Boarding News

Last Thursday, all the boarders gave Mrs Renae Lewis a lovely farewell on her last day. They presented her with a beautiful bunch of flowers and a massive thankyou card which had dozens of messages from the boys expressing their gratitude to Mrs Lewis for all she had done for them over many years. All the boys stood as one when Mrs Lewis was ushered to the Dining Room and our Senior leaders led the boys in three cheers. The boys all knew Mrs Lewis was one of their strongest advocates and someone who gave an immense amount of time to make their boarding experience better. I know they will miss her warm, genuine presence at Boarding Reception. The Boarder Parent Network also rallied together to present another flower bouquet and a voucher to Mrs Lewis for her wonderful service to Marist boarding. I know she was overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of the boys and parents; she will be missed.

The majority of the boarders are sitting exams this week and hopefully they have prepared well. One of the challenges for many of our boys is to take advantage of all the support they have to help them with their academic commitments. Just on Sunday, I was reminded of how lucky our boarders are with academic help. Many would know that we have a Senior Supervisor who solely focuses on the academic development of boarding students. That staff member is Mr Stephen Monk. On Sunday night, Mr Monk ran a special Maths session for our Year 7 boarders to get them ready for their exam which was the next day. He did a fantastic revision of key concepts and gave the boys practice questions to prepare for them for the real thing. It struck me how fortunate our boarders were to be getting this extra assistance. It is worth mentioning that this is just one of a number of specialised subject-specific help sessions run for the boarders of all year levels during study time this term. The challenge of course is for our boys to make the most of this help.

Regional trips for Marist Ashgrove boarding continue over the next two weeks. Our Director of Enrolments, Ms Meagan Loane and Montagne staff member, Tom Dangerfield are attending the Cloncurry Show later this week and putting on a ‘footy clinic’ for the kids who live in that area. Then next week we have Ms Sarah Palmer and Ms Grace Ryan attending the field days at Ag Grow in Emerald. As part of this trip, Marist is co-hosting a function with Stuartholme boarding. It has been a busy term with regional engagement and it has been a privilege visiting key areas and engaging with past, present and future members of the Marist College Ashgrove community.

As we close in on the end of term, just a reminder to please submit end of term departure arrangements on Reach to assist our planning. 

Boarding Recreation Report

Mr Blair Whitlock

Week eight rec kicked off with some Touch Footy on the ovals before heading up the gym and opening the weights room for the older boarders. It was a chilly evening with many boys opting to stay warm in the dorms and watch the Friday night Footy. Saturday saw the final round of AIC sport for the term with the majority of boys heading out for games against St Edmunds College. It was a great day on the whole with a couple of highlights being the 1st XI Football clinching their outright premiership with boarder, Isaac Roach, captaining the side as well as year 12 boarder, Lachy Manning, making his 1st XV debut and scoring a couple of tries in the process. Well done boys.

On Saturday evening a group braved the cold and headed down to Suncorp with Mr Monk for the blockbuster clash against the Cronulla Sharks. Our resident Sharkies, led by James Milasis, were delighted as the away side took the chocs with a 22-12 victory to stay top of the table. 

On Sunday morning we loaded the bus and headed up to Mooloolaba for a day at the beach. It was a stunning winter day with the water still surprisingly warm! The boys enjoyed the waves, browsed through the shops, built sand turtles and generally had a good day before heading to Ashgrove for Sunday mass.