Golden Grove High School

Golden Grove High school is a public secondary school (8-12) located with Gleeson College and Pedare Christian College private schools in Golden Grove, South Australia. The school was built as part of the Delfin Golden Grove development as part of a planned community. The school opened in 1989 attracting many new students from young families in the local area, who would otherwise have attended more distant schools, such as The Heights School at Modbury Heights. There is a special education unit also included for students with intellectual and physical disability. It is also a special interest Dance/Drama school.

History

The main central courtyard of the school had some of Australia's first and largest shade sails erected within it to provide protection from the elements. These often succumbed to vandalism due to their easy accessibility from balcony levels. The material used in these sails was flammable, and therefore easily destroyed. Similar sails are now still common in Australian homes and businesses.

A main block of the school was destroyed in the late 1990s by a fire set by vandals. The fire was lit in an area not visible to general public out of hours, and spread up into the building through a lift-well.

To reduce vandalism and trespassers littering the school over holidays and weekends, a fence has been built around the perimeter of the school. This was completed in Term 2, 2007. This since has had a tremendous effect, and the school has saved lots of money, which has not seemed to be put to good use.

The school since its founding has incorporated the leadership of students into its development, with a Student Voice home group class lead by presidents.

Facilities

The schools share some of their facilities between each other to maximise availability of subjects at each school. This includes a Seniors Library, Manual arts (Woodwork, Metalwork etc), IT facilities and Science labs for Chemistry and Biology. The Seniors Library, named the Thiele Library is dedicated to the famous author Colin Thiele.

The South Australian Government built an adjoining Community Recreation Centre at a cost of approximately 9 million dollars, and was completed in 1993. This centre included two individual stadiums (one with retractable grandstand seating), a gymnasium and a 500 seat performance theatre. Special flooring in the stadiums was made from a special rubber compound, designed to prevent sporting injuries.

The Dame Roma Mitchell Centre, was recently built near the Administration Block of the School. This is a specialist arts centre, with state-of-the-art facilities for drama and dance. School assemblies are also held here. This has an upper level, which has a large lecture theatre used for assemblies and lessons for various subjects. This facility is also shared by the three schools.

ports Day and Talent Show

Golden Grove High School participates in a sports day held once a year where all students are encouraged to attend. Track and field events include:100m Sprint,400m,800m,1500m,200m,High Jump,Long Jump,Triple Jump,Shotput andJavelin

With novelty events including:Tunnel BallThree legged race.

Once the day has concluded individual house points are added up from the results of the track and field events. The houses are Tilley, Milne, Robertson and Stevens. These are all named after families that settled in Golden Grove. The house on the highest amount of points wins the sports day for that year.

An award is also presented to the best and fairest athlete. A male and female award is rewarded.

The Talent Show occurs annually (since it's creation in 2007 by Student Voice President, Buddy Dawson) and is a showcase and competition of Golden Grove High School's very talented students. Performances often are based around the arts (e.g. Music, Dance, Drama) but other acts such as magic, juggling and stand up comedy have also been thrown into the mix.

The awards for the evening are the audience favourite award, 3rd, 2nd and 1st place.

Extra Curricula

This year as one of the extra curricula a competition was held. This competition was held between the three schools In celebration of Navy Week a competition was held where students had the choice to enter something in one of the three categories. The categories were: written, media and model making. The 1st place winners got to go on the HMAS Ballerat as part of a "sea day".

External links

* [http://www.goldengrovehs.sa.edu.au/ Golden Grove High School]