SAINTS BOARDING 

Boarders of the Week

Congratulations to the following students who were recently awarded Boarder of the Week for their respective residences:

• Junior Girls – Elsie Austin
• Junior Boys – Samuel Nawakie
• Senior Girls – Madison Ahloy-Coutts

• Senior Boys – Jovi Cole

   

This popular award is held in high esteem by both staff and students.

Sunday night Mass 

On three occasions during the term, the boarding community celebrates Mass in the chapel at 7pm on Sunday. This is a compulsory event for all boarders, and, therefore, we expect them to return to the College on a Sunday night by 5:45pm. This allows them to be present for the roll call and dinner at 6:10pm. We are very fortunate to have our new parish priest and chaplain, Fr Jerin, presiding on these nights. 

Full-time boarders will also continue to attend  Sunday morning Mass in the parish church in alternate weeks to our chapel Masses.

Exeat weekend 

The boarding community is enjoying an exeat weekend. Thank you to all families for submitting leave requests and organising the details of the weekend. A reminder that residences will reopen at 4pm on Monday afternoon for all boarders. Monday 2 March is a student-free day for both colleges.

Communicating with heads of residence

As noted in the welcome letters from our heads of residence, we encourage open communication with parents and carers.

If calling, the best time to reach them is between 8.30am and 9.30am on weekdays. Please avoid the start of the school day and after school, as these are particularly busy times. You may prefer to email, and heads will respond as soon as possible.

For matters such as leave requests or sharing information about your children, their head of residence should be your first point of contact.

Thursday afternoon activities

There has been a great start to our Thursday Afternoon Boarding Activities Program which began two weeks ago. This term, our students will be involved in six different activities:  gym, futsal, basketball, dance, touch football and art.

Country visits and dinners 

In 2026 we look forward to continuing our visits to our families throughout the country and spending time with them. Terms 1 and 2 will be busy for the boarding community as we will be visiting the Tablelands, Weipa, Groote Eylandt and Gove. We look forward to catching up with our families in these places and also meeting many in the community.

Saturday outing 

Each weekend, boarders venture off to a variety of places on the Saturday and enjoy the day together. We will also be offering a boarders' camp in Semesters 1 and 2. This term our boarders have enjoyed outings to Trinity Beach, the Esplanade and Goomboora Park as well as roller blading. We look forward to continuing these activities after the exeat weekend.

Leave requests

A reminder that all leave requests for normal weekends must be submitted by 7pm on Wednesday night. The College understands and supports boarders visiting families while they are in town and staff will always work with families to ensure that quality time can be had during these visits. We do ask, however, that requests are not made on the Friday before the weekend,  as weekend programs, including catering numbers, have been organised by then.

Facebook and REACH 

Thank you to the parents and boarders who have navigated the REACH program when applying for leave. If you have any concerns about accessing the REACH program, please call or email Mr Toombs. Also, a reminder about the St Augustine’s Boarding Facebook page. If you wish to join, please follow the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/145337315916743/ 

Laundry returns 

I encourage students and their families to ensure that laundry numbers are clearly labelled on all clothing brought into boarding. Because we rely on an external laundry, clear labelling will ensure clothing is promptly returned to its owners.