Boarding 

This week the boarders were fortunate enough to host the College Assembly. What a wonderful time to share our experiences with both our College audience, but, also our College family. There is so much to celebrate with boarding even during the time of remote learning. Ben McCure and Lizzie Duver highlighted the strength of connectedness within boarding during the assembly. Connectedness is vital in the way we can bounce back from challenges, support others in times of need, and be practise our school value of compassion. In sharing Ben’s words, it is also a time to challenge ourselves in expressing our gratitude and compassion toward others. Not only are the boarders missing their room-mates and their buddies in general, we understand all students are missing their friends. This is the time to reach out and reaffirm our friendships with each other. Some suggestions in doing this from our boarders have been to:

-  Write a letter and post this in the mail.

-  Send a small care pack that is personal to     them.

- Send a funny set of emojis and challenge      yourself to have an emoji conversation.

- Facetime each other, or have a House            party app. conversation with a group of        friends.

-Create a song or sing your friend's       favourite song and share this with them.

-Create a physical or skill challenge with a     group of friends, or, 

- Simply send a message saying “miss you”,     “thinking of you”, “hope you’re well”.

Ben McCure’s speech from the assembly is a wonderful way to consider how we are friends to each other and the importance of connectedness.

According to experts in adolescent health, connectedness refers to a sense of being cared for, supported, and belonging, and can be centred on feeling connected to school or family. This is exactly why connectedness during these times of uncertainty and, in relevance to this concept, separation, has been paramount in our approach and vision as a boarding house. Both these entities mentioned school and family hold major roles in a boarding house, school being the primary responsibility and family being at the heart of what Lizzie and I aim to create in our roles as boarding captains. Further to this, care, support and belonging are all integral parts of a boarding house and therefore drive so much of what we aim to provide. Whilst it has been challenging to remain connected as a boarding community given we are all apart, it has also become increasingly important. A positive outcome of the circumstances in which we find ourselves has given us a different outlook on this idea of connectedness and forced us to implement strategies that can be used well beyond this pandemic. Another positive has been the precious time that boarders have been able to spend with their families that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred, although the novelty may be beginning to wear off for some! Thanks, and hope to see everyone back together at school soon!

Andrew Monk