Home is Where the Heart Is at Walford
For over 100 years, boarders have enriched our school community with their diverse backgrounds and experiences.
For many families, choosing a boarding school is about far more than education. It is about finding a place where your daughter will feel safe, supported and truly at home.
This is what continues to draw families to Walford Anglican School for Girls in Adelaide.
Where is the Walford Boarding House located?
Set in one of Australia’s safest and most liveable cities, Walford offers girls access to outstanding educational and co-curricular opportunities within a caring and close-knit community. For families sending daughters to board, Adelaide’s accessibility, relaxed pace and strong sense of community provide reassurance from the very beginning.
Nestled within the leafy suburb of Hyde Park, just 3km from the Adelaide CBD, the Walford Boarding House is a beacon of comfort and belonging, providing a supportive environment where girls flourish academically and personally.
Setting the benchmark in modern boarding facilities, the carefully designed rooms within the eight apartments are grouped around a central common room and kitchenette, creating a familiar, warm ambience where girls can relax together and feel genuinely at home.
Video Summary and Transcript
Every girl brings her own strengths, interests and aspirations to boarding at Walford. In this story, boarding parents reflect on watching their daughters grow into confident, capable young women through the opportunities and support they've found at Walford and in Walford's Boarding House. From thriving academically and stepping into leadership to building lifelong friendships and finding a true sense of belonging, each daughter has been encouraged to follow her own path. For this family, Walford has become more than a school – it is a place where their daughters feel challenged, supported and at home, giving them the confidence to become the very best version of themselves.
Transcript:
When you’re thinking about the strengths of your daughters and their uniqueness, goodness, it’s hard to narrow that down to a few comments, isn’t it?
What we do know is that for us it’s just been lovely to watch them grow and achieve everything they have.
They’ve always been involved or around the vineyard their whole life, so that interaction with the land has been part of their DNA.
Walford has offered them a lot of new opportunities and experiences that they’d never had before, and they’re guided and encouraged to make the most of those opportunities.
Enabling these girls to form their own opinions and you know, the outcomes from that.
It is just so important and there’s a real confidence that we feel in having our kids at Walford knowing that the environment for that to occur is fantastic. It’s great.
They’ve really thrived academically and we’ve really seen them challenged.
They’ve put their name forward for leadership. Izzy is a boarding house captain. I’m so proud of that. Like she really put herself out there.
Initially, we probably had a little bit more reservation with Maggie about how she would cope with a different environment.
She’s been encouraged to be confident to have her own ideas and her own path, so she has flourished and yeah, really made the most of it.
You can’t understate how much influence teachers have on your daughter’s education, and when a teacher gets a compliment from your door, you go, wow, they must be doing a pretty good job.
We know that our girls have found their people in Walford in the boarding school and in the day girls as well, which has been such a rewarding thing as a parent.
As time evolves, dropping them off is not as hard and it is absolutely a place where we, um, want and expect them to feel like it’s home and we, we know that the girls are in good hands.
I feel very proud to share that our daughters go to Walford.
They are evolving to, to beautiful young women and I’m very proud of that.
What makes boarding at Walford special?
Whether your daughter hails from regional South Australia or across the globe, she will forge friendships that transcend borders and cultures. Each girl brings with them a tapestry of traditions and perspectives that enrich the fabric of our community.
What many boarding families value most is the care that lies at the heart of the Walford experience.
The Walford Boarding community is intentionally small and personal. Each girl is known by name, supported by dedicated staff and encouraged to form friendships across year levels. Shared meals, supervised study sessions, weekend activities and everyday routines all contribute to a strong sense of community.
Walford Boarding is more than a community, it’s a family, and one that Head of Boarding Edwina Birrell holds close to her heart.
"We have a kind, supportive and enthusiastic group of boarders whose connections grow every day. It is such a privilege to see them growing and gaining confidence."
Walford offers the best of both worlds: the opportunities that come with an outstanding girls’ education and the warmth of a community where every student is genuinely known and cared for.
