives that prioritise wellbeing and creativity. Creative Education is one the School’s three Strategic Pillars (alongside Adventure Education and Positive Education) that underpin our approach to an Exceptional Education. Through the theme Creating Impact, the report explores contributions that have supported the creative capacity of students and staff, cultivating the skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem posing and problem solving. The following pages and stories demonstrate the importance of these skills and showcase the breadth of learning opportunities provided by a GGS education.

Our School’s development of Creative Education has been accelerated by the visionary philanthropy of Min and Ian Darling AO (P’79). Min and Ian’s ardent advocacy has assisted students and staff to engage more adeptly with the complex opportunities of an ever-evolving world. It has enabled the employment of our two Creative Education Collaborators (Dan Davies and Matt Limb) and augmented our academic programmes to progress beyond the silos of standardised learning and towards an education that recognises the universal and teachable skills that lie between subjects. Min and Ian’s commitment and generosity help gift our students the freedom and flexibility to use their imagination, to take responsible risks, and nurture their capacity as courageous and convergent thinkers.

Our developing approach to sustainability is a wonderful example of how our School community, staff and students are applying creativity and solutions-oriented choices to pressing issues. Sustainability was identified by our community as integral to the vision and future of our School through the stakeholder engagement process of the Corio Campus Masterplan. The Foundation had also identified this as an area of opportunity, supporting the appointment of our Sustainability Manager, Dale Martin, who commenced at GGS in early 2022. The Creative Education team has also been active in this space, building the skills and capacity of our student-led Environmental Action Team (EAT). Dale and our EAT students then collaborated on an inaugural whole of school, multi-campus Sustainability Policy, which was endorsed by School Council in October.

We are delighted with how our sustainability initiatives are Creating Impact. As ever, our ambition is to develop the greatest potential positive impact and progress the School’s purpose of ‘shaping a better world’. We are inspired by the example of others, including Jeff Peck (Ge’42), who left a generous bequest to scholarships and the School’s sailing programme. Jeff was a member of our Biddlecombe Society, which grew to 243 members in 2022. The Society strengthens and sustains our provision of Exceptional Education, and I am thankful for the enduring selflessness of all those who have provided a Bequest in their Will to the Foundation, thereby benefiting the future of our School.

Scholarships are vital to the future of our School, particularly the continuing diversity of our student cohort. Currently, almost 25 percent of students at our School receive some form of financial assistance. Scholarships such as the Michael Collins Persse Scholarship, which is now valued at over $2.5 million, provide life-changing opportunities for so many young people who otherwise could not afford a GGS education, especially those from rural, regional, and Indigenous communities. Our Scholarship Programme is itself diverse, with scholarships such as the Geoffrey (Pop) R. Fink Scholarship and Sir Russell Drysdale Visual Arts Scholarship, the latter kindly initiated by Belinda and John Simson (Cu’73), which nurture talented visual arts students, adding enormously to the creative life of our School.

Throughout 2022, such commitment and spirit were exemplified by the efforts of our Geelong Grammar Foundation, its members and our benefactors; the result was a resounding and collective “woo-hoo”!

Yours gratefully,

Rebecca Cody Principal