Boarding, Week 10

Dear Boarding Families,

We have had a busy fortnight with lots happening around Boarding.

I was delighted to acknowledge two Grade 11 Boarding students who at the end of last year attended a Boarder Leadership Conference which was held in conjunction with Burn Bright.

The conference saw over 160 boarders from around the world participate and the feedback received was fantastic with the students rating the relevance and quality of speakers averaging 8.5 out of 10.

At Launceston Grammar we strongly believe in the importance of providing our boarders with the best opportunity to positively influence the boarding community well into the future. Mackenzie Grant and Skye Ellis Grade 11 boarders went on the school stage to receive their ABSA Boarder Leader Pin. This pin represents a unique acknowledgement of the influence our up-and-coming boarder leaders can have on the school community.

I am flying out this week to visit the Australian Boarding Schools Association in Brisbane. The aim of the visit is to go through the Australian Boarding Standards and consolidate this with Launceston Grammar documents. I am also visiting newly refurbished boarding houses to get some ideas for our refurbishment starting next year. I am hoping to bring back some great ideas we can use here at Launceston Grammar.

Enjoy the weeks ahead in the run up to the break.

Kind regards,

Ash

Ash Keatch
Head of Boarding

Launceston Grammar’s Community Engagement Team (CET) has reached out to our Ulverstone families and are currently looking at designing an invitation to send out to guests and alumni.

Thank you to Ian and Wendy Heywood for offering their home as a location and support for this area.

We have a great Boarding community here at Launceston Grammar and within it I have met some very humble and generous parents. What has drawn me to my role in Boarding over the years is meeting up and engaging with Boarding parents.

I believe between the staff that put their hand up for a Boarding role and the parents who put a significant investment into releasing their child into someone’s care, share a bond and develop lasting relationships. Looking after someone else’s child is something we don’t take for granted and we thank you for the extra support that is often required.

I would like to recognise the following parents that, over the last fortnight, have supported us in variety of ways.

This week we ran a lamb spit fundraiser for the School’s Grade 12 Walkathon and I would like to acknowledge Andrew Aldridge, who is a dairy farmer from Branxholm. His son went home after testing positive to COVID this week but he still supported us by donating a lamb and also saved the day by providing a spit, so that our students could run this event. Thank you, Andrew, not only for the lamb and spit but for all your running around as well.

Click here to watch the Lamb Spit Video

Last Friday, Tom and Justine Koutsoupias from Albert Park, Victoria flew in to visit their son, Aaron Grade 12, over the weekend. Tom delivered 50 pieces of KFC along with 5 large chips. You would have thought it was Christmas!!

I loved Heidi John’s comment, “This is the first time I have had KFC!” The staff and students really enjoyed the feast and were very grateful to Tom and Justine.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support we received from Shawn Britton who provided the Technology Department with a truck load of A grade solid timber for school-based projects at a discounted rate.

Though these families were not looking for public recognition, as Head of Boarding, I would like to pass on our gratitude by simply saying ‘Thank you!’ Thank you all for the support you have shown Boarding and Launceston Grammar.

CET has updated our regional map of Tasmania and the areas around the world where our boarders come from.

It’s a great visual and one that we have up on a live screen as you walk into the dining hall. I hope you like it.

Harvest Markets are on each Saturday morning in the city and it’s great to see those in the house over the weekend get out and about and walk around the markets.

Top picks this week would have to be the fresh corn on the cob I purchased and Skye Ellis with her croissant that looked amazing.

Berry picking was a spontaneous activity Lisa and I took some boarders to. The call went out and we had Olivia John, Heidi John and Aaron Koutsoupias jump in the van and head out to Hillwood. We collected a punnet each of raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. The best part was the picking and eating, enjoyed by all.

We have added an additional extra recreational activity this week which included rounding up goats. Agricultural Studies have had some goats who have been very mischievous over the last fortnight. They have been out and about around the grounds at Launceston Grammar. The kids (boarders) have been great with playing and interacting with them. It would be fair to say the goats had the upper hand when it came to getting them back in for the night. Myra Tidswell is our resident goat herder and was able to lock them away when needed.

Events and gatherings have seen our Boarding house and school cases spike over the last few weeks.

Head of the River saw a couple of our boarders test positive, along with some close contacts. Another case saw a father/son catch up visiting the super cars over the weekend end in isolation for a week. A teenage party event caused another boarder to be sent home to isolate. We also had a boarder return from a weekend home with family only to wake up Monday with signs and symptoms to test positive and be sent back home to isolate and finally one boarder didn’t even come back from the weekend and tested positive and has spent this week in isolation at home.  Unfortunately, it’s the times we live in. In Boarding, we monitor and assess case-by-case with Public Health.

Please support Jenny, our nurse, who is acting on advice from Public Health. Our priority is your child and the Boarding community who reside on site at School. We are deemed a High Risk setting, so it’s important to understand that unless you live on Flinders Island or are an interstate/international boarder and can’t fly, with a positive result, then you will be required to collect your child from boarding and isolate at home.

I have met with the boarders again to go through the survey results from both parents and students. I have three clear points that came from this meeting. Moving forward I will use these as a driver for writing a new policy based on both parent and student feedback.

The three points were:

1. In previous years, boarders were told by other Heads of Boarding that as juniors, Grade 7 – 9, they would have the privilege in Grade 10 – 12 to be trusted to keep phones in rooms.
2. TCE students, Grade 11-12, should be allowed to keep phones and laptops at night with a contract as they are studying similar subjects.
3. We should look at a staggered system from Grade 10 – 12.

I will be meeting with the Deputy Heads of Boarding and the Student Leadership group to put this together before the end of term so we can have this in place for next term.

Thank you for your feedback and support as we find a solution that ultimately is best practice for your child and meets our boarding standards around wellbeing.

Head of Boarding

Ashley Keatch
M 0403 799 321
akeatch@lcgs.tas.edu.au

Deputy Head of Boarding – Academic

Theuns Pieters
tpieters@lcgs.tas.edu.au

Deputy Head of Boarding – Recreation

Zoe Vandervelde
zvandervelde@lcgs.tas.edu.au