Boarding News

Mr Ty Casey

This week we celebrate Catholic Education Week. Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all Catholic schools in Queensland to celebrate and promote their distinctive mission and ethos.

 

Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus, and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society. As a Marist school we embody this through the key Marist values of, Presence, Simplicity, Love of Work, In the way of Mary and Family Spirit.

 

Catholic education:

  • Is a faith-based education that places the values of Jesus at its centre;
  • Is a high quality, holistic education for 1 in 5 young Queenslanders, educating them to be well-informed, highly skilled and constructive members of the community;
  • Values diversity and treats each student with dignity enabling them in turn to promote and respect the dignity of all;
  • Nurtures in students a commitment to social justice and a critical social consciousness;
  • Prepares students for global responsibilities through stewardship of the earth’s resources;
  • Is an integral part of the local and universal Church;
  • Occurs in welcoming, inclusive, and connected communities.

The theme for 2021 is A Spirited Tomorrow.

We reflected during Sunday Mass on what it means to be a young Marist man that is part of this wonderful Catholic boarding community. 

Reflection

Nails in the Fence - author unknown.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. 
 
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. 
 
Finally, the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. 
 
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.” 
The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said “I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you.” 
“Of course, I can,” said the father.

Around the Grounds

La Valla Residence

This was certainly an eventful week in La Valla, with the everchanging COVID-19 situation creating many questions for our boys. The boys showed great resilience during the COVID-19 testing period, which required a change to our usual living arrangements and it was great to see them supporting each other. Despite the uncertainty, there were many special moments in the dorm with three birthdays in seven days and lots of extra time to enjoy relaxing in the dorm. We rarely get a moment to play games, rest in the afternoon and enjoy a sleep in, but with the cancellation of recreation, there was plenty of time to recharge the batteries. This downtime has also started the most epic gardening competition between Mrs Sedgwick and Jim, Liam, Toby, Joe and Isaac. The boys have been given two garden beds, seeds and $30.00 to spend at Bunnings. The challenge is to win the healthiest looking vegetable garden by Week 10, where a special guest will judge it. Liam was straight on the phone to order a secret weapon from the chicken sheds back home! Our herb garden is now developed enough that we can start supplying our produce to the kitchen!

 

Montagne Residence

A really busy week in Montagne for the boys in our residence. After Mr Mulligan headed to Bunnings to pick up some pots and seeds on the weekend, the boys then enjoyed potting and planting various herbs, flowers and vegetables. It has taken seven days, but seedlings have already come up for many of the boys who chose to grow some plants. Friday saw quite a busy day. Boys were enjoyed the House Athletics Carnival before the Queensland Governments changes to isolation came through. Well done to the Montagne gents and all boarders in general who had to deviate their day based on the events. A positive to come out of it was the boys return to La Valla Residence – returning to their memories of 2020. Thank you to Tim and Camilla Sedgwick for welcoming the Montagne boys into their residence.

 

Recreation on the weekend involved walking up to Main Ashgrove, playing the Nintendo Switch (courtesy of Christian Gehle), Badminton for hours on Sunday and Character Boards. A thank you to Mr Devoy who took the boys in the residence on Sunday up to the Design Classrooms to create their Character Boards. These boards encapsulate a little bit about the passion of each boy and what they love doing. They will be on display in the residence for the remainder of the year once printed. We celebrated George Philp's birthday last week also. A big thank you to Felicity Philp for organising the three (yes three) cakes for the boys! There was just enough 😊.

 

Can I please ask parents and guardians to send in any family photos or property photos to adorn our feature wall? Please email them through to montagne@marash.qld.edu.au

Alkim Karaman
Alkim Karaman

Hermitage Residence

Written by Alkim Karaman

At the start of the week, we went to the Year 10 subject selection where Mr Newman, Mr Serone, and other teachers talked to us about which subjects there are to choose from for our Grade 10 electives. They mainly went over the major subjects and the different difficulties of each one. This night allowed us to consider our options and start to think about future career paths we might take. There are many things to consider but the main takeaway from the evening was to study the subject we enjoy most.

This week has gone by so fast but sort of slow at the same time. I started my business, design, and digital tech assessment, with the rest of the week playing out as expected (until Friday!). In other news, more boys from our dorm have been going to the gym in the morning which has been good to see. The week ended with the College's athletics carnival, which was a good day with lots of boys getting involved in the different events.

 

This weekend I worked at my parents' restaurant both Friday and Saturday night to save up for parts for my bike. On Saturday, Round 1 for AIC Rugby League, Basketball, Tennis, and Chess commenced. Several boys from our dorm were involved in AIC Rugby League where they took on St Laurence's College out at Wynnum. The boys said it was a good game and they won 60 – 0. It's always enjoyable beating Lauries! Well done boys!

