In Focus

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Email: info@gwa.com
Website: www.gwa.com
Phone: (678) 635-3800

• School Closed: Friday, Sept. 27

• V Football at LCA: Moved to this Sat., 11 a.m.
• Deadline for Communications Survey: Sept. 30 (see email)
• Homecoming Week: Sept. 30 - Oct. 4

• Homecoming Dress Up Days: Sept. 30 - Oct. 4 (see below)

• Alumni & The Champions Club Tailgate: Oct. 4 (see below)

• Early Dismissal: Friday, Oct. 4 (LS 11 a.m., MS/HS 11:30 a.m.)

• No Aftercare: Friday, Oct. 4

• Buses Depart at 11:35 a.m.: Friday, Oct. 4

• Champions Club Tailgate: Friday, Oct. 4 (see below)

• Homecoming Dance: Saturday, Oct. 5

• Fall Break: Oct. 10 - 14

• LS Teacher Conferences: Tuesday, Oct. 15 (no school for LS ONLY)

New members of our upper school honor societies were inducted last night. Congratulations to the 2024 inductees of National Honor Society, Beta Club, and Mu Alpha Theta on their demonstration of scholarship, leadership and character. The following members of these three honor societies will serve as officers for the 24-25 school year:

National Honor Society:

President – McKenna Rutledge

Vice President – Gabriel Rainford

Secretary – Lauren Exline

Beta Club:

President – Moneli Shekarbakht

Vice President – Kaden Franklin

Secretary – Alexa Lo

Mu Alpha Theta:

President – Rosemary Ferguson

Communications Chair – Emerson Sheldon

Competition Chair – Moneli Shekarbakht

Service Chair – Lauren Exline

Thank you to our club sponsors – Wandalla Wilson (NHS), Jared Wilson (Beta Club), and Suzy Quinlan (Mu Alpha Theta).

On Wednesday, we inducted our second group of new Junior Beta Club students. These students must earn a 90th percentile average in their core classes to be invited to join this national honor society. GWA inducted 48 new members who will serve GWA and our local community over the coming academic year. Last year, our members put in more than 500 hours total and maintained their grades. We are so excited for another year!

Mrs. Johnson's upper school History students visited the Ocmulgee Mounds Historic National Park in Macon, GA. This trip provided for a fascinating dive into Native American history. They explored ancient earthworks and climbed the Great Temple Mound for a breathtaking view. The artifacts in the museum brought the site’s rich past to life, making it both an educational and memorable experience.

Students in fourth grade have been studying our Earth, stars, constellations, and the moon phases. Recently, they built a planetarium to star gaze inside the classroom. Each student helped to complete this large-scale classroom project. Inside the planetarium you can see the Big Dipper and Orion and enjoy a view of the night sky.

This week, our enthusiastic third graders dove into the world of arrays with a hands-on lesson using Play-Doh! Each student rolled, shaped, and created their own colorful arrays, transforming a math concept into a tactile experience. This fun activity not only sparked creativity but also helped deepen their understanding of multiplication and organization. We can’t wait to see how they apply their new skills in future math challenges!

As part of our lower school Bible special, we will celebrate national “Bring Your Bible to School Day” on Thursday, October 3. Students are encouraged to bring their Bibles to school on this day. If they do not have one, extra Bibles at the school will be provided. Students and faculty will share the importance of reading the Bible and how a relationship with God changes lives. This event will occur in the cafeteria from 1:40 - 2:20 p.m. during the scheduled specials time. Parents are welcome to attend. Students of other faiths will not be required to attend, and alternative activities will be offered.

GWA’s Peer and Mu Alpha Theta (the National Math Honor Society) tutors are available during students' study hall periods to help with academic questions!

Students will need to check in with their study hall teacher first, but then ask to go to see a tutor.

Where and when:

Periods 1-4 - tutors will be located at the long table in The Learning Center.

Periods 5-7 - tutors will be located at the high-top tables outside of The Learning Center.

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact:

Jordan Greene (jgreene@gwa.com) regarding Peer Tutors or

Suzy Quinlan (squinlan@gwa.com) regarding Mu Alpha Theta

We kicked off Building Bulldogs this week with a lesson on courage and responsibility. In our K3 to third-grade classes, we introduced our new learning curriculum, Slumberkins. With the help of our friend, Ibex, we learned to embrace our emotions and also how to do our part in responding to our feelings in a caring and loving way. Fourth and fifth graders learned the importance of social and academic responsibility. Together, we developed an understanding on how to use our words and actions to ensure safety and preparedness both in and out of the classroom.

