Boarding News

As a new staff member at the School this year, I’ve been part of a number of sessions where the Marist tradition and charism have been outlined. These resonated strongly with me and I’ve felt comfort as an Old Boy of the School knowing that the Marist way of relating still provides clear guidance to all members of our community. The five Marist characteristics are:

1. Simplicity – being genuine, straightforward, doing good quietly.
2. Presence – accompanying, engaging, caring, being attentive.
3. Family Spirit – being relational, warm, having room for everyone.
4. Love of work – sleeves rolled up, dedicated, visionary.
5. In the way of Mary – being reflective, responsive, tender and strong.

There have been a number of examples of these Marist characteristics in action recently and I’d like to share some good news stories involving our boarders.

The first relates to a boarder who is new to Marist this term. Coming to boarding school is a significant transition for this young man and he has taken major strides over the last four weeks. But he has been very homesick. A number of staff, including myself, have been in awe of a number of the other boys who have gone to great lengths to help this young man to settle. Their efforts are wonderful examples of presence, family spirit, simplicity and modelling the care that Mary would provide.

Another involves two young boarders who stopped to have a quick look at a game of rugby on a Saturday morning recently. The Marist coach was not having any luck finding someone who could video the game for him and asked these two boys. I’m sure they weren’t keen on this task, but they kindly said they would help out and did so without seeking anything in return. A willingness to be of service is such a wonderful quality and to me it speaks to the Marist characteristics of presence, love of work and simplicity.

The other story relates to a student from our primary school who could not be found after school. A group of boarders who heard of the concern offered to help in searching for the boy. They stepped up and showed tremendous family spirit in their willingness to assist and the kindness they displayed is certainly in the way of Mary.

We are indeed fortunate at Marist Ashgrove to have clear characteristics that become our values and the traits which everyone in our community can work towards. The positive stories above reinforce how proud I am of our boarders who maintain and promote so many of the School’s wonderful traditions. These stories are just a snapshot of the many ways the boys in our boarding community display the Marist charism.

In closing, I’d like to remind everyone that we have our Boarding Family Day on Saturday 21 May. We’d love to see you and your family join us in the boarding tent adjacent to the main oval. It will be a great opportunity to mix and meet other boarding families and I hope to catch up with many of you there. Attendance is free for everyone, but we need you to register your attendance to help with our planning: https://events.humanitix.com/boarding-family-day

Around the Grounds

La Valla Residence

This was a week of mixed emotions as we certainly missed our families during our Mother’s Day celebrations. Many of the La Valla boys were treated to breakfast as part of the school event. It was a very early 6:00am start but they were rewarded with a cooked breakfast and time to chat with some of the important women in the boarding school. The nurses, administration staff and supervisors will never replace a young man’s mum but these very special women play a very important part in the life of a boarder. To each of them, we say thank you for your kindness, support and care that you show us every day. 

Singing and war cry practice was a highlight of the week with the boys receiving several scores of 10 for their volume and tone. During war cry practice, Darius was lifted high above the boys to lead the chants. He said he felt like he was flying over the entire boarding school, he is very happy to continue this role in the future!

Boys are preparing for NAPLAN this week, we have reinforced that we want them to try their absolute best so that we can see what they are capable of achieving. We are so proud of what they have achieved so far in their academics and we want them to be able to achieve their dreams. This test will help us to support the boys in this endeavour. Best of luck to all the La Valla boys.

Montagne Residence written by George Philp

Round 2 of Rugby went exceptionally well with talented team performances and some amazing individual efforts. Special mention to the following teams and players for some brilliant efforts; 9B team who won 64-0, Jock Baker who scored four tries and Braydon Creek who threw a flick pass to win his game. In recreation, the boys headed to the Reds on Friday, played mega tiggy on Saturday, and then went to the movies and shops at Southbank on Sunday.

We celebrated Mr Mulligan's birthday this week with a special cake delivery from his wife. Happy Birthday! Montagne would like to thank all our mother figures and the mother’s in our community for everything they do for us. Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Hermitage Residence

What is great about being a boarder (and there are many) is the endless access and opportunities to be involved in any number of areas. It has been wonderful to see a number of boys engaging in Term 2 co-curricular. Of note this week are Hugo Tully, Blake Kightley, Luca Martinuzzi and Zek Anderson. Hugo is one of the many schoolboy refs you see running around on Saturday morning, happily giving his time to the College community. Blake has taken on the challenge of Rugby this term, and from all reports, whilst a tough game last weekend, Blake thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Luca continues his strong transition into boarding, juggling swimming, academics, music and this term has added chess to his repertoire. Zek loves his rugby and is a member of our Year 10A team. Zek was recently named in the BJRU 16yrs train-on squad. Zek has also commenced his vocation pathway this year in the area of plumbing.

