Boarding school laundry

[Jooles725104]

Hi there does anyone know about laundry at boarding school? My daughter is going to Gordons in West End and I have visions of piles of the stuff at the weekend ?

[PandaNot]

My ds is going to be boarding from September and the house staff do their laundry. We were told not to send anything precious and label everything properly!

[balletgirlmum]

I guess it's different at every school.

At dd's there are different days for different things to be washed. One day is uniform skirts/trousets, one day is underwear, dance wear which I guess would relate to sportswear is washed daily.

[Samcro]

do bear in mind that they will most likely tumble dry everything

[nooka]

I went to boarding school a long long time ago, and things may well be very different now, but I think we had a weekly wash. It was obviously very hot, I remember my duvet cover coming back with all it's plastic poppers melted!

[Jooles725104]

Wow Mumsnet is great thanks for your replies. Do you know how I can get into contact with other Gordons mums on here is that possible ?

[grovel]

Gordons have got a laundry.

www.gordons.surrey.sch.uk/_files/PDF%20Files/Vacancies/Laundry%20Assistant%20-%20Mar%202015/5FE0179901A71C48F9E39AB9035076B6.pdf

It may only do school uniform, I suppose.

[Millymollymama]

I could write a book about school laundry!!! Most in our school ended up bringing it home! Everything was ruined, except very robust bedding. Bras and knickers went grey, school pullover went either stiff or so big they would fit an elephant, personal clothes shrunk etc. So few things survived in a decent wearable condition! Nothing was ironed! My DD's V neck blouses were never pressed and looked very messy. On exeats all the parents were dragging home bags of laundry. I refused for a while, but it was not worth the worry, or expense, of everything being ruined!

Sports wash - never as far as I could see! Parents would watch the sports teams and take home the clothes for washing and then deliver it back to the school on Sunday evening. Those of us with unsporty children - ugh! Label everything. It won't stop it going missing, but someone might just get a pang of guilt and hand it back after they have "borrowed" the item for 6 weeks. Parents just chuck things in the wash and never look at name tapes. Happy days!

I am sure some schools are better. Hopefully full boarding ones without weekly boarders are. Just dont expect too much then you will not be disappointed.

[Jooles725104]

Thanks so much !! One more question we live in WINDLESHAM is it possible for my daughter to come home on a Friday night ? She says she wants to come home for the weekend and I am worried it may not be allowed I know she will struggle without her Friday nights at home.

[TeenAndTween]

Full boarding experience here just for contrast.

We had to hand wash our home clothes and underwear.
School laundry did school shirts, PE kit and duvet covers only.

Just as I left some houses were getting their own washing machines.

[Millymollymama]

OP, have you not been to the school to see what the boarding arrangements are? These are usually made quite clear to parents. Is is weekly boarding, or full boarding? Full boarding works on exeats where there might be two or three a term in addition to holidays. Weekly is boarding is what it says. If they are full boarding, then every weekend or Friday nights at home is not what they allow.

Our school was full boarding, but changed to weekly after we started. The laundry problems were whenit was full boarding! Probably one of the reasons they went weekly - too many parental complaints!!!

[morethanpotatoprints]

i'm still not 100% sure but we are supposed to buy 2 large laundry nets and the children's clothes are washed in these.
They have recommended sew on labels rather than iron on and everything has to be labelled.

I'm still confused about weekly boarding as opposed to full time boarders.
I presume the weekly boarders take washing home? Anybody know.

[Jooles725104]

Hi guys she is a weekly boarder and they have Saturday school too ?

[Stealthsquiggle]

Laundry was fairly high on the tour of the boarding house at all the schools we have looked at.

DC's current (prep) school - full boarders have all their laundry done by school, and always look pretty presentable to me. I know the matrons have been known to fill a bath with Vanish to deal with 33 sets of grubby cricket whites . Part boarders (there are no weekly boarders) take laundry home, including sports kit after you have sent them back 3 times to forget the stuff they have forgotten

OP - it's a perfectly reasonable question to raise with the school - they should be able to provide you with a detailed response for your particular situation.

[Stealthsquiggle]

If they have Saturday school then I would expect coming home for the weekend to mean coming home when school finishes on Saturday and going back Sunday night (or just possibly Monday morning), but again you need to check with the school.

