Education,

Care and Community (Years 7 - 12)

Tom Hall returned to GGS in Term 4 in a new role, as Vice Principal - Residential Education, Care and Community (Years 7 - 12). Tom had been our Head of Timbertop since Term 3, 2016, before embarking on a family adventure and rich professional learning and development opportunity at Shawnigan Lake School in Canada at the beginning of 2022. Tom first joined Timbertop in 2001, teaching English and History for three years. He returned for a further five years from 2008-2012 as Director of Student Welfare - Boys. He has also worked at Lauriston’s Howqua campus, was Head of Boarding at Girton Grammar School and was Deputy Director of the Outdoor Education Group, co-ordinating outdoor education programmes for schools across Victoria, before being appointed Head of Timbertop in 2016.

The GGS community has been an enormous part of my life and I am so pleased that I can continue to give back to it in this new role and fulfil the expanded responsibilities that it requires. I look forward to contributing to the School culture and function to help support students and staff in the same way I have been supported by the School since I began my first stint at Timbertop back in 2001 (pictured right). I hope to bring all this experience and understanding of GGS culture and community to the fore within the new Strategic Framework.

Catherine: I think Senior School is unique. Part of it is that there are so many different journeys to arrive in Senior School. More than 50% of our cohort are new to Corio in Year 10, so it brings together a vast array of experiences. Whatever their journey prior to Senior School, we want to add to it and prepare them for life outside of school.

Ant: Our commitment is to ensure that their final stage is a culmination of their experiences and our students can rejoice in that journey. Wherever it started, it finishes with three years with us in Senior School and there’s a real responsibility in bringing that all together and making that Senior School experience a really special one for our students.

Catherine: It is a complex beast but there are so many beautiful aspects – the beauty of our Houses, the beauty of our campus, the beauty of the staff who work with our young people, and the beauty of the diversity of our community.

Ant: I also think that part of that uniqueness and complexity, and something that I have had to get used to, is that we have so many people living and learning on campus all the time. Boarding is such an integral part of what we do, but we also need to ensure that day boarders are not forgotten. We have the privilege of moving across all these different aspects of the campus and one of our shared goals is to build bridges and to bring people together.

Catherine: We try to be present and known so that we build a rapport and a relationship. We’re often helping students in their most vulnerable moments, so our focus is on building relationships.

Ant: We need them to trust us as a team to look after their best interests and to give them a voice so that they can be open and honest with us.

Residential Education and the connections that are formed in those pivotal stages of a young person’s life is what sets our community apart. GGS is not just a school that you transit through from 9am to 3.30pm between the ages of 5 and 18. Our students can start as young as 3-year-olds in ELC and that connection goes right through to the Old Geelong Grammarian community.

I think we do our best learning when we are fully immersed. The most salient lessons are what we learn through the relationships that we have with other people; whether that’s the relationship between a Science teacher and a student in their class, or the relationship between a Head of House and a boarder, or the relationship between a Prep teacher and a student who is brand new to school. So many of those powerful relationships take place within a boarding structure, at Timbertop and Corio.

I’ve loved catching up with students that I got to know at Timbertop. Timbertop is a bit of a Peter Pan existence, in that the students stay the same age every year. It’s been great to reconnect with those students in Senior School and to watch them graduate gives an enormous sense of pride and satisfaction that you’ve played a small part in their journey. I’ve loved seeing these other aspects of the GGS journey. Of course, I’ve always been aware of these other stages, but to be at Corio and to be fully engaged in the entire journey has been fantastic. Even though I have worked for the School for 15 years in total, this new role is fully rounding out my Geelong Grammar School understanding and experience.

Catherine: To have someone who is new to GGS and someone who has been here, it’s so good to have both perspectives. It’s like the yin and yang.

Ant: I feel really blessed to be working alongside Catherine. We’ve started brilliantly and naturally have aligned values. Everyone has been so welcoming and willing to step in and support our work. There is a genuine desire to make the place better, to do what is best for the School and our students, and to make it an even more amazing place.