Senior Boarding Housemaster Update
Semester One and Boarding Promotions.
It has been another frantic term, full of assessments, examinations, sport and all sorts of activities. Your sons have been an absolute delight, and the boarding community has swept along at an amazingly quick but smooth pace over the last few months. It never ceases to amaze me what a significant contribution the boarders make to the life of the School. Two boarders were the leads in the School musical, two of them were major players in the student-directed play, several boarders played onstage in the Junior and Senior Music Festivals and others regaled audiences in the Art of Rhetoric. In the opening round of the GPS Rugby season, 14 boarders made up the 30 players in the 1st and 2nd XV; this equates to 47% of those teams coming from 15.2% of the School’s population. It is the epitome of “punching above one’s weight.” I apologise to the many other boarders who also fall into this category whose names I have missed; you have all played a major part in shaping what makes Shore such a wonderful school.
The boarding staff have travelled extensively again this term to touch base with our past, current and prospective boarding families. The Dubbo Expo, Narromine dinner at the Richardson’s and Mudgee lunch were great successes, while recently we have enjoyed the company of friends in Boorowa at the Merriman’s, in Cowra and then in the Southern Highlands. Next term sees us off to the Tamworth Expo and then the Hunter Valley on the way home, while later we will visit Parkes and Orange.
Thank you to all those Shore boarding families who have made us feel so welcome, and shared with us their experiences (and advice) along the way. We look forward to catching up with many more of you before the year is out.
Focus Groups and Boarding Climate.
In an attempt to better understand and support our boarders, we planned some ‘focus groups’ to interview the boys in the last two weeks of term. Jane Barron, Cay Camden, Karin Fabris Da Silva and John Burns met with boys in small groups to hear about their experiences over a one-hour period covering three evenings. The three groups to whom we spoke are our overseas boarders, our indigenous boarders and a selection of our domestic boarders.
We are also asking all of our boarders to do a quick, online ‘climate survey’ questionnaire. The purpose of this is to gauge how our boys feel about the boarding climate in which they live, the connections they have with others and the opportunities they see available in order for them to thrive.
We will collate all of the data collected and work on developing ways of supporting the boys’ boarding experiences and culture, and improving upon those areas we feel need closer scrutiny. With a broad spectrum of boys surveyed, we hope to capture the best scope of perspectives possible in order for this to occur.
Who is Jane Barron
Jane is a youth intercultural transition specialist and culturally responsive educator at Globally Grounded. She is consulting to Shore as part of the School’s commitment to reflect on and develop a solutions-based approach to cultural integration in the Shore boarding community. The goal is to build educational and social conditions where students, parents and staff of diverse cultural backgrounds live and learn with each other in an integrative culture, while preserving and championing Shore’s current boarding school strengths.
Jane expects that this research will improve understanding of the perceptions, practices, challenges and opportunities arising from an increase in cultural diversity in the Shore boarding community and the embedded educational and social cultures.
