Boarding

National Boarding Week

What makes Boarding tick? This was the 2024 theme for National Boarding Week and Kinross Wolaroi School has spent the last week celebrating and acknowledging the wonderful contribution boarding makes to the life and fabric of our school community. 

It was a fabulous week of celebration and allowed the strength and collegiality of our Boarding community to shine through all facets of life at Kinross Wolaroi. We began on Sunday 12 May with a boarding activity across all houses where our students wrote notes of gratitude to the people who support them across all aspects of their boarding journey. Letters were posted to parents and grandparents, extended family members and friends and many letters were hand delivered by our boarders to members of the school community including our catering, transport, cleaning, and health care teams to name a few. Our students then spent time creating beautiful posters celebrating all facets of their individual boarding houses which were displayed around our school and featured in a special boarding assembly.

Some highlights of the week included our ‘Invite a Teacher to Dinner’ on Monday evening which was a roaring success across the PLC and Wolaroi site. Tuesday saw the inaugural Boarders vs Day Bugs Tractor Pull on the main oval with the Day Students coming away with a tightly fought win! Wednesday was marked by a special Boarding assembly that celebrated the contribution and achievements of so many of our boarders. Tilly Tancred and Ralph Shannon in Year 7 spoke with poise and maturity on their journey as boarders so far at KWS. Haidee Priest, who has been Head of Miller House for 15 years, spoke beautifully about her time in boarding and the immense privilege it is to help raise young women living away from home. She finishes as Head of Miller House at the end of this term and the entire boarding community at Kinross Wolaroi wishes her and her family all the very best for their lives post-boarding.

Thursday saw a charity netball game being held in the gym with boy vs girl boarders battling it out in a marathon game to help raise funds for domestic violence. Year 12 student, Emily Zell was the driving force behind this event and all proceeds will be donated to her charity to help support women and children who are faced with the harsh realities of escaping DV. The game was tight, but the boys managed to come away with a narrow victory and all students thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

We finished the week with a boarder vs day student relay challenge that included making a bed, finding uniforms, getting dressed, eating a muffin and polishing shoes. Again, the day bugs secured a narrow victory but for our boarders there is hope for 2025! Chapel on Sunday marked the conclusion of our week of celebrations and a special thank you to Reverend Sally who helped to make this a special service for our students.

Boarding is central to the life of Kinross Wolaroi and National Boarding Week offered an opportunity to celebrate all the people who support our boarding including our families, staff, teachers and most importantly, our wonderful boarding students.