Welcome to Destination Boarding – the little podcast that tells the big story about Australian boarding schools.
I’m your host Amanda Ferrari from Boarding Schools Expo and in this series A Road to Mount Isa I’ll be introducing you to our schools that are heading to Mount Isa with us in December.
It’s our second event up north and this year we thought it was a great idea to coincide with Sports for Bush Kids week – a week where around 70 families travel hundreds of kilometres from Karumba in the north, Richmond to the east, Windorah to the south, and west into the Northern Territory, to take part in a number of sports. It’s hosted annually by the Isolated Children’s Parents Association Mount Isa Branch of the Air and this year, 2024 is their 25th Anniversary.
During this podcast series we’re looking forward to getting to know our Queensland boarding schools that little bit better. We’re exploring their connections to our most remote families and their commitment or sense of social responsibility to ensure that families have access to face to face engagement with a variety of boarding schools – we all know that a website can only tell part of the story. It’s the people that bring any story to life.
Boarding school is part of life for our rural and remote families and none more so than those in far north west Queensland and the Territory. We are excited to bring boarding schools closer to them so they can explore their options and meet key representatives from each school and really focus on discussing the key elements of what each school can provide for their biggest asset – their country child. We’re so grateful to the 14 schools that will be joining us and encourage any others that are listening to register – it’s not too late to join the podcast event.
Joining us in Mount Isa this year is Anglican Church Grammar School from Brisbane. Well that’s their ‘official’ name but Churchie is how they’re known.
I was looking forward to this chat as the new Head of Boarding at Churchie is Mike Symons, who has recently relocated to Brisbane with his family following 15 years at The King’s School in Sydney. Mike sat down with Churchie’s Headmaster, Dr Alan Campbell to talk to me about their boarding program and their very strong ties to rural and remote families.
Mike and Alan were completely engaging and the impassioned way they talk about their involvement with the education of young men from country Australia further cements the values on which Churchie was founded.
These chats go beyond the brochure, beyond the website. They show you that the people that lead our boarding schools do so with heart and an authenticity that can only provide assurance to families that their children are in good hands.
Mike Symons became synonymous at King’s for community engagement and putting out a welcome mat that truly ensured everyone that came across his path was at ease. Whilst it’s early days for Mike at Churchie, you can absolutely hear that his practice of heartfelt leadership will endure and that Churchie will, without doubt, benefit from his appointment.
Churchie is hitting the road with us again this year as we head to Mount Isa and we’re looking forward to having them.
Thank you to Courtney Dunn for editing the podcast.
Boarding Expo 365