Forward July 2017 | Page 16

SENIOR SCHOOL Boarding News Semester 1 has been full of exciting events for our boarding community. We opened the year with a new tradition that involved all boarders staying in for a closed-weekend, in which they participated in a series of recreational and group activities including movie nights, trampolining, bubble soccer, archery, ropes courses and pool activities. The weekend culminated with the Boarding Prefects’ Cup, and this year the winners were Team Ace, lead by our Captain of Boarding, Rueben Williams (12Ha). It was a great weekend, with many boarders forming strong new relationships and others continuing to develop those ones established last year. A few weeks later the Year 12s were off to the much anticipated 2017 Ball. As the students and their dates went off to Mandoon Estate, many of the Year 12 boarding parents shared a meal together at a different Swan Valley establishment, and it was a pleasure to be able to stop by with Mr Lewis Jones to once again reflect on the changes we have seen in this group over their time as boarders at Guildford Grammar School. It is events like these that remind me what a supportive, friendly and collegial community we have and how rewarding it is to be a part of it. Another exciting event was the final Chapel Service of Term 1, where we acknowledged the ongoing leadership efforts of Samuel Screaigh (12St) and Jacob Finlayson (12Sc) by inducting them into the Boarding Prefect group. These two students narrowly missed getting leadership roles at the end of 2016, yet they continued to display exemplary leadership around the Halls and demonstrated resilience, integrity and commitment to themselves and their fellow boarders. We value these characteristics highly in boarding and it was a delight to be able to reward these boys for continuing to display them. We’ve had some important upgrades around the Halls this semester with new washing machines, dryers and clothes lines installed. We have also had the basketball court beside Burt Hall completely re-laid and repainted and the court in front of Malcolm Hall is currently under re-construction. There has been some significant interior design work done inside both Halls and I don’t think he would mind me saying, but Mr Lewis Jones has found yet another hobby he excels at. We welcomed some new staff into boarding this semester including two Old Guildfordian’s; Cole Lloyd (Ha 05-09) and Ethan Aird (Be 11-15) have joined the team as supervisors. Glen Williams also joins the boarding community. Glen is a teacher of English in the Senior School and has valuable pastoral experience from Hale School and Nagel College in Geraldton. I am sure they will make strong contributions to our already very strong team. Mr Matthew Weston Head of Boarding 16