Homesickness

You will be provided with a school e-mail address which can be accessed from any of the student computers in the school, including those in the House. Laptops brought from home can also be logged into the school wireless internet which covers most of the campus once they have been registered with the school’s IT department. iPads are now common place in the classroom for all students in St. Thomas’. Once you can access the school internet you will also be able to keep in touch with home through video calling. These days most people tend to use facetime, skype, zoom, WhatsApp and other apps to video call so there is no shortage of ways to keep in contact with home. Other access to the internet through the school wireless network is protected by a school firewall, as well as restrictions on access during school time, prep and in the evenings.

The vast majority of boys have mobile phones. If you have one, the number for this should be registered with Mr Lynch-Frahill and updated when a new phone is bought so that you can always be contacted in an emergency. Reception is often poor in the valley but the best signal currently available is from EE. We remove mobile phones and other gadgets from the First and Second year’s dorm from bed time until morning prayers.

Good times for you to speak to your parents are between 5.00 and 6.30 pm on weekdays, after 3.30 pm on Saturday and anytime on Sunday except during Mass and prep time. Mobile phone top-ups are available from the Abbey Shop. If at any time the boys break or lose their communication devices the school will give them access to contact home if needed.

While it is very easy to stay in touch with home while boarding it is still common to feel homesick, particularly in the first few days and weeks of term. Everyone experiences this to a greater or lesser degree at some point and it is better to admit it than to try and cope with it on your own. Remember that there is plenty of sympathetic support available in the House from any of the House staff, the tutor team, our chaplain Fr Alexander, or another student. Outside St Thomas’ if boys want to talk about this or any other issues there is the school counsellors Mr Alliston and Ms Brown. I always find that homesickness is perpetuated by lack of activity. The best way to adapt and get used to being away from home is to throw yourself fully into the life of the schools by doing as much as you can in the co-curricular, then you will find that you have made a wide circle of friends and settle very quickly.