Boarding News

Dear Boarding Parents,

Last weekend was certainly very quiet in our boarding residences with many boys taking advantage of a manufactured long weekend on our Term 1 calendar. There was also the Senior Formal on Saturday night which led to many parents and guardians of our Year 12 boarders coming into town to enjoy this significant celebration. As boarding schools go, we don’t tend to have a high proportion of our boarders go out on weekend leave as a regular thing. But I think this Boarders Free Weekend was well timed after five very busy weeks at the start of this school year. Hopefully, everyone had a good rest (including the Boarding Staff) and all are ready to tackle the remainder of this term.

One of our focuses this year in boarding is to review and revitalise our Masses as a boarding community. I am grateful for the support of Mrs Nasr and the Mission team who’ve helped us put together a range of new ideas aimed at increasing the connection of our boarders in the weekly Mass. As part of this, we took our boarders up to Mater Dei Church in West Ashgrove on Sunday morning. The boys and staff enjoyed being part of this service in our local community and the parishioners got a lift from having our young men present with them to share Mass. It was also special that a baptism was being celebrated in this service and the boys were interested in the symbolism in this rite of passage. The Mater Dei parishioners also spoiled us with an extensive morning tea afterwards which everyone loved.

At this time of the term, I want to make special mention of the academic support provided to the boarders so that all parents/guardians are aware and can encourage their son to access these services. For each Boarding Residence, we have three staff members who provide academic support to that group of boys of an evening. This academic help is available to the boarders each night between Monday and Thursday and the boys are regularly encouraged to make the most of this great resource. Our tutors come from different backgrounds, with a number of them being Marist teachers, others who are teachers at local schools, and some who are studying at university with particular skills to help the boys. In addition to this, we have Mr Monk who is the Academic Senior Supervisor and his role is to assist all boarders academically to reach their potential. Mr Monk regularly visits the evening study sessions of all five residences to oversee the academic support and he has also put a number of platforms in place to identify and help the boys who need extra support. All of this assistance is practical and easy to access for the boys, but of course it is vital that the boys speak up when they are having trouble with school work. Please encourage your son to make the most of this great support available to them.