From the Boarding Captains

National Boarding Week preparations and planning have been an exciting start for the term and have included all in our community. Those elaborate plans of petting zoos, Royal Flying Doctor visits and tractor parade in the theme of celebrating our farmers have brought the boarding leadership group together in enthusiasm. Although these plans have fallen through, I am sure that they will be featured in future celebrations of National Boarding Week, under the influence of more boarding leaders to come.  

This week, our boarding students have enjoyed all-of-boarding dinners every night, where we discussed the things we love about boarding most, including our friends, rec, and the very popular chefs. On Wednesday, our boarders got the chance to show off their iconic boarding hoodies over their sports uniforms at school. As the Year Twelves await the delayed arrival of their formal leaver’s jackets, we enjoyed displaying our boarding leavers rugby jumpers to our peers. It is important to embrace our part of the boarding community in the day school, as we contribute such a positive and fun-filled culture in school overall. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the spit dinner on Wednesday night due to sporting commitments, but I am assured everyone enjoyed the special occasion. Delilah the pig, donated by the Ford family, was a tasty contribution to the week’s celebrations and I was disappointed to miss out.  

Although National Boarding Week will soon be over, I urge our boarding students to keep embracing their part of our community and what it means to be a boarding student. We fight challenges many others cannot imagine, including homesickness, spending time away from our local communities and the drama of living with other teenagers constantly. 

I am so grateful to be a boarder, and even more thankful to be your Boarding Captain, so I can support our students through these unique challenges for a brighter tomorrow in the boarding house.  

Thanks for making Term Two such a great time so far, and I hope we are all looking forward to the upcoming long weekend. I wish the seniors good luck on their ESTs and exams, and I encourage everyone to support each other through the end of this half of the term.  

Ava Smith | Boarding Captain

Term Two has had a smooth start with everyone’s winter sports of football, hockey, volleyball, netball, and soccer in full swing. This last week has been National Boarding Week. Our Gap Assistant, May put together a video about Great Southern Grammar and our boarding community which was sent to the Australian Boarding School Association (ABSA) to go into a national competition. We also entered a competition with the annual Lights Out magazine which we won with a photo of some boarders on stand-up paddle boards at the beach. This means that we get our photo to be on the front cover of the next Lights Out magazine.  We will publish a link to the magazine in the next Boarding Buzz issue.

On Wednesday of National Boarding Week we had a pig that was kindly donated by the Ford family, and it was cooked in a spit which was kindly hired by the Newman family. Chef Nick Harvey put the pig on the spit during the day to ensure that it was ready to eat at night. We all gathered around the grassed area near the Dining Hall at 6.00pm with the lights and music set up. The weather was one of the best nights we have had in a few weeks. It was quite calm with no wind and a very nice sunset over the day school. On Sunday we will have the annual Boarding Master Chef competition which will be a very good and rewarding way to finish off National Boarding Week.

Darcy Barrett | Boarding Captain