Term Two is moving along very quickly, and a feature of the term has been connection and service.

National Boarding Week is celebrated every year, usually commencing on Mother’s Day and running through to the following Saturday. The theme of this year’s celebration was Echoes of Home, and each day had a particular focus, all of which we covered in our celebration of the week.

On Mother’s Day, seven girls and I headed to Scotch College to take part in a service initiative called Boarders Birthday Cakes. The initiative is a collaborative, student-led movement, partnering with It’s The Little Things Foundation and supporting families connected to Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia. It brings boarding house communities together to bake and decorate birthday cakes, write heartfelt cards and prepare them for delivery to families staying at Ronald McDonald Houses. For many families, birthdays can pass quietly while a child is in hospital, and this small gesture helps restore celebration, dignity and normality during an incredibly challenging time.

There were boarders from a number of schools, and in total on the night we iced, decorated and wrote cards for more than fifty cakes, which was a great achievement. We enjoyed a meal together with other boarders and their staff, and heard an interesting presentation from the Red Frogs group, who support the Boarders Birthday Cakes initiative.

Monday commenced with Boarders Assembly and then a Day Girls vs Boarders netball game. Assembly showcased the homes of our girls and the varied landscapes they come from. The netball game was a great contest, with lots of enthusiasm from the crowd, including the boarders’ and day girls’ mascots, but ultimately the day girls were narrow winners.

Tuesday was another busy day, with our open house breakfasts and tours for day school friends. Our supper station at recess was also a hit. Selling the traditional hot chocolate and Tim Tams, the stall supported the Bhaudure School in Nepal.

The theme for Wednesday was Wellbeing Wednesday, and we embraced this by having the girls take part in Puppy Yoga, which is exactly as the name suggests: yoga with puppies. This was a great hit, with lots of yoga as well as time to play with the puppies. On the girls’ return to the house, they entered the Wilderness Wellness Room, where they were able to choose a sample bag from a range of goodies designed to support their wellbeing. Our regular Wednesday special supper was a wide-ranging spread of all the usual Wednesday night favourites.

We ran a competition to guess the total distance that our boarders travel to Wilderness, as well as the distances of the furthest and closest students to the School. The answers to these questions were:

• Total distance: 40,516 km
• Shortest distance: 64 km
• Furthest distance: 7,508 km

Thursday was Boarders Day, and the girls did an amazing job cooking the barbecue. We served well over three hundred sausages, again raising valuable funds for the Bhaudure School. Friday was our final community event, and we hosted a number of teachers for breakfast and a tour of the house. We came together as a house on Friday night for an in-house movie night, which was a wonderful way to round out Boarders Week.

The following Friday night, we hosted Year 10 to 12 students from PAC, Saints and Seymour in our inaugural Senior Netball Social. The event was the brainchild of Lucy Allen and Indy Holman, and they worked tirelessly to put the night together. The invited schools were asked to put together teams of ten for a round-robin netball competition, which was held in the School Gym. There were a number of closely contested matches, but the eventual winners on the night were the team from PAC. Mitchell Quinton from PAC was awarded Best Player on the Night. We all enjoyed supper afterwards and are hoping that the event will become an annual one.

Last Friday, we held our annual Teddy Bears' Picnic. Each boarder is buddied up with one of the Reception girls. They eat lunch together with special toy friends, of course, before enjoying a tour of the house and finishing with a teddy cookie. The house was filled with lots of loud noise, some girls not sure that they would like to be a boarder and others wanting to move in right away! The activity is a great connection point between the day school and boarding house, and one that the girls, both big and small, look forward to each year.

Thursday night is our family dinner night, when our families enjoy dinner together. Each fortnight, the house leaders plan and run a short inter-family competition, earning valuable points towards the Mary Home House Cup. Last Thursday’s competition was a little different, as we supported Daisy Duncan in her AT1B Health Initiative by making sandwiches through the KickStart for Kids program, which supports students experiencing food insecurity.

In total, in fifteen minutes, 600 sandwiches were made, with the Dutton family winning with an incredible 151. Well done to Daisy for her work in the program, and to all our family groups for their mighty sandwich-making efforts. It is wonderful to see our girls involved in service activities and supporting one another's initiatives.