Parents with students boarding at Nudgee College are so impressed they’re sending their younger sons before they get to year 7.
Story Ken Eastwood
When Goondiwindi boy Sam Coleman was sent off to board with 300 other boys at Nudgee College last year, he loved it so much he helped convince his parents to send his younger brother Angus as well. Angus, in year 5, is the youngest boarder at the Brisbane school.
“He loves it – he’s absolutely thriving,” says the boys’ mum, Emma Coleman. “He’s so comfortable there he didn’t even want to come out with me for dinner the other night when I was there. The boarding community at Nudgee really are like big brothers. It isn’t just the boys in Sam’s year, it’s everyone – the year 12s, the year 11s will walk past and say, ‘G’day mate’. I can drop my children there and drive the 4-plus hours home and not feel like I’m leaving a child.”
Angus says he loves the activities after school, playing touch footy or skim boarding at the oval. “It’s fun,” he says. “I get to have 1,000 sleepovers with my friends.”
“There’s always something to do,” big brother Sam says. “In boarding you get to meet a lot more boys and it’s more support in schooling, and if you feel homesick even, everyone gets around you.”
Emma says she and her husband Jeff decided to send Angus to boarding school early after Sam had loved it so much and “we could see what a beautiful boarding community it was … My boys have gained 300-plus brothers and we’ve gained 300-plus sons."
This story excerpt is from Issue #143
Outback Magazine: June/July 2022
