To be given the opportunity to leave home prematurely, enter a home filled with strangers and attend a school that you live at is an opportunity that many don’t have. Essentially no one has it. After doing some research, I found that approximately 0.6% of all Australian students are boarders.
Whilst its closer to 10% of this school, it gives insight into how valued boarding is at SPSC. A tightknit community that attend lessons together, are involved in co-curricular activities together, sleep in the same house, but likely live hundreds or thousands of kilometres away from each other. This vaguely puts into perspective the boarding experience.
For some, boarding was a tradition that families are continuing, for others, it was an opportunity put forward to allow them to thrive in an environment away from where they grew up. Either way, every single boarder’s path crosses at this very point; here at St Peter’s College.
National Boarding Week (NBW) functions as an opportunity to recognise this sacrifice, to understand the hardships that may come with attending a new school with no immediate family to lean on after a rough day, and a way to celebrate a community that has been built on hundreds of years of tradition, culture and brotherhood.
Thank you to everyone who has helped make NBW become such a special occasion. Thank you to the staff that took time out of their schedule to visit the boarding house yesterday afternoon, and also to the boys involved in the barbecue and tug of war, for fundraisers going to the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service. We look forward to seeing the visiting SPSC boys in the boarding house for some tours and activities on Friday afternoon, to cap off an amazing week.
Harry Clark
School & Allen House Captain