SAINTS BOARDING
News from Brett Toombs
Director of Boarding
St Augustine's College Cairns
Exeat weekend
Our exeat weekend has arrived, and our boys boarding residences were closed at 4:30pm yesterday because of St Augustine's student-free day today. For our St Monica's boarders, today was a scheduled school day, and the girls residences were closed this afternoon. However, the girls did receive approval to travel home today.
All residences will reopen from 4pm on Sunday 17 August. If boarders are flying back into Cairns earlier on Sunday because of flight availability, arrangements will be made to collect them if required.
A reminder to families that exeat weekends are not an opportunity for students to miss additional days of school either side of the weekend. Boarding and the day schools have clear expectations around attendance, and regular school attendance is a priority. We ask you to support this by avoiding unnecessary leave requests around exeat weekends.
If a student needs to miss school for a valid reason, a Leave Request form must be submitted to the day school well in advance.
Weekends in boarding
Each term, boarders may request weekend leave on three occasions to stay with approved families or friends. Outside of designated free and exeat weekends, all boarders are expected to remain in residence. While we understand that certain family circumstances may require leave at other times, such requests should be the exception, not the norm.
Sacramental Mass
Congratulations to the following students who received their sacraments before our boarding community at a Mass in Lennon Hall on Tuesday: Lacreisha McIvor, Zion Nye See Kee, Mario Sabatino, Hugo Yol, Lewis Yol, Tre Tapim, Hunter Hujbert, Torres Sabatino and Elai Williamson. Bishop Joe Caddy was our celebrant, and I sincerely thank Director of Mission Mrs Cross for preparing these boarders during the past six weeks.
Afterwards we gathered in Tolle's for a light dinner.
Sunday night Mass
Sunday night chapel is compulsory for all boarders on normal weekends, and I ask families to ensure their sons and daughters are back at Saints by 5:45pm in time for dinner and chapel.
Boarders free weekend camp
Friday of Week 8 (5 September) is a student-free day for both colleges, allowing boarders to have a long free weekend. Those who stay in will travel with staff to Genazzano on the Atherton Tablelands to enjoy a relaxing two-night camp; a highlight for most boarders.
Saturday outings
There has been a lot of variety and many options in our Saturday outings this term. In the past few weeks we have visited Port Douglas, walked from Kewarra Beach to Palm Cove and enjoyed some putt put golf and the driving range. Last weekend we were very active, walking the Red and Yellow Arrows, before enjoying an afternoon at Yorkeys Knob Beach.
Boarding visits
This term we have visited Darwin and Katherine as part of our boarding tours. These are excellent opportunities to meet families who may be interested in boarding. We look forward to visiting Innisfail and surrounding areas next term.