As we celebrated Boarding Week, Boarding Prefect Zoe reflected on what home means within a boarding community and how belonging is shaped not through grand gestures, but through the small, daily choices to include, listen and show up for one another.

Each week, Wenona’s student leaders share their insights with their peers in Assembly.

There are certain sounds in boarding that you never forget.

The sound of girls chatting down the hallway after dinner, laughing in the common room, ‘hand-in time’ and the familiar sound of a staff member saying goodnight before lights out.

In the moment, these experiences can feel ordinary; just part of the routine. But over time, they become familiar, comforting, the small things you remember. They become echoes of home.

When I moved to Sydney in Year 9, I quickly learnt that home is not something you replace overnight. Home is made up of people, routines, places, memories and the details you don’t realise you’ll miss until you are away from them.

Adjusting to boarding took time. Not because boarding lacked anything, but because home meant so much to me. I had to learn how to belong somewhere new, while still carrying the place I came from. And over time, boarding became that place.

Through the staff who cared for us each day. Through the girls who turned ordinary afternoons into memories. Through dinners, prep, late-night conversations and the kind of laughter that makes a place feel warm.

That is what this year’s Boarding Week theme, ‘Echoes of Home’, means to me. It reminds us that home is not only a place. It’s a feeling. It’s the comfort of being known. It’s the people who notice you, include you, encourage you and make you feel part of something bigger than yourself.

For boarders, those echoes of home are everywhere. They’re in the morning rush before school, in the conversations around the dinner table, in the support of staff who look after us like family and in the friendships formed from living alongside one another, not just during easy moments, but in challenging ones too.

I think that’s what makes boarding so special. It teaches us that belonging is not built through grand gestures but built through small choices made again, and again. Choosing to include someone. Choosing to listen. Choosing to be patient and show up for the people around you. These choices may seem small, but they shape the kind of community we become.

Boarding has helped me grow in confidence, independence and resilience. It’s taught me to be more open to change, more grateful for community and more aware of the impact we can have on one another.

But that growth did not happen alone. It came from being part of a community where people were willing to give their time, care, energy and their kindness.

When we give more of ourselves to a community, we do not lose anything. We grow with it.

We should all look for ways to give back to the community that has given so much to us.

Whether we live at school or come here each day, we all play a part in creating the feeling of home at Wenona. We all can make someone feel seen, included and supported. We all leave echoes in the lives of others, often in ways we may never fully realise.

This Boarding Week, remember that home is not only where you come from, but what we create together.

And when we give more to the people and places around us, we grow together.