Dear Boarding Community,

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the August edition of Boarders' Buzz.

Yindyamarra is a beautiful indigenous word with a meaning that aligns with Mount Erin's values and Catholic ethos. The Boarders' have been working hard to produce Yindyamarra letters to be placed in a yet-to-be-decided position in MEBS. (see the Activities page)

Term 3 began relatively smoothly despite the two different College return dates.

I would like to thank the Boarding families affected by the bus run associated with this return for their support and understanding.

The Year 12 HSC Trial Examinations are over and we would like to wish all of the Boarding students well with their results. It is always interesting to compare the day-to-day progress of each student during the examination period with their final results.

We are looking forward to having our Year 12 Boarders' Mass and Farewell on Wednesday, August 24. This annual event until the Covid Years of 2020 and 2021 has traditionally been held between the end of the HSC trial exams and the start of the Year 11 exams, providing not only an opportunity to farewell our Year 12 Boarders but also to celebrate their part in the fabric of the Mount Erin tapestry which began in 1890. An invitation has been sent to all Year 12 Boarding Parents/ Carers. This will be the first time since 2019 that this event will be live and face-to-face. For 2020 and 2021, Covid -19 forced this event to be zoomed to parents and was held onsite with masks and social distancing. We have planned this year to hold this fantastic event off campus at The Gardens on the Botanic Gardens site. Please be aware that the Boarders' Graduation is a school event. Under CEDWW guidelines, no alcohol will be served.

I would like to commend the Junior Girl Boarders for the way in which they supported each other and the staff whilst we have been in the process of appointing a new Junior Girls' Supervisor. I would also like to thank Robin Bussenschutt (Senior Girls' Supervisor ) for taking on the mammoth task for the first 3 weeks of this term of managing all of the girls in Grades 7 to 12 and in particular, wake - up in the mornings and Leave. Supporting Robin has been our new Sunday Night Supervisor Rosalie Wicks. We are fortunate to have been able to have Vicki Bradford return as a casual Supervisor who will cover the role of Junior Girls' Supervisor role until we finalise the appointment.

I have written a number of times about Boarding Student Drivers during the year. The Colleges and Mount Erin each have driver agreements to manage their duty of care around this issue. Boarding differs however from school in that the level of responsibility is much higher for Boarding and Boarding staff as their duty of care for the students is in the absence of their parents. The MEBS policy allows for a car to be driven from home to Boarding and from Boarding to home.

Please note: It is a requirement for parents of Boarders who want to drive a car to Boarding, to make this request to the Head of Boarding in the first instance. A car must not be driven to Boarding without the Student Driver application and policy form being approved by the Head of Boarding. The policy and application form needs to be read carefully before being signed by both parent and student.

Year 11 Boarders 2022 can make applications from now for 2022-23 but please keep in mind, that driving the car to Boarding will commence only when the Year 12 HSC students have completed their exams and leave Boarding in November.

The application form and policy can be viewed and downloaded from the MEBS website.

REACH is currently looking at issues with Recurring Leave and the parent approval process. We hope to have some answers soon for those who are still experiencing issues

The new REACH Voyager app is designed to assist with transport requests and is directly linked to leave requests. Once this app is fully functional, it will help with calculating the distance and cost of using the MEBS vehicle for trips that are not school or medical/ dental based.

Any changes to Weekend Leave must be communicated to the Boarding Office by no later than 3:00 pm on Friday. This is essential for students who have their names down to travel on the buses. MEBS and the Bus Companies are required to have accurate manifests listing students traveling on the bus.

We wish all our boarders playing in finals or for the Shipard and Creed Cups, all the best for their matches.

John Bussenschutt I Leader of Boarding

Academic