Boarding is the heart of St Margaret’s

Since then, the school has educated generations of Australia’s rural and regional daughters.

Today, the boarding house is, both physically and symbolically, the beating heart of the school, with a diverse group of 195 students from Years 5 to 12 living right in the centre of its beautiful Ascot campus.

St Margaret’s excellence in boarding has been recognised with national awards. In 2019 and 2020, the school won boarding school of the year in the Australian Education Awards and Excellence Awards in 2022, 2024 and 2025. In 2023, the school proudly won the education category of the Queensland Reconciliation Awards for its Reconciliation Action Plan, and in 2022 received the Australian Boarding Schools Association (ABSA) and IEBA Excellence in Indigenous Boarding award.

The St Margaret’s boarding house has been helmed by outstanding educator Lesa Fowler, who has been Head of Boarding since 2008, and who, in 2020, received ABSA’s prestigious Premier Leadership Award.

Ms Fowler is deeply committed to creating a cohesive boarding community where the richness of its culturally and geographically diverse residents – from across Australia and overseas – is celebrated. She works to ensure boarders both feel a sense of belonging and connectedness within the community while also benefiting from its diversity, nurturing a global outlook in all students.

Specialist boarding staff are at the heart of the St Margaret’s boarding experience. Open and regular communication with boarding families is a given, with staff establishing warm bonds in this important partnership.

Boarding staff are closely connected to day school teachers: the teachers take evening prep, helping ensure students are on track. As boarders commence at the school having come from a wide range of educational experiences, such as School of the Air, additional literacy and numeracy programs help close any gaps that might exist, giving boarders the best foundations for future success.

St Margaret’s introduced a Certificate III in Agriculture, aimed at the many girls from rural properties, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and experience to return to work on the family station or continue tertiary studies in this field.

Boarders also compete in the St Margaret’s instigated High School Campdraft Percentile Cup, which honours their incredible abilities gained from their rural upbringings. 

Did you know?

Perhaps a little-known fact is that St Margaret’s is one of the few full-time boarding schools, meaning it does not accept weekly boarders. This results in no mass weekend exodus, so girls always have plenty of company and organised activities to enjoy facilitated by a fulltime boarding wellbeing and activities coordinator.