Boarding House
Boarder of the Week.
This week we celebrate Hugo Dabernig. Hugo is a race-horse fanatic, powerful rower, and all-round wonderful boarder. He has been genuine room-mate and I cannot fault him in the way he treats all boarders in our Houses - always showing respect, kindness, and empathy. Hugo is certainly a boarder our College is proud of and we look forward to many more years of success for Hugo in Speirs House. Here are some words from Hugo:
The Boarding House is an all-round great experience that has taught me many great life lessons. The Boarding House teaches you independence, work ethic and great time management skills. The Boarding House also allows you to be flexible with co-curricular activities and play a range of different sports and caters to each boarders' individual interests. One sport I never would have considered before joining College is rowing, a sport that I’ve grown to love and make life-long mates with.
The ‘Boardo’ provides a great environment to learn, this has assisted me a lot with my schooling. Although it’s hard to do prep each night, I know it has helped me. I enjoy Speirs House because of the great community of boarders in the House.
Growing up with adolescents and educating with e-safety
With the experience of 20 years working in boarding schools and running a Boarding House I have witnessed the ups and downs of social media. It is a wonderful tool to connect and promulgate information with a community at a school level; sharing stories, photos, and engaging parents and friends about the happenings of day to day life in and out of school. But, there is also the dangers of social media. Educating our young children and adolescents about how to identify dangers, seek out support, and follow steps to protect themselves and others is something we cannot take for granted. It is an approach we should take together where teachers, parents and children are equipped with the most up-to-date knowledge and understanding of e-safety, the law and how to identify threats to our social world.
Over the next week our boarders will be getting together to go through the children’s education section of the Australia e-safety commission. This resource is a perfect way to engage and educate teachers, children, parents, older generations, communities and industry about the dangers of the cyberworld, what to look out for and how to seek support and help. I encourage our whole College community to investigate this resource and engage in some of the downloads, webinars, or helping seeking steps when navigating the digital world.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/young-people
Mid-year break
- The Boarding House closes on Friday 23 June at 6pm and re-opens on Monday 17 July at midday. Term Three begins on Tuesday 18th of July.
- Travel to Melbourne (for homestay, Melbourne based boarders, and airport departures) will depart on Friday 23 June at 3pm and arrive at Tullamarine at approx. 7pm. Return travel from Tullamarine and Melbourne to the Boarding House will be at 10am on Monday 17 July.
- For the mid-year break boarders’ rooms will have to be left clean and tidy with very little belongings in rooms. All mountain bikes must be locked up during the three-week break or taken home for safe keeping.
- All Orah leave is to be completed so meals can be accurate for boarders’ return on Monday the 17 July.
MR ANDREW MONK
Director of Boarding