What it’s really like to live at a boarding school in Melbourne
THE old idea of boarding school as a place where girls are taught deportment and sleep on iron beds in dorms could not be further from reality. This is what life’s really like for Melbourne boarders.
TAFE
Don't miss out on the headlines from TAFE. Followed categories will be added to My News.
CHARLIE Noble didn’t need an alarm clock when she lived at home in Maffra.
She could always rely on her dad’s voice to wake her up and get her ready for an early morning swim.
“I do that myself now,” Charlie says. “There’s no one else to wake me up.
“I’m much more independent but I like it. I don’t like being away from my family but I do like making my own choices.”
Charlie, 16, is one of 38 girls presently boarding at Firbank Grammar School in Brighton.
She began in January this year essentially because she was keen to pursue swimming, which she couldn’t do once her coach left Maffra.
ARE SELECTIVE ENTRY SCHOOLS WORTH IT?
While Perth was also an option she considered, it was too far away from her parents, younger sister and older brother.
“I’m the first one in my family to go to a boarding school but my sister and I have both been on exchange, so we have some experience of living away from home,” she says.
Charlie jokes, “I’m the favourite child, so it was always going to be a tough call to let me go, but I never complained about doing the dishes, so that’s probably why they let me come here.”
The settling in phase was not quite as smooth for friend Olivia King, 17. Shifting from Swan Hill at the beginning of last year, also to pursue more opportunities with swimming, was a big emotional adjustment for the year 12 student.
“It was really hard to move from a small country town to Melbourne,” Olivia says. “My family has been in Swan Hill my whole life and to go from that to living on my own with a lot of international students, learning everyone’s name and starting all over, wasn’t easy.
“I don’t know how it happened, but I just gradually grew to feel more comfortable. I didn’t know anyone and then I suddenly did.”
She has tried to make her room on the upper level of the boarding house as much like home as possible. Photographs of friends and family decorate the wall above her bed while the opposite wall is displayed with study notes and mind maps for her psychology studies.
She works at her desk most nights, when she also talks to her boyfriend, who lives in Bendigo, on FaceTime.
“We are both from Swan Hill and when I moved away in year 11, his family moved to South Australia, but he is now pursuing football in Bendigo,” she says.
“We’ve learned how to be away from each other and still have a relationship. We both have goals and commitments in sport and respect each other’s commitments in year 12, understanding that study has to come first for both of us.”
When she first became a boarder, she went home frequently, but now she is more busy with her studies, she goes home once a term and speaks to her parents less often, about once a week.
“They come to visit me more often now instead of me going home, which is great because it saves time.”
When she goes home, she still has to share a room with her 16-year-old sister. Her other sisters, aged 19 and 13, have their own rooms.
“My sister uses my part of the room as a junk pile,” she says.
Both Charlie and Olivia are part of the Firbank Aquastars in the national swimming squad and are serious about their sport. They may represent Australia at international competitions, but are yet to decide how far they will progress. Olivia is already teaching swimming at Firbank and earns an income, which she enjoys for extra independence. Sheis interested in studying sports psychology, sports management or sports science next year after she graduates.
“I don’t know if I’ll lose the passion for swimming or go down a different path like coaching, but I’ve kept up the swimming really well so far,” she says.
“The important thing at the moment is finishing year 12 and getting on track for next year, like where I’m going to live and where I’ll go with my study.”
Charlie, who is in year 11, has no plans as yet beyond swimming and, while she doesn’t have a boyfriend, she speaks to her parents three times a week and goes home to Maffra every two or three weeks.
“On school holidays I spend three weeks at home and the international students all fly home,” she says. “Home is my holiday.”
Not everyone in the boarding house is happy when the holidays arrive though. Boarding house assistant Liesa Williams, 47, describes the boarders as her missing family.
Her eldest daughter is 17 but is often out with her friends, studying in year 11 and busy with a part-time job. Her 14-year-old daughter is a snow boarder, training for the Winter Olympics, so she sees her only three times a year, while her husband works as her manager.
“I know what it’s like to have your children away because my eldest daughter also used to be away a lot with the same sport until she became injured,” Williams says.
“I know that the coaches look after my daughter and that makes me thankful to go to work to look after the girls at Firbank. They fill a void for me. I see them go from being young girls in year 7 or 8 to getting all dressed up for the year 12 formal.
“It’s like having 38 children of my own. I’m like a nurse, a psychologist, a mum, and just make sure their day runs smoothly.”
While it is possible for girls to start boarding in year 7, most arrive in the more senior years.
The typical shift for Williams, who is one of six staff in the boarding house, begins at 3.30pm when she starts to oversee study groups and check on any of the girls who are ill. She goes to bed at 11pm, sleeping on and off until 6.30am and leaving at 7.30am. She also works on weekends.
“Among the staff, we have diverse age groups,” she says. “I’m like the mamma and there are a couple of women like me who have teenage daughters. There is one lady who is the grandma figure and we like to have that diversity of ages to make the house as comfortable and real as it can be.”
