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Empowering Our Boarders: Boarding Week

The theme of this year’s National Boarding Week is ‘Empowerment’. Throughout our celebrations, we have focussed on empowering our boarders to share their stories of Boarding and home with the College Community.

Boarding celebrations were launched during Pastoral Care Time (PCT) on Thursday 13 May. 143 Years 7 – 12 boarders presented to the Years 5 to 12 day girls in their Homerooms. The boarders loved showing the day girls where they are from via PowerPoint presentations.

A movie highlighting the similarities and differences between a day girl’s and a boarder’s day was a real eye-opener to many of the day girls. Boarders also shared where they lived using Google Earth.

At the end of the session, the day girls asked many questions about boarding life. It was great to see the boarders sharing their stories so passionately. The girls are very proud of where they come from and the work their parents do. They are also very proud of being independent and resilient boarders.

During Boarding Week, boarders volunteered to run tours of Boarding for staff during lunchtimes. The girls were very keen to show off where they live while telling stories of Boarding along the way. The tours ended with a special Boarding treat, a Tim Tam.

The staff loved seeing the boarding facilities and loved their enthusiastic tour guides. Staff commented, “As soon as I walked into Sylvester House it felt like being in a home”, and ‘I was most impressed at how well each girl keeps her room and how proud the boarders are showing off their boarding home.”

The College is highlighting the Year 12 Boarding leaders during Boarding Week with a story on social media about a different leader each day. The leaders tell us where they are from and how far they are from home, what their parents do in their town and what they love about boarding. One comment on our Facebook page was “I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again today…and probably tomorrow, I love these stories.”

To conclude our Boarding Week, we had two very important and significant events. On Thursday, the boarders came together for their Boarding Week celebratory dinner. A few weeks ago, we put out a survey to the boarders asking them what their favourite dinner in Boarding was. The results are in… the celebratory dinner included the most popular dinner of chicken parmi, chips and tacos followed by ice cream sundaes with all kinds of treats and sweets to add to this dessert. It was a great celebration indeed!

Finally, the most important celebration of all, is our Boarding Community Mass this Sunday at 5.00 pm in the College Chapel. Boarding staff and boarders will attend this very special Mass when we come together to pray. We pray for each other, our families, for strength and courage for all, and for our Years 11 & 12 boarders who are studying hard for their examinations.

What A Term! So Many Opportunities – Jennifer Oaten

As I look back on the past nine weeks, I am so grateful for who we are as a community and what we have achieved. Through the dedication of our staff and the enthusiasm of our students, we have established new connections, immersed ourselves in opportunities and worked through challenges.

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