Boarding, Week 6

Dear Boarding families,

Welcome to the half-way point in the term. A time where our boarders have settled into owning their space around the Boarding house and new and old staff are building relationships and getting routines going.

International Women’s Day

This week we celebrated International Women’s Day; Launceston Church Grammar School Boarding is very proud of the women who are a part of our Boarding house community. This year’s Boarding Captain is Olivia John, a Grade 12 student from Flinders Island, who when leaving school would like to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a regional GP.

Victoria Monson is another student leader who earned the respect and votes from both staff and students to be our Vice Captain of Operations within Boarding. She is from the coastal town in the north of Tasmania called Bridport. Along with these two leaders, we have the heartbeat of our Boarding house which comprises of a group of Grade 10 and 11 girls. From our youngest boarder, a Grade 6 girl from Flinders Island to our oldest Grade 12, our Girls’ Boarding house is a talented and vibrant group of young women within a co-educational Boarding experience. This is led by Ms Vandervelde and her amazing team of dedicated women mentors and tutors providing an environment for our boarders to feel safe and thrive in a well-balanced pastoral system.

I wish everyone a safe long weekend and hope you enjoy time as a family. I look forward to catching up with you on Tuesday afternoon from 4:00pm onwards.

Ash Keatch
Head of Boarding

I met with our new Head of Enrolments, Malcolm Dolman this week. We have looked at some dates for Term 2 to hit the road and come and meet up with you.

I am keen to come to you and connect, so I’ll be ringing you up to see if it fits in with what you are doing.

Thanks to those of you who have nominated yourself for a role on this committee.

I have passed your names on to our Community Engagement Team (CET). I am keen to see our boarders are well represented. If you are in doubt about committing to this, please give me a call, as I am passionate to have parent input to how we can improve what we do in Boarding.

The Australian Boarding Schools Association have organised a video competition for National Boarding Week 2022 (15 – 21 May 2022). This year the theme of National Boarding Week is “I’ll be there for you”.

This competition will entail boarders creating a short video (30 seconds – 1:30 minutes) that shows the Life of a Boarder with the background music being “I’ll be there for you” by the Rembrandts. Video deadline of Friday 29 April.

The video can include things such as returning to school, activities in the boarding house, hanging out with friends, silly activities in the boarding house, what dinner is like, themed dinners, weekend sport/activities, after-school programs/activities, sports/instrument training and practice. The boarders will edit and submit the videos to the drop box. The video is to be created by boarders not staff. All videos will be posted to the ABSA social media on Wednesday 4 May. The most likes on the videos on the ABSA page by 5pm Tuesday 17 May will be classified the winner and announced during National Boarding Week (5 – 21 May 2022). The prize will be pizza for the winning school’s Boarding house.

I have met this week with our Student Leadership Group (Olivia John, Victoria Monson and Jerry Lin) and we brainstormed how this could look. I am pleased to say we are pumped about doing this and have a huge goal of winning this competition. We know we have the talent, energy and skill levels to do it.

The goals are now completed, so please talk to your child about this over the long weekend. I have had them typed up so they can go up on the pin up boards in each room.

Work commenced on giving our boys some privacy around the older model shower blocks in the Boys’ Boarding house.

Thanks to our Property Manager, Steve Donaghy and our new Chief Operating Officer, Michael McLeod we have managed to fund and fix an area that you, as parents, identified as an area of concern coming into Boarding.

Through the support of Richard Ford, our Headmaster, we continue to assess and embrace feedback to improve our boarding environment.

If you would like to leave feedback, please use the following link to our Feedback page on the School website.

Community Feedback

Assurance by CompliSpace (csassurance.com)

Zoe has put a clinic on the last fortnight with the recreation programme.

All the boarders, in the house over the weekend, went out to Holy Bank High Ropes Course. The vibe was upbeat as we headed off in the bus with 14 boarders. Olivia and Skye once again took over my play list on Spotify and pushed the beats out for our 15-minute run out of Mowbray. A Grade 12 admitted, before attempting the ropes, that he was afraid of heights, well there is no better way to overcome that, than have a Grade 6 climb up before him. Good old fashioned peer group pressure and support as everyone climbed up and over the course.

If you haven’t been there, what an amazing place! Living trees are used for the rope course and the family picnic areas are surrounded by a forest setting.

Click the following links to see some of the videos of the day:

• Holybank Trip
• Holybank Trip
• Holybank Trip

Long weekend

This weekend is our long weekend and for the first time since I have been Head of Boarding we are keeping our International Students in and supporting them with a programme that both engages them for a brain break and wellbeing check as well as a period where they can study and catch up on any outstanding items of home work.

We have planned activities to ‘The Escape Room’ (not in the boarding house but at Launceston CBD) and Beta Bouldering Centre in Invermay. These activities are designed to get our international students into some physical and cognitive stimulation.

Relay for Life

We have a recreational activity organised for the weekend after the long weekend. Zoe Vandervelde works for Cancer Council Tasmania and has organised for us to participate in the Relay for Life. You may have heard her live on the radio promoting it during the week. Our Grade 6s did as we drove to the Junior Campus on Wednesday morning! If you are in during this weekend, you are part of the team. Mr Pieters and our student leadership group will be attending and organising the team for this activity.

What to bring to the relay:

• Your Relay wristband: (Mr Pieters will supply)
• Your Relay for Life top or team costume: (Captain of Boarding to discuss with boarders)
• Your team baton. Do we have something already? Or should the kids make something?
• Personal items: supportive walking/running shoes, extra clothing for all weather (long pants, shorts, jumper, raincoat), hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, toiletries (Boarders to bring)
• Tent(s) for your campsite: (School to supply)
• Camping comforts: sleeping bag, pillows, blankets, cutlery, cups, water bottle, snacks. (Boarders to bring)
• Outdoor chairs and table decorations for your campsite: (School to supply)
• Torch and spare batteries: (Boarders to bring)
• Camera/phone, a good idea to bring a charge pack: (Boarders to bring)
• Hand sanitizer, baby wipes, tissues. – (School to provide)
• Food: ​(Catering to supply esky and box with all food, snacks and drinks for the occasion).
• Extra money for on-site food vendors, some activities, candle bags and merchandise: (Boarders to bring).

Here is the link to register: Launceston 2022 – Cancer Council

Join our team, it’s called Launceston Grammar Boarding House

Use the code: Grammar22 – to remove your registration fee. Shirts are $15 – all proceeds go to Cancer Council Tasmania.

Please see the link to a survey from our last newsletter around Why do our boarders keep their phones overnight in Grade 10 – 12?

Survey Link: HERE

Students have trialled this new model during the week and will also be given a survey to complete at the end of term.

Some of our talented Art students from Boarding have been busy working with the Artist in residence, Michael Nay, over the last four weeks.

They were proud to show us their work on display Thursday night. Here are their final pieces.

As we work through this term, we are identifying issues around leave. It is important that parents have the REACH app on their phones or computer to be able to see their child’s leave.

Staff will support leave requests, however, they need to know about it prior to approving. Please continue, or start to, give enough notice when putting leave into REACH, to alleviate the pressure on staff who organise multiple transport runs to various locations in the afternoon.

The long weekend is upon us. Please ensure you use Holiday Period Leave for when you submit leave for your child over this weekend.

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