Boarding News

Last weekend was action-packed with the highlight being the Walkathon on Sunday. It was great to see all the boarders participating in this long-standing College event and the weather was outstanding for a Sunday morning stroll. Hopefully, the effort of the boys and families with fundraising will see a large amount of money available for future development at Marist.

Last weekend, the boarders also enjoyed social activities with the girls at Somerville House (Friday night) and St Margaret’s (Saturday night). These opportunities are well received by our boys and they did our school proud with the way they conducted themselves and participated in the activities each night. We are also looking forward to taking all boarders up to Stuartholme for Mass with the girls this coming Sunday afternoon, followed by a BBQ dinner. Social interactions with the boarder girls at other schools is so important and we will continue to plan these activities going forward.

This week we have several engagement trips taking place to connect with families in regional areas. 

• We have our College Registrar, Deputy Head of College and Head of Primary School attending FarmFest in Toowoomba from Tuesday – Thursday.
• Ty Casey (Assistant Head of Boarding) and Josh Mulligan (Coordinator – Montagne Residence) are attending the Cloncurry Show and also conducting a football clinic for local children from the area.
• And I am attending the Qld Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association conference in Blackall.

If you are in those areas please pop in and say hello to our staff. We are all looking forward to meeting present, past and future families at each of these events and we have many other trips planned in the second half of this year.

As the end of the term approaches please start planning how your son will depart for the school holidays. Classes finish on Tuesday 21 June, however, this is also a travel day for boarders. MCA Boarding will again be providing bus services to help many of our boarders get home and save families a round trip to Brisbane. Please let us know if you wish to enquire about these bus services and also please communicate with your son’s Boarding Coordinator about when and how your son will be departing for the holidays, including entering leave into Reach.

Our Year 7 – 10 boys start their exam block this Friday and it has been pleasing to see boys putting in extra effort in their final preparations. We are very fortunate to have a great lineup of boarding tutors who are in study with the boys each weeknight and the boys are encouraged to make good use of this opportunity. 

I hope you are happy with your son’s progress and please make contact with his Boarding Coordinator or me directly if we can assist in any way.

Around the Grounds

La Valla Residence

The big focus of the week in La Valla was independence. We have now hit 6 months into life as a boarder and we are encouraging the boys to begin to take greater responsibility for their organisation, study and health and hygiene.  We always acknowledge that a Year 7 boarder is expected to be so much more independent than their peers as they embark on life away from home.  We are proud of all that our boys have achieved so far and now we look forward to seeing them take greater control over their personal organisation. Hopefully starting with having matching sports socks ready to go the night before the game!!!

This week was filled with a wonderful balance of work and play. The assessment is rolling in and there is a marked improvement in the standard of work as the students get used to the academic expectations of Marist College.  This last week has also seen the boys utilise their tutors more effectively as they have come to understand the specialisms and teaching styles of each tutor.  This 90 minutes an evening is a valuable component of the boys’ academic progress and we hope this is reflected in their final grades for the semester.

This weekend involved social events with both Somerville and St Margaret’s. Kila’s recount of events at the Somerville dinner was very funny as he explained that the boys that are usually so loud and chatty in the dorm all of a sudden couldn’t speak in front of the girls! He tried his best to guide them through the event but decided that it may have been a challenge bigger than he could manage!  Some of the boys who remained in Residence over the weekend walked to the local café with Miss Gracey and Mr Temperly for a morning hot chocolate. We completed the Walkathon, strangely, some of the most athletic boys chose to use the event for a peaceful walk through the bushland and La Valla did make up a large percentage of the final finishers!  We rested on Sunday afternoon and had a meditation event that the boys really appreciated, to the point of sleep for some of them.  It has been a busy but happy week in La Valla!

Montagne Residence

Quite the eventful week for the men of Montagne Residence. Early in the week, Ms Wasson took our Year 9 group up to the 2023 Year 10 Subject Selection evening. The boys enjoyed listening to the speakers and talking to the heads of departments about their choices for next year. Hopefully, parents can talk to their sons about this choice in the upcoming break. During the week we also celebrated two birthdays – Theo Knight and Oscar Tully. Some amazing cakes came in and the boys enjoyed celebrating, congratulating and eating some more junk food for supper!

Recreation went above and beyond. Marist boys went to Somerville and played dodgeball with the ladies from Somerville as well as using their gym equipment. The boys were exemplary in their behaviour. This was also on show as the younger boys went to St Margaret’s for a social. We then headed onto the Walkathon on Sunday followed by Battle of the Bands and an afternoon Mystery Activity which was meditation and mindful activities in the gym. This hopefully has gotten the gents into the right mindset for upcoming assessments. Necessary as across the two grades we have 19 assessments due this week. Bring it on!

Hermitage Residence

The weather continues to remain cooler, and rising in the morning can be a challenge at times for the lads of Hermitage. However, this doesn’t hinder those keen and eager to make full use of the College facilities with many up early and regularly heading to the gym before school. Our 9s and 10s are eagerly anticipating the upcoming exam block with many maximising academic support from boarding tutors, and attending CLE sessions when available. It has also been good to see some of the boys maximising additional study time by requesting late study. 

