Plus Ultra / SPOSA
Bridging the GAP
Georgie Venz (2013) lives and breathes Boarding. The second-generation Old Scholar boarded at St Peters Indooroopilly from Years 9-12 and, in 2016, re-joined Girls’ Boarding as a Mistress after spending a life-changing year working at Port Regis Primary School in Dorset, United Kingdom (UK) as a GAP student. Inspired by Holly Brain, Head Boarder Girl 2012, Georgie applied for the 2014 intake of GAP students through Letz Live and Tutors Worldwide* organisations that offer gap year programs and working holidays in the UK, and summer camps in North America. Georgie received offers through both organisations, but said she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with primary-aged children at co-educational Port Regis, conveniently situated close to relatives on her mothers’ side in Southern England. There, she joined 14 other ‘gappies’ (GAP students) to care for the schools’ international boarding contingent, working in the Senior Girls’ Boarding House with students aged 8-13. “It was incredible,” Georgie said of the experience, pausing to add, “The jobs:
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“THEY HAD THIS INCREDIBLE TREE HOUSE AT THE SCHOOL… IT HAD THESE BIG VERANDAS THROUGH THE TREES. SO WE HAD CLASSES UP THERE…” they could be tedious at times. They’re a lot different to the jobs we do here because our kids are Senior School students and we don’t see them during the day… Whereas, in England, we saw the students for the majority of the day because it’s cold and they’re allowed in the Boarding House for breaks.”
Duties included supervision around day classes; reception duties; sports coaching and coordinating recreational activities, such as special events, post-homework hobbies and after-dinner activities. Georgie said she enjoyed organising a successful Halloween Weekend for students in the schools’ cellars and running hobbies, such as ‘Harry Potter Magic’, setup for students by the previous years’ GAP students. “They had this incredible tree house at the school. It was huge,” Georgie recalled. “It had these big verandas through the trees. So we had classes up there; we did some quidditch-type games; we watched the movie and did some invisible writing with lemon ink!” While she repeatedly describes her experience as ‘incredible’, Georgie admits there were challenges; from the tedium of laundry duty, when GAP duos would sort hundreds of freshly laundered and individually labelled socks back into matching pairs, to interpersonal struggles with some students and fellow GAP participants.