Boarding Bulletin Board

by Director of Boarding, Mr Brendon Gilbert

It has been an encouraging start to the year for our boarding community. We were delighted to welcome our boarding families onto the school site for the first time in many months. The chance to help their son’s set up their rooms, see the boarding house, connect with families and staff made for an exciting first weekend, filling our community with hope and optimism for the year ahead.

Most notably was the number of new families that have joined our community. We have just as many new families as returning families for the year. The increase in enrolments provides our community with an eclectic mixture of young men and families.

We look forward to working in partnership on their St Patrick’s boarding journey and wish all our new families a fantastic boarding and school experience.

I want to express my gratitude to our fantastic boarding team – Tamara, Liam, Ewen, Jo, Nyarth, Josh, Barney, James, and our Indigenous Educational Manager Jason and Fiona. Our staff have worked tirelessly to provide various engaging programs for our boys in their first week to support their transition into boarding and school. The highlight was seeing so many smiling faces on the first weekend as our boys were treated to a broad range of orientation activities locally and in Geelong. The boys’ connections through these activities have allowed them to have a rich and rewarding boarding and school experience this term.

Furthermore, we have several other programs planned to enhance connections with our community members. I am thrilled that many of the St Patrick’s senior staff have expressed an interest to speak with our boys about various leadership aspects. This program will be a valuable learning experience for our boys in supporting thoughtful choices and shaping values while building rapport with staff members. In addition, our Boarders’ Tutoring program has started with senior English tutoring being offered. Many staff have indicated their interest to tutor our boys, and we look forward to welcoming them into our community over the coming weeks.

I am excited to announce that we will have our inaugural Mother and Son event on Saturday, March 26. This event will provide our families with opportunities to develop deeper connections with the St Patrick’s boarding community to support each other on our boarding journey. Details will be emailed shortly.

We do have several key school events occurring this term.

Wednesday, February 23, is the annual SPC Swimming Sports. All our boarders from Years 7 – 9 and our Year 12 cohort will be involved in activities all day, while the swimming participants in Years 10 and 11 will attend their events. This activity is a beautiful day of sportsmanship and colour that we strongly encourage all boarders to participate in.

Sunday, February 27, is the annual Head of the Lake rowing event here at Lake Wendouree. We wish all the boys from St Patrick’s College good luck on the day.

This year, the first Exeat weekend for all our boarders begins on Friday, March 11 (5 pm) until Monday, March 14 (5 pm). This break is essential for our boarders to disconnect from the frantic nature of boarding and recharge in readiness for the back half of Term 1.

It has been an encouraging start to the year, with so many young men already contributing positively to our community and adding enormous value to our boarding house. These young men fill us with hope and optimism for a fantastic year ahead.