New boarding house ticks boxes

A state-of-the-art boarding house has opened at Great Southern Grammar to meet the needs of its growing number of boarders.

The building, named Eclipse House, cost $2.5 million and was funded by a low-interest loan from the State Government and a capital grant from the Federal Government.

Eclipse has 32 single bedrooms, staff quarters, a laundry, bathroom, nurse’s room and a theatre room.

The boarding house, which was built with environmental factors in mind, has north-facing living areas and light sensors, and was designed by Perth architects Christou and constructed by local builders Wauters Enterprises.

GSG deputy headmaster Richard Baird said Eclipse House was built to manage an increase in numbers of boarders at the school.

In 2009, 49 students boarded at the school while this year 121 students are boarders — 16 per cent of the school population.

The school’s catchment stretches from Walpole to Esperance and part of the lower Wheatbelt.

Also boarding at the school are indigenous Yalari scholars from Katanning, Wickham, Wyndham, Kalgoorlie and Kununurra.

Mr Baird said parents were starting to keep their children closer to home instead of sending them to Perth so they could be more involved in school life.

“Increasingly people want to keep their children closer to home,” he said.

“Parents enrol their children knowing they are geographically closer to them so they can see them more often, be closer to school to attend events and physically be present to support their children.”