For boarders at The McDonald College, being able to live at the school enables them to further their talents.
About 40 students board at the NSW school, which is focused on elite performing arts and tennis development.
Principal Maxine Kohler says many boarders come to the school for the opportunity to develop high-performance skills while also completing academic studies from Kindergarten to Year 12.
“Regional students don’t have those opportunities where they are,” she says. “They need to come to a school like ours where they can do both.”
Ms Kohler was among the founding directors of the North Strathfield school in 1984 after being a partner in the dance school. The founders believed there needed to be a place for high-level performers to practise daily as well as doing regular schoolwork and this became the philosophy underpinning the college.
“You’ve got to maintain both your performance passion and skill and your academics,” Ms Kohler says.
“You just don’t know what your opportunities are going to be, but they’re children. There has to be that option of keeping all options open beyond school.”
What started as a school focusing on training classical ballet dancers quickly developed into a college offering all performing arts, and branched into elite tennis nine years ago.
The McDonald College alumni include Sydney Dance Company ballet dancer Dimitri Kleioris, choreographer Antony Hamilton, singer-songwriter Ayesha Madon, actor Hannah Barlow, ex-Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins, model and actor Sarah Murdoch, and Royal Ballet dancer Harrison Lee.
Ms Kohler says boarding builds young people’s independence, preparing them for the start to their performance careers, both nationally and internationally.
“For ballet dancers in particular, their career happens very young,” she says.
“They could leave Australia at 16 years old and go off to Europe to, say, the Royal Ballet School in London. If they’ve had that gentle step out of the family home to the boarding house, where the environment is still closely managed, but requires independence, it adds a bit of a buffer to stepping on a plane.
“Boarding teaches students resilience and independence, for the parents as well.”