Anchorage House News

As Term Three draws to a close, the theme from both Junior houses is the immense pride both Mrs Nyree Mackenzie and I have in how far the boys and girls have come. The importance of routines cannot be underestimated. The boys are going about the house with a knowledge of what to expect in terms of morning and evening routines and who they can expect to be waking them up and working with them of an evening. This model allows both staff and boys to be consistent and organised and has a variety of staff with different skill sets and characters, with the deliberate intent of knowing your son and allowing your son to resonate with one of them. As we draw to a close on another term, I am always reminded of the energy and excitement of the holidays and the release this brings to all involved around our boarding spaces. 

We have been having several conversations on checking behaviours this week as the heightened excitement of going home builds. These are healthy conversations and ones that can be done with buy in from our boys as they play an integral part in owning their behaviours. As always, we link these conversations back into our Trust and Respect values within our house. 

As Term Three ends it also wraps up a very busy hectic winter sports schedule. There have been lots of banter around the various teams on who won or lost against each other. The injury levels were lower than I expected coming into the Great Southern which was great to see. We also managed to squeeze in a Rugby Tour to Perth... wow.  The great news for parents is you get to reload and start your driving all over again for the basketball session! 

Finally, as we close out this term, I would like to give a shout out to the boys in Anchorage who have helped me get the grand old recreational shed sorted. When I first walked around Anchorage with my wife Lisa, I was taken aback by the damage to this space. It has taken several discussions and a huge amount of buy in, plus a carrot dangler of a gift from Mr Keatch to get this space cleaned up and reset for the next generation of Anchorage boys to enjoy. We now have a great base to slowly build over time. The generosity of the school to invest money in this space allowed maintenance to replace all the laserlite sheets around the external cladding to weatherproof the inside. This allowed the boys to get in and remove all the broken furniture and to start the refit. We were able to repurpose a lot of the material used inside from containers around the school storing old gear from the school.

The end result of hard work over three terms from both staff and students is a space the boys can use all year round as well as storing fishing, surfing and bikes out of the Great Southern weather.  Well done, boys!!

Enjoy your break together, stay safe and don't forget to help Mum and Dad out around the house. I'll see you all next term.

Mr Ashley Keatch | Head of Anchorage House