The image of a boarding school where girls are taught deportment and sleep on iron beds in dormitories could not be further from the reality.
The Firbank boarders are among 2740 students enrolled in boarding facilities offered at 42 independent Victorian schools.
The space at Firbank is modern and simple, with a common room where all the girls gather for occasions such as the recent royal wedding when they had a dress-up party. They sometimes use the piano there or play board games.
Most Friday nights, the girls go out if they have the consent of their parents or guardian, and don’t have to return until the curfew at 10.30pm. On Sundays, they have to be home by 5.30pm, and if they go out in the evening during the week, again only with consent, they have to be home at 8.30pm.
“They never break the curfew because they understand and respect it,” Williams says.
Every Sunday, if the girls have not gone away, they can be found in the laundry room, sharing use of the three washing machines and two dryers. Mornings can be busy in the bathrooms, with seven showers and five toilets on each of the two levels.
“They learn how to be independent pretty quickly, but I also see that these kids need nurturing, which comes naturally to me because I know exactly what they’re going through,” she says.
“It’s about guiding them through emotional changes, the pressure of exams and adjusting to the lifestyle. They have to share with loads of other girls and there are sometimes conflicts in rooms when there are two girls sharing a room, but we sort that out quite quickly.”
School principal Jenny Williams, who has worked in several Australian boarding schools, says they add a different dimension to education because children from different backgrounds live together, and it enables them to attend school when they would otherwise be unable. Most of the boarders at Firbank are international students or from regional Victoria and New South Wales.
“Girls who board are really brave,” the principal says. “They have been game enough to leave behind friends and family to put themselves not just in a new school, but in a new home, so they’re usually girls with a lot of character.
“We want the boarding house to be a place where they feel safe, loved and supported. It can never replace home, but we want it to feel like it’s their family away from home.”
OLIVIA’S AVERAGE TUESDAY
5am: Alarm goes off, get ready for swimming training.
5.15am: Training begins.
7.30am: Finish training, get dressed and ready for school.
7.40am: Walk to the dining hall for brekky.
8am: Finish brekky and head back to my room to finish getting ready for the day.
8.30am: School time. Eat recess and lunch at the dining hall.
2.30pm: Study period — I generally come back to the boarding house for this.
4pm: Work as a swimming teacher at the Firbank pool.
6pm: Finish work, jump straight in the water again for training.
7.30pm: Finish training. Charlie and I shower and get our pyjamas on at the pool.
7.40am: Walk back to the boarding house for dinner.
8pm: Either study, chat to other girls or watch The Bachelor when it’s on (no set arrangement. I do what I feel/need to do).
9-9.30pm: Go to bed.
CHARLIE’S AVERAGE FRIDAY
5am: Alarm goes off, get out of bed and pack bag for swimming.
5.15am: Walk to pool.
5.16am: Do a dry land warm up/activation exercises.
5.30am: Start swimming.
7.30am: Finish swimming session and get out of pool.
7.30-7.45am: Shower and get dressed for school.
7.45-8am: Walk to dining hall/food tech room and eat breakfast.
8-8.20am: Go back to room, brush teeth, pack bag.
8.20am: Walk to lockers and get books for first two periods.
8.26am: Walk to mentor group.
8.30-8.40am: Mentor group.
8.40-9.40am: German.
9.40-10.40am: Psychology.
10.40-11.05am: Recess, eat at dining hall.
11.05-12.05pm: Chemistry.
12.05-1.05pm: RTR exercise (bootcamp).
1.05-1.30pm: Mentor group.
1.30-2.30pm: Lunch time, eat in dining hall and then go and sit with friends.
2.30-3.30pm: Maths methods.
3.30-4pm: Walk back to boarding house, eat afternoon tea in kitchen, get changed, walk to gym.
4pm-5.30pm: Gym.
6pm-8.30pm: Race night swimming.
8.30pm-9pm: Shower, get changed into PJs, dinner in boarding house.
9pm: Brush teeth and go to bed.
HOUSE RULES
As a general rule, timing for the boarders is as follows:
6.30am-8am: breakfast is served in the dining hall (8am-11am on weekends).
10.40am-11.05am: Recess is served in the dining hall.
1.30pm-2.30pm: Lunch is served in the dining hall.
6pm: the dinner bell is rung in the boarding house and the girls who are in must walk to the dining hall for dinner. If a boarder is absent (at tutoring, training, etc), then they can order a “save”. This meal is brought over to the boarding house to collect later when she returns to the boarding house.
RELATED CONTENT
Using science to study smarter
Neuroscience and cognitive psychology experts are working with educators to improve the way students learn. Here are some of their tips to make the most when you hit the books.
O-Week 2019: Everything you need to know
Orientation Week is around the corner for tens of thousands of Victorian students starting university and TAFE. We’ve got the important dates, events (and how not to overdo it) this O-Week.