The days of ice-cold showers in open area bathrooms, unidentifiable food, military-style dormitories with regulation bedspreads (hospital corners, please) and white sheets stiff as boards with starch, are long gone in Australian boarding schools. Along with banishing the austere living conditions of decades past, went the idea that boarding was just a place to live while you … [Read more...]
Handling exam stress
Exam stress is something most of us have suffered at some point in our lives, whether we remember our own experiences or are living through those of our children. As Term 1 winds down for a much-needed break after the whirlwind start to the year, it’s timely to think about how to start the new term on the right foot – a term when many of children have half-yearly exams or … [Read more...]
Mel Scolari: happy schools mean happy children
Mel and Ado Scolari of Narromine are parents of three children aged between 12 and 19, who have been or are currently at boarding schools in Sydney. They went into the process of choosing schools with a very clear idea of what they were looking for. Kim V. Goldsmith caught up with Mel to talk about how they went about narrowing the field. How much of your own … [Read more...]
Taking the fear out of finding a school
It sounds daunting and expensive, and while that may be so, think of the prospects it offers our children. I was a boarding school child and yes, I was miserable and homesick at times, but there was so much I learned...not that I thought so at the time. Largely, I learned to be resilient by accepting this path in my education, as did my children. There are many factors as … [Read more...]
The process of settling into the new school year (Part 2)
The first month of the new school year is almost at an end and before the term gallops away we look at part 2 of our Q&A with ex-boarder (Kinross Wolaroi School, 2014), Kate Ponder, we talk more about some of the issues unique to boarding, that arise for some children in those first few weeks of settling into the new school year. Kate is talking with our communications … [Read more...]
