Boarding News

Dear Boarding Families,

This week, we turn our attention to an Australia-wide celebration of boarding as part of National Boarding Week. This annual event on the calendar runs from Sunday 11 – Saturday 17 May and during this time we will join with schools across Australia to celebrate boarding and all it offers to young people. It is also an opportunity to recognise the significance of being a boarding school and reflect on what this means to us at Marist College Ashgrove.

The 2025 theme for National Boarding Week is ‘Threads of Connection’. We have a number of activities planned to capture and showcase our boarding community and our Marist boarding experience. A plan was put together some time ago to make Marist bunting from donated school uniform items. To bring this to fruition we had the help of many Marist staff members, friends of the College and boarders who cut material, sewed it into bunting and helped hang it between the three boarding buildings at the College. It hangs as a visual representation of this year’s theme of how we are all connected in our boarding community. A video has also been produced to share this message in National Boarding Week.

We are also having a coffee and boarding open house for staff on Wednesday at Break One. It will be fantastic to host teachers and school officers in the boarding precinct and for the boys to lead some tours through the dorms for those staff who’ve not seen inside before.

On Thursday night, Marist College Ashgrove is proud to be hosting a Boarding Leaders Dinner and Forum in the Cyprian Pavilion. Senior staff and Boarding Captains from 11 South East Queensland boarding schools will be attending this event. Those attending will hear from special guests, Tom Gilbert (Captain of the NRL Redcliffe Dolphins) and Kiri Wills (Qld Firebirds Head Coach). It should be a great night for all the young boarding leaders to learn from each other and to celebrate National Boarding Week together.

On Friday, all the Marist boarders will be hosting an ‘appreciation lunch’ for those staff who do so much behind the scenes to assist them. Invitations are going out to all the catering staff, nurses, cleaners and the laundry staff to join the boys who will be cooking a sausage sizzle at the grandstand on Friday. It’s a simple opportunity for the boarders to say thanks to these good people who help make their boarding experience so enjoyable.

Then on Sunday evening, all boarders and boarding staff will be travelling to Stuartholme School to attend Mass with their boarders. This will be followed by dinner and a chance to socialise and catch up with their friends.

It promises to be a great week and we look forward to celebrating boarding life and our threads of connection as boarders at Marist College Ashgrove.

Boarding Recreation

Mr Blair Whitlock

There was plenty of rain once again on the weekend which kept us indoors at times but we are very lucky to have such great facilities onsite as the boys used the weights room, gym and ovals when the sun peeped out here and there. Thankfully, sport was a go on Saturday which took the strong out of the boys as they slogged around on wet and muddy fields! On Saturday night we headed over to Urban Extreme for some indoor fun as the boys took on the ninja course, trampoline park, laser tag and dodgeball arena. It’s always good fun and drains any remaining energy the boys may have after a big day of sport!

On Sunday morning we headed up to Mass at St Michaels in Ashgrove for a change in scenery before returning to Marist for a hot brekkie. A trip down to Southbank in the afternoon for 30 of our boarders was a nice way to round out a quiet Sunday afternoon. While at Southbank we discovered the Brisbane Truck Show which is coming up this weekend and was promptly added to next Sundays rec plan!