[summerends]

Full boarding prep and senior both did / do laundry very well (including ironing the shirts) however anything which can't be washed at highish temperatures and tumble-dried gets washed at home.

Weekly boarders should normally get their laundry done and certainly if in doubt what to wash at home try and avoid washing the sports stuff.

I don't really bother labelling socks (except sports) and underwear any more (after a number of years following instructions to do so) as they get put in a named net bag which goes in the washing machine.

I would n't expect a weekly boarder with Saturday school to come home on Friday unless the school does a lot of flex-boarding

[morethanpotatoprints]

Its so confusing and I'm sure they don't spell things out so they can laugh at how stupid we appear sometimes

I'm working on the assumption that washing will come home with my dd on friday.

We received an email yesterday that will take at least a week to wade through. So we are just off to buy the none logo things off the long list.
Sports direct has a sale and we are lucky that most of the uniform can be bought anywhere.

[summerends]

morethan ask parents of DCs already there (worth doing anyway for your other queries) as IME quite a lot of stuff on these lists are never actually worn especially sports kit.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Thanks summerends

There is a parents forum we can join from the end of summer term where I'm hoping to learn a lot and also a new student day next month where we get to see the dorms.
It seems so real now, and I am jumping the gun a bit after the long email of requirements we had yesterday.

[Twirlwirlywoo]

Every school will have its own system but my experience of 3 different boarding schools are. There are generall set laundry days for either each child/dorm or items. Everything is tumble dried. Even if the label says no.

So at DDs current school her main laundry days are Monday and Thursday. Being at high school she can opt to do additional stuff herself using own detergent etc and there are washing lines in the boarding house garden for boarders to use but the general laundry tumbles everything.

At prep school certain items were washed on certain days and there was also bedding change days.

My kids always bring some laundry home when coming home for weekends. DD has PE last lesson on a Friday so I wash her PE kit - she could take it back to go in school laundry but I dont like the thought of it sitting there all weekend. I also tend to wash whatever they wear home on a Friday night.

Half term DD beings home her entire wardrobe and it usually gets dumped in the laundry bin the whole lot.

In general boarding school laundry is not very loving. I buy school jumpers a size up because they are not tumble driable according to the label but school itself tumbles them. They do have a little shrinkage - so I now know to buy a size up. As for mufti/home clothes - dont take anything delicate or dainty that needs any special care and won't withstand being dried to a crisp in hot tumbler. DD is now old enough to seperate such items and deal with them herself - although that usually means bringing them home to mum!

[balletgirlmum]

My dd has boarded for just a few days & for the odd week coming home on Saturday & her washing was done as long as she was there the correct day.

One time she had to go in an emergency (dh had a car accident) & we sent her with dirty dance kit which was washed!

[malefridgeblindness]

Ds at boarding prep. Everything's washed and ironed at school. Ds has come home for half term with a bag of clean, folded games kit. Everything has to have a sewn label and most thing need loops for hanging but that's the only drawback. Da has his blazer cleaned when it's mucky too.

Has to polish his own shoes though.

[Teddingtonmum1]

My DS is a weekly boarder , the official line is bedding uniform and sports kit and pjs . I've just got 2 black bins full to wash over half term as I send with extra clothes so he doesn't run out tracksuit bottoms & T shirts mainly.
Re Saturday school now I've moved away from the school he stays Friday night so to compensate I drop him back Monday mornings instead of Sunday night's. It's a bit confusing but you'll soon get into the swing of it. I don't think Gordons does Saturday school as we applied last year but didn't get in ...

[Kenlee]

We have just bought another few sets of knickers from Marks and Spenser. Labelled them hope they don't go missing again

[Teddingtonmum1]

Haha kenlee your hoping !! Every term I'm forever buying socks theres a trolley with everything that isn't naned for the boys to look through to find their stuff does my DS does he heck , have also learnt to have a scout round the school at the end of term to find any missing kit If it's not in front of him he won't find it . This term his managed to loose his whole school bag fingers crossed it turns up next week when he goes back or that's more money to replace no only the books but bag as well grrrrrr