Boarding

MS MARGUERITE DUNNE, HEAD OF BOARDING

Fairholme is one of the largest all-girls Boarding Schools in Australia and 2020 has seen our Boarding House continue to be a leader in providing residential care for girls in Years 5 to 12.

Our boarding students continued to contribute approximately 30% of numbers to the Middle School and 40% of girls in our Senior School. We welcomed two Yr 5 Boarders during the year and so students ranged from 10 years of age right through to 18-year-old girls in Yr 11 and Yr 12. As in previous years, most Boarders came from regional South-West Queensland and North-West New South Wales, but we also have many girls from Central and North Queensland, and further away from the Northern Territory and Victoria, with a small number whose parents reside overseas. This wonderful mix of girls brings real diversity to the Boarding House, which benefits all the girls.

In January, we welcomed over 50 new girls from Year 5 to Year 11 into our Boarding House. This was an increase on previous years, and it is obvious that our modern facilities are attractive to new girls and their families. Many girls comment on the refurbished rooms and how much they value their own study and storage spaces, vanity units and access to common rooms and kitchenettes on each floor. A lot of the rooms also enjoy beautiful views over Webb Park and the escarpment or our Fairholme gardens and lawns. The Fairholme Health Centre, with a registered nurse on duty 24 hours per day each day of the school year, is also reassuring for our families.

Boarding provides such a positive experience for all our girls. They learn to be more responsible for their own belongings and space and to be flexible and resilient as they negotiate and collaborate with the other girls with whom they share a room, bathroom and breakfast and dinner table. Our Boarding staff observe great development in our girls’ maturity and ability to co-operate with others and to be independent and organised in their approach to their daily tasks and towards their study.

Our boarding students also benefit from the proximity of the Boarding House to Fairholme's day school. So many of the boarding girls use the sporting and performing arts facilities after hours and take advantage of their easy access to after- and before-school training, rehearsals and other sporting, academic and cultural co-curricular opportunities.

Another plus for our boarding girls is their supervised ‘prep’ or homework time. Teachers from the day school are rostered to support the girls while they do their academic study each week night and Sunday afternoons. Many students find this focused quiet and independent study time vital as they rise to meet the academic challenges that their subjects provide for them. The girls also benefit from the positive and reassuring messages provided to them by our weekly Devotions and

Chapel time each Sunday night. This is further enhanced by the opportunity to attend Bible Study sessions during the week and these groups have become very popular as the girls enjoy the heartening support these times together provide.

In 2020, the Fairholme Boarding House continued to be a busy and vibrant place with a huge variety of activities for the girls to participate in before and after school and on weekends. Speed, Power and Strength was offered on three afternoons and two mornings per week, and this proved very popular with the Boarders. Morning and afternoon walks and runs also offered an opportunity for the girls to get regular exercise. On the weekends many girls walked to local parks to enjoy the markets or the playgrounds, with a stop off at the shops on the way. Regular trips to bowling and laser tag, Bounce, and Grand Central kept the girls active. A trip to Wet and Wild started off the year and trips to Ice World and Emu Gully were offered towards the end of the year. Other regular activities for the girls included baking and craft, and games on the oval or in the Fairholme pool.

The Big Sister program continued in 2020, and this provided a wonderful support to our new and younger girls. Of course, it also provided a good chance for our Senior girls to further develop their leadership skills. Year-level etiquette dinners continued as well, and this allowed the girls to plan activities within their year levels to contribute towards the overall wellbeing of the Boarding House.

A successful orientation weekend was held in September and again in late October to ensure that all new families were ready for the 2021 school year. The Boarding House welcomed nearly 50 new families to these events, and many of these girls and parents commented on how helpful it was to attend and learn all the information they needed to transition successfully to Fairholme College Boarding in 2021.

Fairholme Friends of Boarding continued to develop and attract new members throughout 2020. Towards the end of the year it was decided to hold meetings, via zoom, each month after the College P & F meetings, and this has proven to be quite a successful mode of communication. The Friends of Boarding held a very successful Boarders’ Cent Sale which raised significant funds which will benefit the Fairholme community in 2021.

2020 was another successful year for boarding at Fairholme.