THE Gold Coast based The Southport School will join forces with St Hilda’s and host a lunch for all current, future, and prospective families plus old boys and old girls at the Ag-Grow Field Day at Emerald.

The lunch will be held at the Nutrimetics Marquee, Site H12, which is conveniently situated behind the Administration Centre, on Friday, July 10 at 12.30pm.

This gathering will give all guests the opportunity to met and mingle with Eleanor Mackie who is The Southport School Kaiser Housemaster and McKinley Assistant Housemaster, and Margie McGregor the St Hilda’s School Marketing Manager.

The Southport School is an Anglican boarding and day school for boys and has applied a renewed focus on academics in recent years with students are reaping the rewards from a number of initiatives.

According the TSS Headmaster, Greg Wain, the school simply felt that it was important to take its students back to basics.

“That means structured homework or Prep on a regular basis to support and enhance their classroom learning,” Mr Wain said.

“This was particularly important for our boarding community. Recent conjecture indicated students should be self directed and encouraged to be self sufficient in their study habits from a young age.

“However, we have found implementing a structured program away from the boarding environment and back into the classrooms has given great benefit to the boarders’ academic results.

“Ongoing research is expanding our knowledge on just how differently boys and girls learn and as an all boys school we can continue to focus on what works best for boys,” said Mr Wain.

The program is compulsory for Year 8 boarders and in Semester One for Year 9.

These boarders gather at a set time in an allocated classroom and listen to the nightly news followed by a current affairs discussion with teachers, settle into bookwork, enjoy a nutritional supper (carefully planned to enhance brain activity) and then continue with research, revision or computer work until it is time to return to the boarding House.

This has a spin off effect for older boarders who enjoy a quieter environment in the boarding House for their study time.

And, by the boarders improving their marks and handing in completed homework on time, the challenge is there for their day boy peers.

“We have found these Year groups benefit from having a structure in place in which to facilitate their homework. And I understand many of our dayboy parents have followed the scheduling patterns for their sons.”
“TSS offers many different experiences for all our students,” he said. “It is vital that academics be at the forefront of these experiences.”

Anyone who would like to attend the lunch please RSVP by Tuesday, 8 July to Jo Nitz – jo.nitz@tss.qld.edu.au