Distance, location, educational choices and religious environments are all choices when sending your child to boarding school. The reasons can be many and varied and choosing the right boarding school for your child can offer wonderful opportunities. Most often, parents place children in boarding school because there is no Catholic school or even State High school within a reasonable distance that offer the education that parents are looking for for their child,or sometimes the child or family may be lacking something that boarding school can help develop. Our Hostels, Mother Teresa and Francis Douglas House are modern, busy, vibrant and stimulating places, boarding offer great experiences for any child and the chance to meet new people, experience new cultures and make new friends. Being in Nelson and at Garin College offers greater opportunities to be involved in school-based, after-school and weekend activities. Nelson has a great environment and is blessed with not only great sporting, recreation and extra-curricular opportunities but being here in Tasman bay we have wonderful beaches, safe rivers and in the winter we try to get to the ski field at least once. For students who get fully involved, boarding is great fun and very rewarding. A busy boarder is a happy boarder.

A period in boarding school can be a good experience for any teenager. The duration will depend on many factors, whether for short or long term, boarding can be a very happy situation. Learning new skills such as independence and discipline enables children to maintain the balance of a relatively relaxed, homely atmosphere in which they can be secure and happy. Clear rules exist that govern behaviour while importance is placed on keeping a safe family environment. Our boarders have set hours for supervised study and extra resources available by way of textbooks and tutorial assistance, as well as having access to the school resources after hours. In general teenager can find study easier when others around them are also studying and to a certain degree, life is regimented to a set pattern of schooling, study, recreation, meals and so on. For those boarders who have never experienced a stable, secure home environment, our hostels can provide a place of belonging where people care about their attitudes, development, growth and well-being, and boarding school environments can help stabilise emotional security. A decision for a teenager to be a resident must be made in consultation with the teenager themselves, who understands that they will be living away from home in order to gain the best possible education, and understand that they are not being sent away. For many new boarders, going to boarding school in a hostel, is the first time they have spent a significant amount of time away from home, family and friends. There are a number of independently motivated life skills that a new boarder will find helpful if they are to make a speedy and pleasant transition to hostel life. Among these are personal hygiene, picking up and putting away their belongings, a little knowledge of how to sew on a button or name tag, how to budget their funds, fold clothes, sort out laundry and time management skills. We like to think that we are a community and you are part of our community. Where we can families are invited to take part in hostel activities and be part of the school and hostel community. Lastly, and perhaps ironically, boarding school teaches boarders to appreciate home. The emotional warmth of the home environment and non-institutionalised, less-structured routine are seen more clearly as something to be appreciated. Family love and the freedom of the private home are recognised for what they are. Boarders recognise more strongly than before that Mum and Dad, brothers and sisters are the key people in their lives.