Destination Boarding

Over the next few weeks, while we’re out on the road for our face-to-face Boarding Schools Expo events, we’re opening up the vault and sharing some of our favourite past episodes with you - conversations that still hold so much value for families researching, preparing for, or living through the boarding school journey. This week’s past episode is a really special one. Many of you will remember th...

Peter Debus is the Managing Director of PrincipleFocus , a financial management and advisory business based in Dubbo NSW with branches in Sydney and Warren, servicing clients all over Australia. We're bringing this one back from the archives because honestly, it's just that good! When we first sat down with Pete, I wanted to talk about the decision he and his wife Virginia made to send the...

Ruby Riethmuller grew up on a farm outside Wagga Wagga and like many country students, the path to opportunity eventually led her to boarding school. In this episode of Letters from Home, Ruby reflects on those years and how they helped shape the person she would become. From discovering new passions and leadership opportunities to building the confidence to step outside her comfort zone, boarding...

A Gunnedah mum’s honest story of school refusal, confidence, and why regional boarding became the circuit-breaker. Tina Clifton is a Gunnedah mum of two boys, raising them on the land with horses, cattle, sheep and mixed cropping at the centre of family life. She’s also a veterinary surgeon, whose career has evolved from mixed practice, to intensive poultry industry, and now into a government role...

Duncan Taylor knows firsthand what it means to leave a small rural town in pursuit of education - and what it means to come home again. Growing up on a sheep and cattle property in Nimmitabel on the Monaro, Duncan headed away to boarding school at just nine years old. Like many country children of that era, the experience felt confronting at first. But over time it shaped his understanding of inst...

What happens when boarding school isn’t in your family “DNA”… and then suddenly it is? In this episode of Letters From Home, Amanda sits down with Robert Bevern - a NSW Police dad whose family story is a powerful reminder that sometimes the biggest decisions don’t begin with a grand plan. They begin with a simple moment of curiosity. Rob is a born-and-bred Northern Beaches local. His wife, Traci,...

In some of the most isolated parts of Australia, Bec Climie hasn’t just delivered the mail - she’s delivered connection, joy and community. On the vast station country of North Queensland, where families can live hundreds of kilometres apart and the wet season can cut roads for months, connection is not always easy to find. But for the families along the Kynuna-McKinlay mail run , connection often...

Not every boarding school journey follows a straight line - and sometimes, the bravest thing a parent can do is change direction. In this episode of Letters from Home , Amanda sits down with Geraldine Clark from Barraba, NSW, a mum who knows firsthand that “best intentions” don’t always lead to the right fit. Geraldine shares her family’s lived experience of navigating boarding school choices for...

When Daniel Bashford and his wife moved their family from the Hunter Valley to Walgett, boarding school wasn’t part of the plan. Daniel had taken up a promotion with the NSW Police, and together they embraced the move as a way to raise resilient, adaptable young people. What they found in Walgett surprised them - a welcoming community, strong friendships, local sport, and a sense of belonging that...

From one of Australia’s most famous cattle stations, this episode of Letters from Home offers a deeply grounded and quietly powerful reflection on what it means to parent from afar. Anna Cochrane lives and works alongside her husband on Newcastle Waters , managing life on a vast Northern Territory station while raising three daughters - all of whom now attend boarding school in Brisbane. In this c...

Amy Clark on belonging, “critical mass” in small-town schools, and choosing boarding to give her boys room to grow. In this episode of Letters From Home, Amanda chats with Amy Clark from Walcha on the northern tablelands of NSW, about the decision to send her children to boarding school, and everything that sits underneath that choice. Amy shares her unique background growing up between Sydney and...

Researching schools, navigating scholarships, and letting go with love. In this heartfelt episode of Letters from Home , Amanda sits down with Lisa - a single mum, teacher, and devoted advocate for her daughter Ellie - to explore what it truly looks like to research and choose boarding school as a single parent. As this episode goes live, Lisa and Ellie are preparing to head to Frensham , where El...

Tamara Nixon is a sixth-generation farming mum from Oaklands in the Southern Riverina, balancing life on the land with the big-hearted reality of parenting three children away at boarding school in Melbourne.  In this episode, Tamara shares why she believes so deeply in boarding - the resilience, diversity of opportunity, and the powerful sense of community it can create. But she also raises an is...