The weekend just gone was a wonderful example of the community spirit that sits within the College. Droves of students enjoyed glorious weather the annual walkathon! Boys did a wonderful job participating wholeheartedly in this vital College event. In the sports world, preparations have begun for Term 3 sports as we enter the final round of Term 2 AIC sport. Many boys have displayed interest in either Rugby League or Basketball. In their downtime, the lads have discovered a newfound love for playing NRL on the Xbox, along with a heavy resurgence of pool, with many boys challenging for that top spot. Royden Maelaua, Lachy Manning, Alex McNamara and Hugo Baker continue to jostle for bragging rights of the pool table. 

A big thank you to the Health Centre staff who go above and beyond for our lads. They are genuine in their concern for all students but their efforts for our boarding boys this week were awesome. Recreation this week enabled the lads to reset their mind by engaging with Sound Off for Schools. Sound Off for Schools is a Mindfulness Education Program grounded in the emerging research and practices of Mind, Brain and Education Science. This was a great way to reset for the upcoming assessment period.

Fourviere Residence

We found ourselves reaching for the woolly jumpers as the mercury dropped into the single digits this week, giving us a true indication that Winter had certainly arrived in Brisbane. It was a week with plenty of variety for the Fourvière crew, the obligatory study schedule and sports training was complemented with a whole host of other activities for our boys to engage in. A guard of honour to throw our support behind the Cross-Country team who were successful in bringing home the AIC title. A gallant public speaking performance from Alex Masel and the Year 11 debating team, Zeke Esler performed wonderfully well at the Cathedral Concert and Ryan Kucsak won ‘Artist of the Month’ for his 3D skull creation which received fantastic praise. A group of the lads enjoyed the opportunity to get in touch with their cultural side on Friday evening by attending the Tower Art Show, from all reports, their presence was very well received by the patrons. A big thank you to Meredith Howse for taking a couple of artistic photos of them on the night. We finally rounded the weekend out with the lads getting into the community spirit of the Walkathon, enjoying a leisurely stroll through the neighbouring Gallipoli Barracks. Well done to Cyrus Kwok and Nathan Lam who dutifully manned the coffee machine throughout the morning.

Br Terence Residence

This week saw the boys return to a little more normality with a range of activities back up and running. On Wednesday morning, the boys were out of bed nice and early to form a guard of honour for our College Cross Country team as they departed for the AIC championships. The boys were successful on the day with Year 12 boarder Archie Forbes performing well on the day and contributing to the team’s success. Later on Wednesday afternoon, the much-anticipated 6th XV vs 7th XV rugby match took place on Hayden Oval with a number of Year 12 boarders involved in the match. The boys played in front of a large group of spectators with Paddy Manning and Tom Doyle proving to be crowd favourites among the supporters, while Elliot Gubby and Charlie Thompson made strong contributions on the day.

Over the weekend, Sunday’s College Walkathon dominated the activities. Once again, the boys were up a little earlier on Sunday morning and took to the course along with our Year 5 and Year 6 students. Many boys opted to run the 10km course with Gilbert Donaldson, Hunter Lowis and Carter Bidgood amongst the first to cross the finish line. Back on campus, many of our boarders (Reggie McMillan, Tom Doyle, Paddy Manning, Connor Lyons and Isaac Gay) volunteered their time assisting in the canteen and making coffees throughout the day. Not surprisingly, the early start led to a quiet conclusion to the weekend in the residence, ahead of another busy week with plenty of due dates for assessment tasks drawing closer.

Recreation Report - Mr Blair Whitlock

It was a very social weekend for the boys which started on Friday with a trip into town to visit the Somerville House boarders. We had 63 boys along for dinner and games which was the first time on the Somerville campus for most of our boys. It’s an incredible place to have a boarding school and the views toward Southbank from the dining hall set a beautiful scene. We were evenly spread out across all tables and there were cue cards for any groups struggling for conversation! All in all, it was a great evening finished off with some dodgeball and impromptu gymnastics!

Saturday finally saw a full day of sport with boys heading all over Brisbane as we hosted St Peters for Round 6 of the AIC. It was a good day on the whole with the majority of the junior teams getting wins. The 1st XI got their first victory of the season with Year 11 boarder, Lucius Jeynes, making several crucial saves and keeping a clean sheet in their 1-0 win. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the 1st XV’s day going down to a talented Peters side. Later that evening we jumped back on the bus and headed over to St Margaret’s for our second social of the weekend. The boys always enjoy visiting Margaret’s and they treated us to a cold rock dessert either side of some dodgeball, netball and dance battles! We look forward to having St Margaret back at Marist early in Term 3.

Sunday was a big day with the Walkathon taking place through the Army Barracks. There are always plenty of tired bodies after the 10km walk and many boys chose to chill in the dorms and get some extra study in during the afternoon. The final activity of the weekend was something new and presented as a ‘mystery activity’ for the Year 7-10 boarders. We had Nicola from Sound Off for School come into Marist and take the boys for a mindfulness and relaxation session in the gym. The boys have plenty on their minds with sport and exam blocks around the corner and the session provided a great opportunity to destress and focus on finishing the term positively.