Boarding
MS MARGUERITE DUNNE, HEAD OF BOARDING
Fairholme College continues to be a leader in providing residential care for girls from Years 5 to 12 as it is one of the largest all-girls Boarding Houses in the nation, with 2021 seeing all available boarding places filled and a waiting pool for enrolment. In January this year we welcomed over 50 girls from Years 6 to 11 into Fairholme Boarding. The modern facilities, the beautiful views from the Boarding House of Webb Park and down the Toowoomba Range escarpment, and the manicured gardens and grounds are very attractive to new students and their families. The girls value the refurbished contemporary rooms, having their own vanity units, large storage and study spaces, and access to common rooms and kitchenettes on each floor. The Fairholme Health Centre, with a registered nurse on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is very reassuring for families. The school doctor runs surgery appointments there three mornings a week and a physiotherapist visits one afternoon a week for consultations. In 2021 our boarding students comprised 35% of Middle School enrolments and nearly 40 % of the Senior School. Three Boarders were in Year 6 in the Junior School, so students in the Boarding House ranged from 10 years of age right through to a 19-year-old in Year 12. As in previous years, most of the Boarders’
hometowns are in South-West Queensland and North-Western New South Wales; however, many girls also hail from Central and North Queensland, with a few from as far as the Northern Territory and Western Australia and a couple of girls whose parents reside overseas. This mix of girls brings wonderful diversity to the Boarding House which benefits all. Fairholme Boarding offers our girls a positive life experience. They become independent and more responsible in taking care of themselves and their belongings. The girls develop flexibility and resilience as they negotiate and collaborate with the other girls with whom they share a room, bathroom, common room and breakfast or dinner table. Boarding staff observe how they develop and mature in their ability to cooperate with others and become organised and independent in their daily routines and tasks. The girls also learn essential time-management skills, balancing their studies and their many cocurricular and extra-curricular commitments. Proximity of the Boarding House to the Fairholme day school offers many benefits to the boarding students. Many of the girls use the sporting and performing arts areas after hours and take advantage of their easy access to before- and after-school sports training, rehearsals and other academic and cultural cocurricular activities.
Boarding presents an academic advantage for the girls through supervised ‘Prep’ or homework and study sessions. Teachers from the day school are rostered on to support the girls while they do their academic work each week night and on Sunday afternoons. This regular, quiet and supervised time is another plus for boarding students as it assists them in developing the routines required to meet the challenges that their schoolwork provides and achieve their academic goals. The Boarding Co-ordinators of the Junior, Middle and Senior sub-schools oversee and support each girl’s academic progress throughout each term. The girls also benefit from the positive and reassuring messages at weekly Boarders’ Chapel and Devotions time each Sunday evening. This is further enhanced by the opportunity offered to attend Bible Study meetings during the week, facilitated by our Head of Wellbeing (Boarding) and the Assistant to Pastoral Care (Boarding). These proved very popular this year as the girls enjoy the time together and supporting each other. The Boarding House is a busy and vibrant place with a huge variety of activities and excursions on offer for the girls to participate in during the week and over the weekends. Morning and afternoon walks and runs, Speed Strength and
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