Western Australia’s size brings opportunity - and enormous challenge. In this episode of our capsule series Around Australia with the ICPA , Amanda Ferrari is joined by Jane Cunningham , President of ICPA Western Australia, to unpack the realities of accessing education across one of the largest and most sparsely populated states in the country. Jane shares how distance, travel costs and limited s...

In this episode of Nailing Homesickness , Amanda Ferrari chats with Phoebe , a Year 10 boarder at Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne , who began boarding at the start of Year 9 after growing up on her family’s farm in northern Victoria. Phoebe reflects on the early days of boarding - leaving a small country school where she’d been since kindergarten, adjusting to city life, and navigating the...

Throughout the year, we’ve been following the work of the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association - the ICPA - across Australia. In these short episodes, we’ll be catching up with each State Council President to hear how their delegations to Parliament have gone, what motions were carried from their State Conferences, and the wins and challenges they’ve faced along the way. These conversations ar...

In this episode of Nailing Homesickness , we meet Nouvelle , a Year 8 boarder at Canberra Girls Grammar School , whose upbringing in an Australian Defence Force family has shaped her ability to adapt, connect and grow. Having moved frequently throughout her childhood, Nouvelle shares how boarding school offered something deeply valuable - stability and a sense of belonging. While she began boardin...

What regional boarding gives bush families - confidence, community, and opportunity. This episode takes us to Macquarie Anglican Grammar School (MAGS) in Dubbo for a milestone moment for them at the end of last year: the first cohort of boarders to complete the full six-year journey from Year 7 to Year 12 at this growing regional boarding school. First, Amanda chats with Eli Kinscher, Director of...

In this episode of Nailing Homesickness , we hear from Isla, a Year 10 boarder who made the move from a farm near Dubbo to St Catherine’s in Sydney this year. With her first year of boarding still fresh in her mind, Isla shares what she found hardest about leaving home - her family, her dog, her sport and the familiarity of farm life - and what helped her through those early moments of homesicknes...

Today on Nailing Homesickness , we’re heading to a little place near Oaklands in southern New South Wales, not far from Albury and Yarrawonga, to meet Harry - a Year 8 boarder at Scotch College in Melbourne. Harry grew up working on the farm, helping his dad in the header or chaser bin at harvest, and boarding wasn’t just a new school - it was a whole new world. In Year 7 he found himself four hou...

In this episode of Nailing Homesickness , we’re heading northwest of Dubbo to chat with Lara, a Year 9 boarder at Hurlstone Agricultural High School - one of Australia’s most unique boarding schools, complete with a working farm right on campus. Lara’s boarding journey wasn’t something her family had planned. In fact, boarding only came onto the radar at the very last minute while they were explor...

Throughout the year, we’ve been following the work of the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association - the ICPA - across Australia. In these short episodes, we’ll be catching up with each State Council President to hear how their delegations to Parliament have gone, what motions were carried from their State Conferences, and the wins and challenges they’ve faced along the way. These conversations ar...

In this episode of Nailing Homesickness , we’re heading a very long way from Brisbane - all the way to a cattle station in the Northern Territory, four hours south of Katherine, at the well-known Newcastle Waters. I’m chatting with Clementine, a Year 9 boarder at Stuartholme School in Brisbane, who first started boarding in Year 7. She’s one of three sisters - all boarding, all at Stuartholme - wh...

Throughout the year, we’ve been following the work of the Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association - the ICPA - across Australia. In these short episodes, we’ll be catching up with each State Council President to hear how their delegations to Parliament have gone, what motions were carried from their State Conferences, and the wins and challenges they’ve faced along the way. These conversations ar...

Today on Nailing Homesickness we’re chatting with Archie, a boarder at Brisbane Boys’ College who never – and I mean never – imagined he’d end up at a boarding school. Archie grew up in Gladstone in central Queensland, with strong country roots and a tight-knit group of mates. Boarding school wasn’t on the radar at all… until a BBC athletics scout spotted him at State Championships and started cal...