From the Houses

NAGLE HOUSE

Welcome to Nagle House Term 1 2024. We were all thrilled to be back from the Christmas Holidays and to see how much the girls had grown and changed over December and January. It was great to welcome so many new faces to our community and the girls have settled in really well. We have all been busy over the last few weeks learning new names and getting to know new personalities. We have celebrated birthdays, made pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, and come together as a community for our Nagle house meetings, learned new routines and some independent living skills. Old friends have come together after being apart and new friendships have been forged as we grow our community and settle into a new year. Our Nagle house boarding team consists of Jackie, Vicki, Danielle, Rachel, Nicola, Maddie, Zoe, and Sheryl and we feel very blessed to be a part of your daughter's journey.

Around the senior dorm Maisy in Year 10 has been quite involved with touch football at the moment - regularly going to practice, and recently went to the Junior State Cup and Diocesan Touch Trials, where her team got moved up to the A-League. Maisy was selected at the Diocesan Touch Trials and will be going to Newcastle for the next trials. Ivana-Rose in Year 7 took part in State Championships for Little Athletics and came 3rd in the 100m sprint, and 3rd in the 1500m walk. Several senior girls have started to get involved with the gym and fitness, going in the morning to the Kildare gym with Activities Coordinator Jody and then going to Club Lime after school. Many of the MEBS girls are keen netball players and two of our Year 10 girls Claire and Maddie would like to start and run netball training with the other girls.

We hope to have our first annual Netball play-off later in the term.

Bonnie in Year 11 has been completing work placement weekly in childcare on a Thursday which she has been really enjoying and will continue over this year. Tay Tay fever has been big in Nagle house over the last few weeks with many girls lucky enough to attend concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. This had our Year 10 girls in the Roche Dorm busy making friendship bracelets together. Lily and Cindy made us all feel special on Valentine’s day making cards that were gifted to supervisors and Lynda, part of Dave’s catering team, as well as other boarders.

 In Junior dorm Year 7 Cully Reynolds and Tessa Crowe have shared their experiences as new Year 7s to boarding:

“Going into boarding was stressful at the start. We didn't know what was going to happen, we were away from our families, our pets, friends, our home, and normal everyday life. It was nerve-racking on our first-ever day of high school because Tessa and I came from small schools. We were shocked by how many people were there and almost got lost multiple times trying to find the right classroom. But boarding has to be one of the best bits. It's basically having a sleepover 4 nights a week with our best mates for life. Overall, it is a great experience developing our independence and finding our own path. We have both loved being at MEBs.”

What more can we say? Thanks go to Tessa and Culley for such lovely words.

Looking forward to the rest of the year.

Jackie Tassell | Girls' Coordinator

RICE HOUSE

Nearly halfway through the first Term and already many things have been happening with Rice House. Our new Boarders appear to have settled in quite well and have adapted to the new routines and timetables that they have encountered since arriving at MEBS.

We have five (5) new Year 7 Boarders in Rice House with Cooper Patey (Boree Creek), Lockie Nagle (Tumbarumba), and Ollie Amos (Gundagai) attending Kildare Catholic College (KCC)whilst Nick Campbell (Yaven Creek) and Charlie Clancy (Pleasant Hills) attend Mater Dei Catholic College (MDCC).

Our two (2)  new Year 10 Boarders are Jack Dumbrell (Tumut) and Jeremy Williams (Gocup) and they both attend KCC.

Last  but not least we have five (5) new Year 11 Boarders who all attend KCC and they are: Tom Carr (Tumut), Dustin Hood (Tumut), Billy Salmon (Adelong), Archi Piffero (Cootamundra) and Ollie Hall (Cootamundra)

Cricket has been the popular sport this term with a number of our Rice House Boarders taking part in the local Wagga Schools ‘Byrnes Shield’ competition. Mac Drummond is our sole representative from MDCC whilst Billy Salmon, Isaac Gooden, Archi Piffero and Ewan Middleton have represented KCC.

We acknowledged the start of Lent with a ‘Shrove Tuesday’ Pancake night - Senior Boarders Will Day & Anthony Whelan came up with the idea, purchased the supplies, and cooked the Pancakes which was greatly appreciated by the Junior & Senior Boarders when they had their respective Supper after their study had been completed.

Congratulations to Ollie Hall who was a member of the winning Wagga Vipers Under 18 Touch side that won their respective Junior State Cup Southern Conference competition in mid-February. The State Championship  Final against the winners of the Northern Conference will be played at Tempe on Sunday, March 3. Good Luck Ollie!

The Swimming Pool has been a popular venue for our Junior Boarders this Term with most of our afternoon activities taking place there on some pretty warm days. The “Street Walks” down to the main street once a week has also been enjoyed by the boys.

We have held three (3) Rice House Meetings with the Boys so far this term and on each occasion, the Boys have responded and co-operated well to the expectations of good behaviour and respect for everyone in Rice House.

Our first Boarder’s Mass for the year was held last  Wednesday with Father Sean Byrnes  celebrating the occasion and he also  blessed the Leadership Badges for our Rice House  Boarding Representative Council (BRC) members which is made up of Mac Drummond, Samuel Thomsen, Harrison Crowe, Nick Campbell & Charlie Clancy

Michael McTaggart | Boys’ Coordinator

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