Boarding at PLC is an incredibly special experience where our girls learn and grow, in a safe and supportive environment they can call home. Girls from across Australia, and the world, build the culturally diverse PLC boarding community where girls learn about themselves, and each other, creating life-long friendships.
We are blessed with the location of PLC. The Boarding House is located in the heart of the School and the girls are surrounded by all that PLC has to offer.
The banks of the Swan River are a five minute walk away, where the girls can easily access the PLC Rowing programme, relax on the grassy banks of the river or try their hand at using the Boarding House Stand Up Paddle Boards.
A leafy and safe suburb, the PLC Boarding House is situated close to train and bus routes, allowing the older girls to venture into Perth and Fremantle. The Grove Shopping Centre is a short walk away and this is where the girls can stroll after school for refreshments and a spot of shopping.
Our location gives the girls the opportunity to access all that Perth has to offer. The iconic Cottesloe Beach is a 20 minute walk from the Boarding House and can be enjoyed by the older students. For our younger boarders we run regular transport to and from the beach, providing supervision so girls can enjoy all that is on our doorstep. A trip to Fremantle to visit the Arts Centre or the markets, an outing to enjoy the opening of the International Arts Festival in Kings Park, partaking in outdoor cinema experience in Mosman Park, cheering on the Wildcats at HBF stadium, visiting the new Elizabeth Quay… it is all possible. All these activities will serve to enrich and enhance your daughter’s experience while she is in Perth.
We run two programmes throughout the year so that the girls do not miss out on experiencing all that the environment has to offer.
Quay2Quay
“Quay2Quay” is a whole of boarding endeavour. The girls, over the course of their time in boarding, will walk from Elizabeth Quay in Perth to Victoria Quay in Fremantle – with plenty of highlights in between. Each year group will walk a specific part of the total walk. The aim is that by the time they reach Year 12 the girls will have walked a massive circle around the suburbs of Perth.
Look Up
“Look up” is all about encouraging and enabling spontaneous activities within the student body. A staff member will gather up the students and organise an activity in which they will participate. It may be conducted within or outside the confines of the School. Sometimes it might result in a walk to the beach and other times it might be playing a game of basketball or cards. As a result, the girls get to “look up” and see what is around them and enjoy the experience with other students and staff.
The journey in boarding commences prior to the start of the new school year. We have programmes to help pave the way and make the transition to boarding as smooth as possible.
ABC@PLC
All aBout Connections, or ABC@PLC for short, is a unique programmme designed specifically for our incoming boarders. It aims to help the students in making connections with each other, connections with teachers and connections with and through technology.
ABC@PLC begins before the start of the new school year. Each family that chooses to participate in ABC@PLC is given a laptop and it is through this valuable tool that those vital early relationships are established. The students connect to a teacher at the School to participate in scheduled learning experiences and also with other students who are new to boarding. It is through these networks that knowledge is developed and friendships are established.
We are thrilled with the success of ABC@PLC. Last year the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. One student said, “The start of the year was a lot more comfortable and relaxing – one less thing that I did not have to think about.” Another girl said, “I was so worried to leave Mum, but knew that I had people around to help and support me”. As a result of its success, ABC@PLC is now a very important part of our orientation process.
Best Buddies
Best Buddies is a programme designed to give new boarders a helping hand throughout their transition into boarding. New boarders are assigned a buddy who is best suited to their individual interests and needs and who will endeavour always to have her best interests at heart.
Best Buddies also gives buddies from higher years opportunity to develop and nurture their leadership skills as well as their own interests. They will help their new boarder buddy to discover the best aspects of boarding, overcome the challenges, conquer their fears and ultimately become their best selves.
Recreation and Activities
Recreation activities are an important part of what we offer to our boarders at PLC. The Boarding House provides a holistic recreation programme that is designed to not only provide opportunities for the girls to relax and experience new things, but also to allow them the time to mix with others.
The Activities programme is funded directly from boarding fees and covers the majoriy of the activities, events and workshops on offer. In some rare cases, activity opportunities (ranging from musical theatre performances to year group dinners) arise that we have not factored into our budget. In these cases boarders will be given the opportunity to attend them and charge the cost to the school account.
The Boarding House is a buzz of girls coming and going from Wolves Hockey Club, Storm Netball Club, WACA Girls’ Cricket, Claremont / Cottesloe Basketball, Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove Tennis Clubs, K2 Dance and the PLC Cricket and Boarders’ Football Team.
We also incorporate farm visits and a camping under the stars experience into our activities programme. These are not only a bonding experience for the girls, but provide an opportunity for overseas students and our city boarders to have a taste of farm life.
Transport
There are very few instances that you will be charged for transport whilst your daughter boards at PLC. We have a Boarding House bus driver and provide free transport to and from sport training sessions and fixtures. Your daughter will also be transported to and from all activities run by the Boarding House. We also provide free transport on the first and last day of term and the first and last day of the long weekend.
Medical Appointments
We have a number of medical facilities (physiotherapist, doctor, dentist) in the immediate area to which our Boarders have easy access. Our female medical appointments driver is available to accompany girls to medical appointments that are in a 10km radius of the School. The PLC Health Centre, in conjunction with Boarding Staff, will ensure follow up on care and medication.
Our caring, committed and friendly staff, create an atmosphere that is warm and inclusive.
The staff are passionate about working in boarding. We want our boarders to be happy, secure and ready to leap into all that is offered at PLC and beyond. Above all – we all believe working with young people is exciting and rewarding.
Our staff bring an extraordinary range of skills to the boarding community, in short our staff have …
We are proud of the academic support available in the Boarding House. Structured and supervised homework and study sessions on weekdays will help your daughter form good learning habits, but we aim to offer more than that.
In addition, we have school teaching staff who visit the Boarding House on a weekly basis to provide free help during prep. There is always a staff member working with each year group during prep, who is capable of giving one-on-one tutoring advice. The library is also open for the girls from Years 10 – 12, to access during prep. It is staffed by current teachers and past students.
The Boarding House staff work very closely with the School staff to ensure that the transition between school and boarding is seamless. Regular meetings between School Year Co-ordinators and Boarding Year Co-ordinators facilitate a clear understanding of your daughter’s progress at school. Additionally, weekly meetings between the Director of Boarding, the Deputies of Operations and Pastoral Care, the Boarding Year Co-ordinators and School Nurses, also ensure communication channels are open and we are all working towards a common goal.
The Boarding House provides regular updates for Boarding Parents, through a weekly newsletter. Year Co-ordinators also send frequent emails with photos of activities that have taken place.
The care of your daughter is at the heart of everything we do.
Each year group is linked with a Boarding House Year Co-ordinator whose primary role is to keep the boarders in their care safe, healthy and happy, and to encourage them to be socially responsible. The Year Co-ordinator is the first point of contact for parents. The Year Co-ordinator is also responsible for facilitating the “From Strength to Strength” Boarding Wellbeing programme. This year-group specific programme builds on the resilience and resourcefulness within each student to enable them to flourish and prosper. The year-long programmes have been designed on a developmental continuum to support the changing needs of each age group. Weekly meetings, planned and impromptu activities, guest speakers and workshops help to build confident and resilient girls and nurture their day-to-day emotional, social, health and academic needs.
The activities and programmes fall within these broad themes for each year group:
The aim of “From Strength to Strength” is to ensure your daughter thrives whilst at PLC. Our goal is to build and maintain her self-esteem and make her journey as homely and positive as possible. We take pride in seeing the girls leave the Boarding House having learnt how to be confident, strong and independent individuals within our community, and it is immensely rewarding to know they will take these skills with them into the world beyond PLC.
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