Boarding News

Last Sunday, I had the great opportunity with other members of CLT to attend our 2022 student leaders’ summit. This day provided an opportunity for our 2022 student leaders to challenge their own ideas and beliefs about leadership. Throughout the day the boys worked through a series of icebreaker activities and small workshops collectively as well as in their chosen portfolio (Mission, Sport, Academics and Cultural). One of these workshops included their own understanding of the importance and relevance of the Marist characteristics of Presence, Simplicity, Family Spirit, Love of Work and In the Way of Mary, and what they entail. It was wonderful to see the boys unpack their own understanding of these and highlight the way in which these characteristics more often than not are interwoven with each other.

This led me to reflect on our identity within the boarding community. Central to our identity as a Marist Boarding School is ‘Family Spirit’. I’ve shared these views previously throughout the year in my reflections. St Marcellin Champagnat’s great desire and legacy is that we relate to each other as members of a loving family. 

As a staff, our role in creating this sense of family is to provide quality and consistent supervision. Our strong belief is that boys will operate best within firm boundaries set by staff who show a genuine care and an ongoing interest in their lives. 

The result is, more often than not, positive and healthy relationships characterised by mutual respect and belonging.

The boys too, have a critical role in the building of a community that reflects Marcellin’s vision of family. They are challenged continually to be inclusive, accepting, tolerant and forgiving. Behaviours that aim to hurt, exclude or humiliate cause segregation, can lead to feelings of isolation and do not belong in any loving family.

Please know that fundamental to each boys’ experience here in the boarding school is their unequivocal right to feel safe, to feel a sense of belonging and to express their individuality.

Therefore, it is our collective responsibility as staff, parents and boys to create such a community whereby all members learn to respect and relate to one another just as Marcellin desired.

Spotlight – Andrew Fuller

From time to time, we are faced with challenges, and we need to call upon our strengths to respond. Resilience is the capacity that helps us draw on these strengths and bounce back. With resilience a key factor in social, emotional and wellbeing, how can we ‘teach’ resilience to young people? Andrew Fuller discusses how we can build resilience in our youth and set them up for happy and meaningful lives.

Please watch the video:

Around the Grounds

La Valla Residence

We are nearly all back together for the final term in La Valla with a few late arrivals on their way. The boys were excited to see each other and settled back into their routines quickly. There were fewer tears at the start of this term, not because the homesickness was less but because the boys have developed strategies to help them deal with being away from family and friends. Many boys like to talk about every detail of their holidays, but it is too hard to talk about for some, so they focus only on being back in their routines. Luckily, there were many distractions in the first week to keep them busy. Noah, Aiden and Makenzie made us proud as they represented the College at AIC Athletics. The boys performed extremely well in their events, even though they could not attend all of the training sessions and camps. The recreation program included a games evening with Stuartholme, which was a great way to start the term. It is wonderful to see friendships forming between the students from both schools and how these shared experiences will carry with them throughout their boarding school lives. The vegetable garden survived the break as Mrs Sedgwick watered the garden for the boys and used their produce in her cooking as payment for her efforts. It is official that Mr Newman will be judging the vegetable garden competition this term and we are very excited to be able to settle this long-running rivalry.

Montagne Residence

A shortened week to start the shortened term, the Montagne gents welcomed a new addition to the dorm in Addison Allen. Addison is a Marist boy who is becoming a weekly boarder – he is most welcomed into the residence! Boys have done a lovely job in welcoming Addi, in particular, Kalan and Fin M. Throughout last week boys have started to meet with their supervisor mentors, setting goals and getting their term set up. On this note, we also welcome a new tutor for A-Team, Annie. She joins the boys on Tuesday and Thursday nights for their study sessions.

The weekend started off early with the dorm waking before 7:00am to farewell the (now champions) AIC Athletes to their carnival. The Montagne boys also had a mystery activity planned on the Sunday, which was the lost bet from the State of Origin series. They washed supervisor cars and the school buses for a couple of hours, and although it wasn't the greatest activity it ended up being the highlight of their weekend. The cars that were washed came out slightly cleaner than how they went in. This weekend we welcome a sleepover student for 2022. More to come on that next week!

Hermitage Residence

This week, Hermitage welcomed the final term of the school year. The boys did a great job of settling back into the residence with several boys moving areas for the remainder of the year. This week we also welcomed Blake Kightley who joins us from Mt Maria College, Enoggera. Blake has had a great start to life as a boarder and has been learning the ropes from Lachy Manning. We also wish Oliver Boland a happy birthday on the 5th of October.

Upon their return, the boys also 'enjoyed' face-to-face parent-teacher-student interviews. They allowed parents to meet with teachers to put a face to a name and to get an update on their son's progress. It is hoped that the information provided will assist boys with their academic pursuits for the final term of the year. On the weekend, the boys enjoyed a short walk to Ashgrove to stock up on supplies. The boys have outlined in dorm meetings that regular access to shops will ensure they have all necessary resources for the week ahead and so this will become a regular occurrence for the remainder of the year.

