Boarding News

Dear Boarding Parents,

It gives me great pleasure to let you know that Mr Jake Platen has been appointed as a new Boarding Leader from the beginning of 2024 – this is following the resignation of Mr Anthony Mathison. Mr Platen is a respected member of the Marist College Ashgrove staff and is well known to our boarders in his role as Senior Supervisor (Academic) in our boarding program. He has added a number of effective systems this year to support the boarders with their academic work and has helped implement the whole school approach to teaching and learning into our boarding context. He is also a teacher of junior Science, senior Physics and senior Chemistry at Marist. We are delighted with this appointment and look forward to Mr Platen making a significant contribution as a Boarding Leader in the years to come.

Last Thursday night at Boarders’ Singing Practice, we celebrated the announcement of our 2024 Boarding Captains. Congratulations to Marley Chan from Port Moresby and Landon Law-Palm from Cherbourg who will represent all our boarders in this leadership role next year. I would also like to acknowledge the 11 other boys who applied to be Boarding Captains and missed out. It is such a positive sign that we had a significant number of boarders aspiring to lead their peers and each young man who applied can be proud of the thoughtful way they engaged in the selection process. I look forward to working with Marley and Landon, and indeed all the Year 12 boarders next year, as we strive to carry on great traditions and seek to make boarding the best experience for all boys.

This Wednesday evening we have the Term 4 Boarder Parent Network (BPN) Meeting. This will be an online meeting to allow as many boarding parents/guardians as possible to be involved. These meetings are quite simply a great opportunity for you to stay connected with progress at the school and to discuss topics related to boarding. A link has been sent out allowing you to join the BPN Meeting and I look forward to catching up with many of you at this time.

Boarding Recreation - Mr Blair Whitlock

It’s always great to have the boys back and hear stories about their holiday adventures! One of the new activities happening in Term 4 is a community project down at Bunnings Stafford. Over the first few weeks of term, a group of Year 9 and 10 boys are visiting each Thursday and building flatpack Dog Kennels for one of Bunnings Community partners – Furry Friends Animal Rescue QLD (https://www.ffarq.com.au/). This week the boys had a tour of the Bunnings store and learnt about how each department functions before choosing their flatpacks and colour schemes. Next week the boys will build the Kennels before presenting them to FFARQ on Saturday 21 October at the Bunnings BBQ fundraiser. The kennels will then be raffled with all funds going towards the great work FFARQ does with animal rescues. Thanks to the Year 9 and 10 boys for their enthusiasm towards this new opportunity!

Term four means the return of Friday BBQ dinners down by Hayden Oval as well as the pool covers staying off. An hour of touch footy followed by a BBQ and swim is always a great way to start the weekend and has become a tradition in the warmer months of the year. After a couple of early starts to support the AIC track and field we gave the boys a well-deserved sleep-in on Saturday morning before making the most of the College facilities throughout the day. Later that night a group headed over to Nissan Arena to watch the Brisbane Bullets play against the Cairns Taipans. It was a cracking match with the Bullets launching a late comeback but ultimately going down in the dying seconds of the 4th quarter. It was also great bumping into Josh Mulligan who had been a Boarding Coordinator at Marist for many years and looked after Montagne Residence last year. 

On Sunday the Years 6-9 boarders and a handful of Year 10s jumped on the bus and headed down to Kangaroo Point for the 9km Mental Awareness Walk. The charity is run by a Marist Old Boy and does great work in the mental health space. It was a beautiful walk along the river and a great way to support a terrific cause. There were many tired bodies on Sunday afternoon after a busy first week back in boarding!