Boarding News

Dear Boarding Parents and Guardians,

Thanks to many of you who joined our first Boarder Parent Network (BPN) meeting for 2024 last Thursday evening. This support group gathers online once a term and all boarding parents/guardians are welcome and encouraged to join. The Acting Head of College, Mr Brauer and I provided a report for the meeting to keep you informed of relevant school news and plans. These meetings also provide boarding families an opportunity to offer feedback and ask questions about Marist Boarding. I appreciate the support provided by this group and encourage you to join our next meeting in Term 2.

Last weekend was particularly busy for our boarders. Over 100 of our boys jumped on the bus to Coorparoo on Friday afternoon to cheer on the 1st XVIII AFL team who recorded a great win against Villanova College. Congratulations to Jack Watson, Isaac Roach, Liam Rice and Troydan Ross who played very well on the day. There were also a number of fantastic recreation activities for the boys to enjoy over the weekend including a trip to Urban Extreme on Saturday night and a full day at Wet ‘n’ Wild with many other boarding schools the next day. Then on Sunday evening two of our Year 12 boarders, Lachie Manning and Marley Chan organised and ran a great Boarders’ Trivia at dinner followed by a big cake to celebrate the December, January and February boarder birthdays. 

Marist Extend recommenced on Monday night for Year 7 and 8 students. This program started last year and aims to promote friendships between boarders and day students, as well as providing the opportunity for day students to benefit from the routines and support available as part of Marist Boarding. There has been very strong interest in Marist Extend, particularly in Year 7 with no spots remaining this term. We look forward to this program continuing to grow in the future.

I mentioned at the BPN meeting that we have quite an issue with the huge amount of unnamed clothing that has not been claimed by the boarders after being put through the school laundry. Despite numerous attempts to make it available for the boys to collect, much of it is not back with its owner. We will be putting out all the unnamed items from 2023 later this week for the boys to recover and I’d encourage you to speak with your son to ensure he goes through it. Anything not claimed after this week will be donated to charity.

You would have received an email from Renae Lewis last week letting you know that the BPN Parent Year Level Representatives will be creating WhatsApp parent groups to help you connect with other parents in your son’s year level. As indicated in the email, if you do not want your mobile phone number shared to be part of a WhatsApp group please respond and indicate this.

Recreation Report

Mr Blair Whitlock

Week 2 of Boarder Recreation kicked off with the first 'Boarders Arvo Feast' of the year. We are very fortunate to have a group of over 100 parents who are split into three groups and take turns providing the boys with a great Friday afternoon tea throughout the year. Group 1 have set the bar extremely high with possibly the biggest banquet we’ve seen in a couple of years! Thanks as always to Tanya Roberts for organising this generous group of Marist parents. Straight after the feast, we loaded the buses and headed over to Coorparoo AFL Club for the 1st XVIII Round 1 match against Villanova College. The Hive was in top form as the boys put on a strong performance to start the season with a win. It was great to see boarders Isaac Roach, Troydan Ross, Jack Watson and Liam Rice in form straight off the bat. We got back to Ashgrove a touch before 7:00pm and had a BBQ dinner before a night swim and early night for many boys who would have Cricket and Volleyball games in the morning.

On Saturday afternoon a group of 35 boys headed over to Hendra for a 2-hour session at Urban Extreme. This is a favourite activity for many boys as they tear around the ninja course, trampoline park and laser tag. Any remaining energy was burnt in the gym and pool before calling it a day. We are very fortunate to have access to such a high-quality pool at school and we have certainly been making the most of it in this hot weather.

On Sunday we had the postponed Wet-n-Wild trip from the previous week. The weather gods were on our side this time around and it was great to see many other boarding schools down on the Gold Coast. The 75 boys in attendance had a cracking day and spent almost 5 hours throughout the park. The bus ride home was certainly much quieter than the way down! The final activity of the weekend was the restarting of an old tradition with Sunday Trivia in the Dining Room before Mass. Well done to Marley Chan and Lachy Manning for getting this going again.