Boarding News

Dear Boarding Parents,

I’m pleased to say that all of our boarders are settling in well after being back just over a week. Congratulations to our 30 new boarders who have been working especially hard to navigate the boarding routine with plenty of support from the staff and their more experienced peers. Going to boarding school and living away from your family is a significant challenge and I am so proud of the way our new boarders have started. It has also been lovely to see new friendships forming in the first week as we get underway with 2023.

This week we commenced the new Marist Extend program with the Year 7s and it has started particularly well. This program involves Year 7 day students staying on after school and following the boarding routine until 8:00pm when they are picked up by their parents. Marist Extend is an exciting new opportunity for Marist College Ashgrove and even at this early stage it is obvious that it will provide a wonderful opportunity for our boarders and dayboys to mix and become good friends.

This coming weekend is marked on the School Calendar as a ‘Boarders’ Closed Weekend’. As part of the Boarders’ Recreation Program, we have booked for our whole boarding community to participate in a Mud Run on Sunday 5 February at a location in the Gold Coast hinterland. We tried this activity last year and it proved to be a great team-building exercise, as well as a lot of fun. We’d love to have all of our boarders and boarding staff participate on Sunday, and as such, we are asking all boarding parents to leave their son in boarding this coming weekend.

One of the ways we provide an opportunity for our boarders to give their feedback is through the Student Representative Committee. This group will be meeting soon for the first time this year and we are calling for boys to nominate if they would like to communicate feedback from their peers. Two boys per year group sit on the Student Representative Committee chaired by Mr Casey and the meetings are attended by myself, the Director of Catering and the Boarding Recreation Officer. Please encourage your son to nominate if he would like to be part of this committee.

We have our online Boarder Parent Network (BPN) Meeting this Wednesday evening at 6:30pm and I hope many parents are able to join us.

Thanks so much for your support and please let me know if I can assist you or your son with anything.

Boarding Recreation - Mr Blair Whitlock

We kept things fairly low-key for the first weekend of rec as the boys are settling back into boarding life. Most of our time was spent on-site using the range of facilities we have – especially the pool with the current heat! The public holiday on Thursday started off with a few games of Slip’n’Slide Baseball before cooling off with a swim. The game is a hybrid of cricket and baseball with boys sliding into each base and has been a real hit over the last year or so. Lunch saw a big BBQ down at the grandstand before some touch footy games and basketball in the gym to burn any remaining energy!

The Hive assembled for the first time on Friday afternoon as we headed out to Zillmere for the AFL 1st XVIII trial match against St Patrick’s College. It was great to see so many boarders in the team and they had a strong performance heading into round one next weekend. Once we got back to school an hour of volleyball and a night swim closed out a busy Friday. 

Many boys were heading all over Brisbane for cricket, AFL and volleyball matches on Saturday morning before returning to Marist to support the Volleyball 1st’s on home turf. It was another strong performance with a straight-set win for the Marist boys. A group of 30 boys headed down to the Brookside shops on Saturday afternoon to stock up on supplies for the term before retiring to the dorms for a classic Saturday night pizza and movie.

Sunday was the highlight of the weekend with 80 boys loading up the bus and heading down the coast for a Wet’n’Wild trip. The majority of Brisbane boarding clubs were in attendance and it was great to see many siblings, cousins and friends reunited for the day. 4 ½ hours was plenty of time and led to a very quiet bus trip on the way home! The first Sunday Mass of the term rounded out a busy Week 1!

The whole term recreation calendar will be coming out this week. We have had to make a few alterations with schools changing dates but there are plenty of exciting activities on the horizon – starting with the Mud Run this weekend. Here is a link to the video from last year, for those that may be interested! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1ibaluobN4