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As we proudly celebrate 25 years of girls%u2019 boarding at our cherished school, it is with immense gratitude and a touch of nostalgia that we reflect on this significant milestone, marking a quarter-century since we first welcomed the bright, hopeful faces of eight young girls into the Boarding House, under the watchful eye of Mrs Nancy Stembridge. To truly appreciate how far we%u2019ve come since those Foundation girls started in 2000, let us pause for a moment and cast our minds back to those early years of boarding. For those of you who boarded with us then, perhaps a faint memory of the communal landline phone in the entrance way will spring to mind? Remember the rush after dinner, jostling for your turn to call home? The anticipation of waiting for your name to be called, or the distinct ring of the phone that meant a precious connection to family? Letters, too, were a lifeline, meticulously written and eagerly awaited. The rustle of paper as you opened a letter from home, or the quiet focus as you penned your own news, was a cherished ritual. Evenings were often simpler, yet profoundly rich. Picture the Boarders%u2019 lounge with perhaps slightly worn, but comfortable sofas, where the girls and boys gathered around the television set following their evening showers. Debates over which show to watch, shared laughter during a favourite sitcom, or the focused silence during a documentary or the news %u2013 these were the moments of shared entertainment. Board games were a staple, cards were shuffled, and stories were told, often accompanied by the faint aroma of dinner being prepared in the nearby kitchen, or the occasional waft of school polish from the evening clean-up.If you wandered upstairs to the Oliver Dormitory in any year since the girls began to board, you would quickly get a sense of who these girls were and what they had left behind to become a boarder. The squads have always been personalised, with favourite blankets neatly folded across the foot of the bed and soft toys scattered across the pillows. The pinboards and headboards enabled the boarders to display photos of family and friends from home, favourite views of the farm, and precious animals they could not wait to get back to over the weekends. Between the photos, you might have found a treasured drawing from a younger sibling, a blue certificate from school, a ribbon won at a horse riding event, or a player of the day acknowledgement. A memory all of the girls over the years will have is of the 5 shower cubicles downstairs, where the tutors or housemaster would generally have to press the button twice in each cubicle before the water was warm enough for anyone to venture in, holding the shower curtain in front of them to avoid getting wet. Once the water ran warm, there was a never-ending line of girls to get through the showers with lists to be ticked off, and time limits yelled out above the noise. Technology through the 2000s changed, and as it evolved, it gradually made the girls%u2019 lives easier. iPods were the first personal device they brought to play music and basic games, followed by computers from school (which always seemed to need charging) and eventually mobile phones and personal computers. Despite access to these devices, ECHOES IN THE BOARDING HOUSE25 YEARS OF BOARDING FOR GIRLS