Join us next Friday before the game and the Homecoming Night festivities! All families are invited and you do not need to be a member of The Champions Club. We will have Stripling's BBQ/sides available for purchase and fun activities for all ages. Go Bulldogs!

We are excited to welcome our exchange students from St. Paul's School Barcelona - Joan, Alejandro, Salvador, Matias, Helena, Sofia, Estel, Adriana, Sienna, Gabriel, Cloe, and Aitana as well as their Director of Global Studies Tina Ridge. The students will spend three weeks with their host families, attend classes at GWA, explore points of interest in and around Georgia and experience daily life as an American teenager. We look forward to getting to know our new friends from Spain over the coming weeks!

Don't miss your chance to see our competition cheer teams compete at home in Saturday's Bulldog Battle! Good luck to all of the cheerleaders!

Last night, the middle school football team wrapped up their regular season with a 41-7 win over Loganville Christian Academy. They finished the regular season with a record of 4-2.

With the win over LCA, the boys secured the #1 seed for the Region Playoffs. The team will play the winner of #2 BCA vs. #3 Lakeview on Tuesday, October 8, for the Region Championship. The game will be played at Don Williams Stadium. Go Bulldogs!

The Bulldogs outran Hurricane Helene and managed to squeeze in a test run on the GIAA state course at First Presbyterian Day School in Macon. Everyone showed a lot of mental toughness on the course and support for each other off the course.

Top 10 Finishers:

Gage Wasileski- 1st, MS Boys

Azalea Snell - 2nd, Varsity Girls

Moneli Shekarbakht- 6th, Varsity Girls

Ashley Fields - 6th, MS Girls

The MS boys team placed 2nd with several running best times to make it happen. Phillip Akin led the varsity boys team, placing 24th with a time of 20:37.

The Bulldogs will run again on October 5. Middle school will compete in the GIAA end-of-season meet in Macon and varsity will run in the Braves Invite in Milledgeville. Go Bulldogs!

Any middle and high school students interested in wrestling should see Coach Sperin (in the Lower School Gym) to sign-up. Practices will start Monday, Oct. 21 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in the Loft in the George. Students must have a physical on file before they can begin practice. Any questions please contact Coach Sperin at jsperin@gwa.com.

Planning and post-game evaluations are an essential component of athletic preparedness for every team at GWA. Each week throughout the school year, our teams prep and debrief after each game, match, and event. The challenge is, our coaches and student athletes didn’t have a central location to meet, so they met in every corner across the campus.

Enter The George – prior to its completion, a group of coaches and parents scouted locations for a future athletic film room. Before long, the team planned a two-phase project to have the new film room ready for fall sports. In a matter of five weeks, a 21’ x 25’ storage room was transformed into an incredible film room for all Bulldog athletes!! The construction transformation was headed up by one of our very own GWA parents!

Phase 1 includes raised seating for 41 athletes, two 4’ x 8’ Quartet glass white boards, and an Epson 4K PRO-UHD projector, an automatic 100” projector screen (donated by a valued GWA family), and a custom backlit GWA athletics logo. The expenses for phase 1 were covered by two GWA families! Fundraising for Phase 2 is underway and includes adding custom chairs with the GWA athletic logo. We are planning to have Phase 2 wrapped up by spring 2025.

Are you interested in joining the Swim Dawgs this year? Plan to attend the upcoming informational meeting on Monday, Sept. 30 in the cafeteria with Coach Kinsey Snell. Swimmers must be able to swim 25 continuous yards, unassisted. Contact Coach Snell at ksnell@gwa.com with any questions.

Artists in fifth grade are taking their knowledge of landscape drawing to the next level. They learned all about "horizon lines" and "vanishing points" to create some awesome landscape drawings using One Point Perspective! This is no easy task, but like always, these artists met the challenge head on! These beautiful masterpieces will be mailed off to the Original Works company in New York and parents will have the ability to order their students' work on all kinds of products from mugs to blankets to magnets!

GWA alumni - We are excited to welcome you back to campus! Join us for a GWA Homecoming Alumni Tailgate in conjunction with The Champions Club Tailgate party in the Field House parking lot area. There will be bounce houses, giveaways, face painting and much more. Complimentary dinner tickets are available for GWA alumni and immediate family by RSVP'ing using the provided link below. Game tickets are available to purchase through the GoFan app or at the gate. We can't wait to see you on Friday, Oct. 4 beginning at 5:30 p.m.!

https://forms.gle/3Y9hMqE8prrt2JaE7