Boarding

Director of Boarding, Kris Wheeler and his staff offer a boarding experience which is as distinctive and varied as our boarders themselves. Our boarders come from diverse geographic and economic regions throughout the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. Their different backgrounds and life experiences, goals and ambitions create enormous diversity under one roof and provide a tremendously stimulating and challenging environment in which young people can learn and grow.

St Philip's College provides accommodation for up to 60 boarders. The facilities are co-educational, with girls and boys accommodated in separate boarding houses but sharing common facilities such as dining room, recreation room and recreational facilities on the College grounds. Boarding House staff are chosen for their ability to recognise and assist with the special problems and challenges which face young people boarding a long way from home. They are also familiar with the special needs of former School of the Air students, and young people who sometimes are more comfortable with adults than with people their own age. Families living at the College and other teaching staff have a regular and relaxed interaction with the boarders.

Our boarders come mainly from remote cattle stations and communities throughout Central Australia, from the islands off the north coast of the NT, to Coober Pedy in South Australia and the Kimberleys in WA. Their parents manage cattle stations, are nurses, teachers, social workers, storekeepers, administrators, linguists, policemen, mining company employees and members of isolated Aboriginal communities. A strong international flavour is injected by exchange and GAP students who come from all over the world. As the College's international focus has gained momentum, boarders, in particular, have had extended opportunities to learn about and make friends with visiting students who have made their home at the College for a term or more. Overseas and GAP students spending time at St Philip's are accommodated in the boarding houses, enabling the boarders to get to know them well and build strong friendships. This exposure has encouraged St Philip's students, many of them boarders, to seek the experience for themselves. The Boarding House, like the rest of St Philip's College, is underpinned by a strong Christian philosophy. Students are encouraged to practice their faith, and all are expected to attend the College chapel service on Sunday evenings.