 

Special mention to Zek Anderson for representing the College and the region (Met North) at the Rugby Union State Carnival at Padua College this week. Zek played well and his team made it to the Grade Final which was played on Sunday – unfortunately, lost by a conversion kick in the final minutes of the game. Congratulations to Zek for his involvement. Well done Zek!

 

This week, we go into Week 3 with lots to work on, particularly working hard in study and getting back to the gym.

 

Fourviere Residence

Another action-packed week has flown by for the residents of Fourviere. Set plan meetings have begun for the Year 10 boys who give plenty of thought to their futures and select subjects for their senior years. The students were particularly grateful to Emmanuel Yasi who celebrated his birthday with a whole dorm pizza party mid-week. The Year 11's were fortunate to witness history on Wednesday evening, heading into Southbank to celebrate the announcement of Brisbane's winning bid to host the Olympics in 2032. It was also great to see Fourviere and Kingaroy man Keli Law-Palm address the entire school as part of our NAIDOC celebrations this week. The week was rounded out with a whirlwind of excitement as the athletics carnival gave way to a minor COVID-19 scare, which was followed by a return to normal proceedings in under 24 hours. A big thank you to resident photographer Alex Masel for snapping some great action shots of a few of the boys at a football over the weekend.

 

Br Terence Residence

This week saw the boys complete their first full school week of the term and it was great to see the boys turning their focus to their studies before participating in the House Athletics carnival on Friday. At the beginning of the week, there was plenty of energy in the residence with the boys welcoming Leon Simonetti back to the dorm after an extended period of time away from the College. 

 

A mid-week outing to Southbank gave the boys the opportunity to be present for the formal announcement of Brisbane as the host for the 2032 Olympic Games. I'm hopeful that when 2032 comes around, a few of the boys may well remember where they were when the announcement was made! The complexities of boarding life were also on display this week with a late-night evacuation of the residence due to excess steam in the showers. Then the challenges of COVID-19 causing the need to isolate and test a number of our boarders, and relocate some of our younger boarders into Br Terence over the weekend. I do commend all of our boys for their flexibility in dealing with the challenges posed by the pandemic on such short notice. 

 

A special congratulations this week goes to Ky Rashleigh for receiving the Eric Law Award at the College's NAIDOC Assembly. Ky is a deserving recipient of this award and it was pleasing to see the acknowledgement that he received from both the boarding community and the entire College community. 

 

We celebrated another 18th birthday in the residence this week with Henry Thomasson receiving a whole-College rendition of "Happy Birthday" led by Hayden Lammon to conclude our weekly College Assembly.

Recreation Report - Mr Blair Whitlock

Week 2 saw the restart of the club’s programme which has been keeping the boys busy and active after school. The MTB crew headed out to the Gap Creek Reserve for a great first ride with freshly serviced bikes. Golf Club has also been particularly popular this term and we’ve decided to put on two sessions so most boys can get down to the range!

Unfortunately, our weekend plans with Somerville House and St Margaret’s were flipped on their head again as new hotspots were announced on Friday morning. The boys and staff did incredibly well to adapt and isolate in line with the changing environment and many of the younger boys enjoyed the novelty of staying in Br Terence residence with the older boys for a night! We opened up the weights room and set up games in the gym for the boys who were not isolating on Friday night. Many of the boys took the opportunity to relax ahead of their Round 1 sport the following day.

 

The boys involved in basketball, rugby league and tennis had their first set of games against St Laurence’s on Saturday. There were mixed reports with the basketball boys having a tough time and the league boys running out with several convincing wins. It’s great to have competitive sport back underway for the term. With so much chopping and changing to start the term we shouted the boys a pizza on Saturday night to thank them for their co-operation and flexibility so far. Hopefully, we can continue as planned from week three onward.

 

We started Sunday off with another early bike ride along to the blue nurse's track. These are becoming increasingly popular and leading to more interest in MTB club on Wednesdays which has been great to see! With our Chermside trip cancelled two weeks on the trot, we headed up to the Ashgrove Shops for those boys needing to pick up a few items. It was a quick visit as we rushed back to school in time for one of the big Olympic swimming races! The last rec activity for the weekend was an impromptu Badminton Olympics in the gym! The boys were in pairs and we set up six courts battling for the gold medal through to the wooden spoon. Each match was five minutes with the winning pair moving up and the loser moving down a court. After 1 ½ hours of fierce competition, the gold medal final took place between the pairings of Ewan Wood / Joe Murphy and the bookies favourites, Braydon Creek / Mr Whitlock. Braydon and I felt we had enough in the tank after comfortably beating the La Valla pair earlier in the day. However, to their credit, Ewan and Joe turned up with a clinical performance (including several diving shots!) to claim gold with a 13-11 win! Congratulations on the win boys and well done to Nate Hughes and Max James on their Bronze after starting the day on Logan Court.