Boarding Life
The decision to send your child boarding is a daunting one, we know, but at Springvale ‘House’ we truly do provide a home away from home.
We offer a weekly boarding system where kids come to grow, learn and play while their parents get all their work done, meaning that families really enjoy their time together at the weekends. You can look at it like a 4-night sleepover with friends, where they happen to be fed a perfectly-balanced diet, taught all they need to know, burn off their energy on the sports field and, of course, become independent and confident little humans. And there is more!! We have our own sanatorium and a trained nurse to tend the sick or wounded.
You would collect your children at 1330 on Fridays and return them by 0730 on Monday mornings – but we do have a bus service available, too.
We take great care to ensure our Grade 1s are well looked after. On their arrival they are assigned to a Grade 7 (their buddy), who is responsible for ‘showing them the ropes’, from shoe cleaning, to showering, to dressing and even brushing their teeth. Done now for over 12 years, it has proved to be a highly successful system when it comes to settling the new children into the Springvale House family.
A monitor system was introduced at Springvale House in 1996 to replace the more traditional system of prefects. The aim is to involve all our Grade 7s in learning to be leaders under the banner of “servant leadership”.
As a result our Monitors do a variety of duties in different areas of the school, such as, infants reading, dorm supervision, evening studies, locking up etc.
By the end of their final year we will have hoped to have instilled in our grade 7s such values as compassion, responsibility, reliability, consideration of others, setting a good example etc. These are all part of being a good citizen and leader.