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

• Christmas Band Concert: TONIGHT, 7 p.m.

• 4th Grade Musical Performance: Dec. 13

• MS/HS Christmas Parties: Dec. 13

• Exams (8th-12th): Dec. 17-19 (see below)

• LS Winter Dance Performance: Wednesday, Dec. 18

• Exam Make-Up Day: Friday, Dec. 20

• LS Christmas Parties: Dec. 20

• Early Dismissal (for all grades on campus): Friday, Dec. 20, 10 a.m (buses depart at 10:05 a.m.), there will be no aftercare

• Christmas Break: Dec. 23 - Jan. 6

• Faculty Work Day: Jan. 6 (no school for students)

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE GWA WEBSITE CALENDAR

Dear George Walton Family,

I want to take a moment to express my gratitude, celebrate recent successes, and share a personal request with each and every GWA family as I reflect on my hopes and dreams for our school in 2025.

Gratitude & Successes

No question, I am on a holiday high this week, coming off our Giving Tuesday, Christmas Tree Presentation, and Gingerbread Christmas. We received more than 150 gifts in a single day (another record), 67 seniors and their first graders beamed with festive sartorial flair in front of a packed house in the Nicholson Center, and we had an awesome turnout for our Christmas event for the Walton County community. Santa was smiling in photos non-stop for more than two hours!

These successes do not just happen. They may seem easy to carry out, but that is because they are executed flawlessly. Dozens of smiling staff, students and parent volunteers make it happen, and to them, we are incredibly grateful. Great job, Team GWA!

Student Success at GWA

On the other hand, student stress levels are understandably high too. Semester exams are upon us next week for grades 8 – 12. When I think of GWA’s high academic standards, the following points resonate:

Hard Work Pays Off:

· 100% college acceptances each year

· 88% Hope Scholarship eligible in the Class of 2024

· $4.2 million in college scholarships (not including Hope and Zell)

· 2024 ACT & SAT scores that are > 100 points higher than public and private school averages

Let’s remember that George Walton is, unapologetically, a college-preparatory school. We work with gifted, motivated students and we set high standards. This is how we prepare graduates for college and for life. Yes, the hard work is worth it!

A Christmas Request

We are always searching for wonderful new families who share our core values and lofty academic and behavioral aspirations for children; those families and children who would flourish in the GWA Family.

This Christmas holiday, please think about friends who deserve to learn more about GWA. Have courage: tell them about us! Share why your children love GWA. Give their names to me, Cari Bailey or Coach Lam, and we would be delighted to reach out to them to tell our story. Together, we can make the GWA Family even more special in 2025!

Merry Christmas!

John D. Marshall

Head of School

Students in Mrs. Noll’s middle school Bible class created Chrismon ornaments and decorated their own tree this year. The Chrismon Tree can be found in many churches during the Advent and Christmas season. Each ornament on the Chrismon Tree represents Jesus, either through symbol or through the letters in His name. All ornaments are white (representing Jesus’ purity) and lightly decorated with gold (representing Jesus’ royalty). Ornaments include:

-A lamb, showing that Jesus is the lamb who was sacrificed for our sins

-A lamp, reminding us that Jesus is the light of the world

-The Greek Letters “Chi” and “Ro”, which are the first letters of Jesus’ name

-A triangle, showing Jesus as part of the Holy Trinity

-Various crosses

The Chrismon tree is a wonderful way to celebrate the season by focusing more on the true meaning of Christmas—the birth of Jesus.

The middle school Robotics class has been learning to write code to control circuits and robots. This activity is the culmination of the semester of learning. It involves programming a robot using a sonic sensor to detect and avoid an object. This requires using math to understand how far the robot can travel and programming it to stop before colliding with the object. Once they can control a single occurrence, they can reproduce that same sequence to move through a maze and come out on the other side. Students also learned to collaborate and help troubleshoot each other’s coding problems by talking through the program and reading each other’s code.

Our school SRO, Officer Hunt, brought the judicial branch to life, sharing real-world stories about how law enforcement and the courts work together. From the drama of arrests to the intrigue of trials, Officer Hunt walked Mrs. Johnson's Government class through it all, sprinkling in tips on crime prevention and some eye-opening insights into community safety. The students were hooked—it was like having a front-row seat to "Law & Order: Classroom Edition." This lesson was a huge hit and a great way to connect our lessons to the real world!

This year's Gingerbread Christmas Extravaganza was bigger and better than ever! What a fantastic evening of activities, fellowship, shopping and treats. Santa pictures and s'mores are always a big draw and certainly did not disappoint.

Gingerbread Christmas is GWA's largest community-wide event and continues to grow each year. Thank you to all who were involved in making it a HUGE success and CONGRATS to GWA senior Keira Campbell whose gingerbread house creation won first place in the annual competition.

Join us for a night of joyful music-making as our GWA bands – fifth-grade Bullpup Band, sixth-grade Jr. Bulldog Band, GWA Concert Ensemble and the GWA Symphonic Winds, perform the sounds of the season!

The lower school dancers are excited to present their upcoming performance of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” The show will be held on Dec. 18 at 1:30 p.m. in the lower school gym and will feature jazz, hip hop and musical theatre dances to some of their favorite Christmas tunes!

We are proud to share that teachers Jeanie Collin (K5) and Kerry Franklin (first grade) have earned the distinction of Master Teacher through the Georgia Independent School Association. They were honored earlier this month at the GISA conference at Woodward Academy.

During the second semester of 23-24 school year, they had to complete a variety of tasks to build a portfolio. The portfolio included a resume, a detailed explanation of why they should be considered a master teacher, three tangibles that were lengthy descriptions explaining how they used cross-curricular activities including pictures, details, and proof of how they collaborated with peers. They also had to include an hour-long video of themselves teaching, three letters of recommendation from administration, three from parents, and three from students. This was all done on their own time in addition to their regular teaching responsibilities. Once submitted, everything had to be approved by a committee.

Mrs. Collin and Mrs. Franklin are already very dedicated and talented teachers, and it speaks volumes that they chose to pursue this distinction to continue to grow as educators and provide the very best educational experience possible for our students. Please join us in congratulating them on this job well done!

Each year, GWA participates in the Great Kindness Challenge to remind students of the importance of spreading kindness and creating a positive community. This year, our Junior Beta Club has designed t-shirts to promote kindness and to wear on Jan. 31, 2025 at the end of the challenge. All donations will be donated to the top voted charity. Last year, we presented a check to Team Up Mentoring. Please consider purchasing one of these student-designed shirts and support a good cause.

CLICK HERE to purchase.

During Building Bulldogs, students learned what it means to be thankful for the things we have during this season of gratitude. From the sun that provides warmth for flowers to grow to the air that fills our lungs, students took time to discover how Mother Nature has provided us with so much and how God has connected us to the Earth. Students are excited to spend this season with a grateful heart!