Value of boarding: ‘Shy boy’ from Condobolin travels the world

The search for the right boarding school for our son was full of surprises, write NSW farmers Vikki and Peter Stuckey.

Canberra Grammar School student Seamus Stuckey and his mother, Vikki, who farms with her husband, Peter, at Condobolin NSW.

SELECTING a boarding school for our son, Seamus Stuckey, induced many sleepless nights. We initially assumed that Seamus would attend school in Sydney, simply because that was what so many families in our district did and because we believed only a major metropolitan city could offer the educational and social opportunities we were seeking.

However, while at a boarding school expo, we visited the Canberra Grammar School stand and suddenly Canberra became a contender.

Attending an Open Day at CGS confirmed we had found the best school for our son.

The students who showed us around the school treated Seamus as if he was already a part of this close-knit community. Their enthusiasm, manners and lack of pretence put us immediately at ease.

The campus itself, with its combination of heritage-listed buildings and modern architecture, reflected both the school’s pride in its past and also a focus on the future.

Canberra had also grown from having that “big country town” feel, to a city embracing a much more cosmopolitan vibe.

Seamus grew up on our 11,000-acre (4400ha) property at Condobolin, NSW, where we farm wheat, oats, barley, canola, beef cattle and sheep.

Condobolin is a small town of 3500 people, where everyone knows one another. At his primary school, he had been one of 15 students. As you can imagine, it was a stark contrast for him moving to our nation’s capital where he was one of 2100 students, and far from family and friends, and everything he had ever known.

Despite this rough start, those early challenges have been superseded by many terrific experiences for both Seamus and ourselves. Seamus is currently participating in a three-month exchange program in the UK.

His acceptance into the program was a real watershed moment for us. To go from being a boy who lived 500km away and was homesick, to a young man who enthusiastically boarded four plane flights to live on the other side of the world, was all the proof we needed to know our decision to go to CGS had paid off.

Seamus will always be a country boy, however he is no longer that quiet, shy country boy who begged us to come home. His time at CGS has seen him develop empathy, patience, resilience and independence. The pastoral care Seamus has received from both the boarding house and the broader school community has been integral to his personal growth.