Boarders vs borders

COVID-19 has hit a lot of families hard this year—financially and emotionally. Through it all, boarding families have struggled with their own issues. Border closures, and subsequent questions around whether students could still attend the College, presented a real challenge to members of the St Peters community but they’re still looking at the year in a positive light.

CASSIE TWEMLOW

publications officer Tammy and Jason Elbourne, parents to boarders Joshua (Year 12), Gabby (Year 9) and Chloe (Year 7), live in Moree, in country New South Wales. Over the course of the year, the family, like thousands of others around the nation, have had to deal with pulling their kids out of school and managing Zoom lessons. Unlike the majority, however, the Elbournes have also had to deal with living in a telecom ‘black spot’, where coverage is intermittent. “We'd have Gabby on one side doing a [video] singing lesson and Chloe trying to do a Zoom class. I think that was the norm for everyone, and they did really well. Our issue was not so much the At Home Learning, it was the lack of internet that we struggled with immensely,” Tammy told me during a phone interview.

As boarding parents, Tammy and Jason are accustomed to being geographically cut off from their kids. Even so, the longer stretches of no physical contact due to state border closures, following the At Home Learning period, were not something they anticipated. In week three of Term 3, the couple made the five-and-a-half-hour trip to Indooroopilly for parent-teacher interviews, and to help prepare Gabby for Ironbark. That was the last time the entire family was together (at time of interview on Friday 11 September).

“That’s over six weeks,” Tammy sighed. “It's definitely the longest we've ever gone without seeing them.”

The mental strain has been hard on the whole family. At one point, Tammy and Jason considered bringing all the kids home but, with Josh having only weeks of his schooling left, and the prospect of a two-week quarantine period, the family decided it was best to keep him, and the girls, at school. The decision had mixed results for the Elbournes. Josh, who is completing Year 12, has missed out on a lot of celebrations and milestones that other Seniors have experienced in previous years. Compounding this, was when he broke his leg during a Rugby game – one of only four of the shortened season – towards the end of Term 3. Naturally, any parent would want to be with their child in such a situation, but for the Elbournes, this was almost impossible with the firm NSW-QLD border restrictions. “[Jason and I] quickly realised we couldn’t get to him,” Tammy shared. “We were given exemptions to get over the border, but the only way I could see him was when he was in hospital.”

After all the back and forth applying for the exemption, Josh was out of hospital by the time it was granted—Tammy was denied the right to care for him outside of the hospital.

“We had to rely on [St Peters] families to look after him and nurse him back to health,” Tammy said. "And for that, a huge thank you to the amazing families (the super mums) and Josh’s friends who really looked after Josh like he was their own. We are forever grateful to them and the school."

Living through these trying times, it’s a wonder Tammy can remain so positive and cheerful. “No, it wasn’t the best time,” she reflected, “but I wouldn't say it was the worst—we are always glass half full kind of people. There's always someone out there worse off.” On Wednesday 9 September, there was some light at the end of the COVID tunnel for the Elbournes. A class exemption was signed by governments to allow Tammy and Jason to collect their kids from the College and take

them home, without the need to quarantine when returning in Term 4. Excited by this prospect, Tammy shared how grateful she is for the College and its wider community.

“I haven’t been able to express it enough, because how do you thank people, or a school community, when there are no words, gifts or gestures to show your appreciation after a time like this,” she told me. “The Pastoral Care and genuine support the College has for students and their families is pretty incredible.” Tammy reflected again on Term 2—the period of At Home Learning in which she could see just how readily available the teachers were for their students.

“You could see that they were working hard to make sure that the kids had all the support

they could, being on Zoom classes and ensuring the work was there.”

She added that, her kids in particular, loved the fact that they got to see their teachers in their home environment.

“I think it stripped back that we're all human. It was a really great thing,” Tammy recounted.

To finish, Tammy told me that the unsung heroes of this year have been the boarding staff. While needing to be at the College since January because of the students unable to go home, they’ve still managed to make the experience fun for boarders and their families.

“We’ve felt so connected during a time when there was so much disconnection. We’re extremely grateful for what they’ve done.”

Pictured (top): Confrontational signage at the Queensland border; (above) The Elbourne family.