Despite the return of the unpredictable weather, the attitude and application amongst the residence continues to be positive. Personal areas continue to be a focus. The return of routine and normality with 5-day weeks will be an added bonus for this. It has been great to see many boys making the most of the inhouse facilities of pool, table tennis and the common room. With many loyal Broncos, fans huddled around the television for Thursday night football last week to see the Bunnies defeated.

Year 10 dancing continues in style with the boys enjoying another cracking evening last Tuesday night. It has been great to see the lads put in the effort to dress up in style for the occasion. I would like to commend all of the boys for getting out of their comfort zone to try something new and judging by the smiles and laughter last Tuesday, it’s an experience many are thoroughly enjoying. Our Year 9 lads tackle the important task of Naplan this week. We wish them all the best! Finally, Happy Birthday to Paddy Bassani and Matty Peng who recently celebrated birthdays! Next week is National Boarding Week. Please keep an eye out as we celebrate all things that are Marist Boarding!

What a week it was also celebrating our wonderful mother’s and significant female role models. Many thanks to the many families who joined the College at the Mother’s Day breakfasts hosted last week. Those I spoke with stated what a fantastic occasion it was.

Fourviere Residence

It was a week of rinse and repeat for the Fourvière crew with winter sport, semi-formals and Year 10 dancing lessons all featuring once again. The Year 11 students have begun preparations for their upcoming exam block and are enjoy their study sessions in the Library with Mrs Stirling and Mrs Crowley and assisting one another with their revision. A big thank you to Mr Hardy for running his afternoon boxing sessions with the boys which continue to be a ‘Big Hit’.

Whilst the hapless 1sts teams in Rugby and Football fell short once again, there was plenty of action in the lower grades. Leon Karena and Cody O’May continue to turn out dominant performances in the 2nds Rugby and Harry Thomson is a standout performer in the 3rds. Fourvière lads; Archie Ryan, Hunter James, Jack Haddad, Josh King, Ariinui Netzler, Joey Gibson and Zeke Esler are the backbone of the 4ths who enjoyed yet another convincing win. The match of the round, however; was the clash between the 5ths and 6ths where an upset of biblical proportions was on the cards from the outset. With Mr Apps’ 6ths dominating proceedings to send the 5th packing in an embarrassing loss and giving Henry McAuliffe and Fergus Duff plenty of bragging rights of 5ths playmakers Al Boland and Keli Law-Palm for weeks to come!!!

Br Terence Residence

Another shortened school week saw the boys assisting with the Mother’s Day breakfasts and Mother and Son Mass held at the College. It was pleasing to see a number of the boys being able to attend the breakfasts and Mass with their mums throughout the week. Three Year 12 boarders (Archie Forbes, Sam Schmidhauser and Patrick Mahony) represented the residence on the boarding tables at the breakfast accompanied by invited staff members. In addition to the functions, our Year 12 students also received their Unit 3 reports during the week. Overall, there were some excellent academic results achieved by the boys and some very good application grades. At this important time in their final year, all of our Year 12 boarders are encouraged to take some time to reflect upon their achievements so far and to make some goals for their remaining time here at the College.

During the week we also had a number of our boarders represent their respective houses in the College Cross Country Championships on Friday. Some of our participants in the cross country included Frank Baker, Harry Masel, Archie Forbes and Paddy Manning, which served as an excellent warm-up for a busy weekend of sport. In the residence, we welcomed Mr Nicholas Lynch to the team of boarding supervisors in Br Terence this week. Mr Lynch is known to many of the boys from his time working in the Fourviere residence and will be a great addition to the residence staff.

Recreation Report - Mr Blair Whitlock

The weekend started off with a Friday afternoon BBQ for the Year 12s in the Br Terence Courtyard. Soon after that, a small group jumped on the bus and headed over to Suncorp for the Reds vs Highlanders game. We were joined by Stuartholme and several other boarding schools behind the posts. Despite putting up a valiant fight the Reds eventually succumbed to a large Highlanders barrage. Several boys learned the hard way that you never bet against the Kiwis (hard luck Ignatius!). 

Saturday was a big day as we played away at St Edmunds College out the back of Ipswich. There were some big scores with our junior teams dominating Eddie's however the two premier teams (Rugby and Football) went down 8-5 and 4-3 respectively. After a difficult start to the season, we'll get the Hive back together this week and look to get back on track against Villanova College. After an hour of basketball and mega tiggy the boys retired to the dorms for the usual Saturday night pizza and footy.

Unfortunately, the Junior Park Run was cancelled on Sunday morning as they didn't quite have enough volunteers for the day. We suspect Mother's Day had something to do with that! We'll look to get down in the coming weeks to support the event. A small group headed along to the Blue Nurses jump park on the bikes before we loaded the buses and drove over to Southbank. Several other boarding schools were in attendance as some boys explored the markets and others opted to watch the new Dr Strange film. It looks as though we are set for another week of rain so no doubt we'll be making a few changes to the upcoming Rec calendar.