Fourviere Residence

The Fourvière lads hit the ground running for Term 4 with a very full week and with the weather warming up we are once again grateful for the pleasantly cool comfort of the airconditioned residences. Presentations and social activity was high on the agenda with the Year 11 lads getting to experience a road safety talk in the Draney Theatre followed by a lovely etiquette dinner with the young ladies from Stuartholme. It was an early start on Saturday morning as we rose to send off our ultimately victorious AIC Track and Field team (a fantastic 7-peat for the athletes). Night on the Green was once again a salubrious highlight as a number of the Year 10 and 11 boys impressed with their outstanding musical talents. Zeke Esler stole the show, stepping in for Zane Seeto as front-man of the Year 10 band ‘Skizzie’ (other members Hamish Wilson, Harry Thomson, Archie Ryan, Jack Haddad & Alex Masel).

We look forward to a fast and furious few weeks ahead.  

Br Terence Residence

The dorm was full of enthusiasm and excitement this week, particularly our Year 12 boarders who have now begun their final term at the College. Masterclasses commenced for our Year 12s as they prepare for their upcoming external exams while our Year 11s commenced their Unit 3 studies. We welcomed Spencer Sharman and Sam Chetham into the boarding community this week and they have settled quickly into boarding life. As usual, there is always plenty of laughter in the residence once the boys return and share their holiday stories, but a number of activities kept the boys active this week. Our Year 11 boarders hosted the girls from Stuartholme for an Etiquette Dinner, which resulted in a few of the boys being keen to display their dancing skills after the formalities of the evening were completed. On the weekend, there was an early wake up on Saturday to form a guard of honour for our Track and Field athletes as they departed for the annual AIC event. Many of our boarders travelled out to QSAC to cheer our team to victory and rally behind our Br Terence athletes Jackson Munn, Angus Brown, Joseph Kumung, Reggie McMillan, James O'Connor and Brent Humphreys. Later that night, it was great to see a significant number of our boarders take to the stage at the Night on the Green. Special mentions must go to Connor Lyons and Sam Miller who hosted the event on the night, while our performers on the night included: Patrick Mahony, Paddy Manning, Reggie McMillan, Sam Schmidhauser, Hugh Ferris, Joseph Kumung, Dino Lopes, Jamie Han and Leon Simonetti. An enjoyable night was had by all in attendance and it was fantastic to see the level of involvement from our Br Terence boarders. Finally, the weekend also saw Darcy Knight celebrate his 18th birthday – happy birthday Darcy!

Boarding Recreation - Mr Blair Whitlock

The first week back has certainly been a busy one with easing restrictions allowing us to proceed with several larger events. These kicked off on Thursday night with the Year 11 Stuartholme boarders joining us in Cyprian Pavillion for the traditional Etiquette Dinner. The kitchen staff put on a great dinner and everyone enjoyed catching up after quite some time. The night finished up with some James O’Connor comedy and a group line dancing session! Thanks also to the Year 10 waiting staff for their contributions!

The Stuartholme girls were back on Friday night – this time, it was the Year 7-9s for some dodgeball, volleyball and badminton in the gym. It took the girls a little while to learn the 5 D’s of dodgeball but they got there in the end and caught many of our boys napping. We finished up with ice creams and a good ol’ chinwag before packing up for the night.

The Track and Field team were competing in the AIC Carnival over Friday and Saturday and we headed out to QSAC on Saturday morning to support the boys in the final events. It was great to see several boarders, including Jackson Munn, Jo Kumung, Reggie McMillan, Aiden Lau and Makenzie Bowen smashing it in their individual events. We were neck and neck with St Peters on the overall aggregate points and there were plenty of nerves heading into the final placings. The Opens team had dominated their division and finished with a lightning-quick 4 x 100m sprint which ultimately bought home the bacon as both Primary and Secondary won the overall aggregate. Our boys went nuts as they ran down to celebrate with all the athletes. Great way to start the day! Thankfully the pool covers are staying off now that summer is around the corner and the boys made the most of it to cool off on Saturday arvo.

The day was far from over with preparations for our annual Night on the Green taking place all afternoon. The tech team did an awesome job setting the stage for the evening – thanks to Jack, Dylan, Lachie and Seb for all their help! The Year 11-12 boarders from Stuartholme were back as the boys completed their final soundchecks. After having to postpone Night on the Green last term the boy had technically been preparing for months and were keen to get up and perform. Our newly appointed Boarding Captains, Connor Lyons and Sam Miller, were our MC’s for the night and certainly looked the part! We tweaked the format a little this year with some of our talented younger boarders getting the opportunity to perform in front of the seniors. All in all – it was a great evening and the boys smashed their performances before opening the floor to open mic. A big thank you to Darian Johns who spent numerous extra hours making sure the boys were prepared for the night. We’ll be sending out the photo album and video of the night once they come back from the tech team.

Sunday started with a mystery activity for the Year 8 boys. There was plenty of misplaced excitement amongst the boys as they headed towards the bus stop expecting to head offsite. All debts have to be paid and it was time to follow through with their lost Origin bet with Mr Mulligan. We walked up to the services area where eight College and staff vehicles were ready to be washed! What started with plenty of whinging quickly turned into a water fight and I believe the cars were marginally cleaner by the end of it. We finished the weekend with some touch footy and a swim before heading over to Brookside for boys that needed to stock up on supplies.

Certainly, a busy week to start term! We look forward to the Clubs Program restarting next week too.