Boarding from the age of 3. Who does this?

[diagonavenue]

Someone sent me this:

"Our boarding school in Villars (Switzerland) welcomes girls and boys from ages 3 to 13, as boarders or day pupils."
https://prefleuri.ch/boarding-school/

What?

If it's Switzerland it's probably for the children of spies, secret assassins and evil megalomaniacs.

@WhatWillIWear maybe. But if they advertise from 3, then presumably 3-6 year olds would have equivalent of a full time kindergarten school on-site. So many children might be there daily anyway.
Its Likely most ‘boarders’ under 8 at that Swiss place are actually there daytime 99% of the time, but they have the option of evening and overnight if needed.

So for example in my example of ill single parent, child might already go 9am-5pm daily for kindergarten from 3 years, so if you needed overnight for 3 days whilst you were having surgery then it would be the ideal place for 5 year old if no family as it wouldn’t be an unknown place to them.

My sister worked in one of those posh schools in the Alps in Switzerland. With boarders from very young age. Not a single Swiss child- all children of expats or from abroad, and mostly in English. Later doing GCSEs and A'Levels or International Baccalaureate.

She chose to send her two children to the local primary school, like all the local Swiss. Small classes, brilliant facilities, sport including skiing on regular basis. And yes, children all walked to school on their on- from the whole area. Private schooling is just not a thing for the Swiss.

No Uk boarding school will take children before 7 as boarders - although many prep schools with boarders will have a pre prep department that’s only day students.

my children (who will not board unless they choose to for sixth form) go to a school which advertises itself as ‘day and boarding school for children aged 3-13’. A quick scan of their website would suggest they can board from 3. But if you actually read about their offering - it’s only from 7.

I think boarding from 7 is barbaric enough.

Not a boarding school but there was a nursery near where I lived who took babies from 12 weeks old and did overnights on Thursday,Friday and Saturday. This was about 18 years ago.

My DD was a day pupil at a boarding school from age 4. I don't think there were many full time boarders under 11, maybe one or two overseas students in the prep school but that's all, and certainly none in pre prep. But they did offer the option of an occasional extended day or overnight stay for even the youngest pupils. We never needed to use the overnight facility but do know people who did and it was good to know it was there. With no family in the area we were continually juggling my on call commitments with dates when DH needed to work away and if we'd ever been unable to swap things so that one of us was at home, I'd rather have had DD stay at school than come home to a baby sitter she didn't really know. On the odd occasion she stayed for an evening meal at school she thought it was a big adventure and seemed a bit disappointed she wasn't sleeping over!
I definitely don't think it would be good for children of that age to board full time, but on an occasional basis or as a safety net in an emergency I think it's probably better for a child to stay at school in a familiar environment with familiar people than most other options. I suspect that that's what most UK boarding schools mean if they say they cater for this age group.
Agree with those who say that Switzerland isn't comparable to the UK. I have a friend who recently moved there and she is finding it quite a culture shock.

I don’t know about 2024, but I think I read Julian Fellows boarded from a very early age

A nursery near us takes babies from 72 hours. I do wonder what circumstances would necessitate that, and how often that actually happens.

@Monkeybusiness09 I have seen this in the USA where many mothers get no mat leave at all.

The ISC boarding school survey gives the real answer to "who does this from the age of 3" in the OP, which is that in the UK, no one does this - in 2023, out of 554,243 boarders in the UK there were no children registered at 3 or at 4, 1 child registered to board at 5, 2 at the age of 6 and around 100 at the age of 7.

The jump is in Year 7, with 1,734 girls and 1,518 boys boarding.

Those are fairly common, and have been around since the 1980s at least, and can be a lifeline to those who work at times other than the normal school day (the one near me did 5 night sessions a week)

I think they became less common as regulation of early years settings increased (but I had heard that some places eg large hospitals can still offer staff extended hours/overnights)

Gordonstoun seems to suggest from 4...

https://www.gordonstoun.org.uk

One of mine is a day pupil in UK, but best friend has boarded from 3.

A friend of mine boarded from aged 5. Super rich parents who were abroad for tax reasons.
He is a pretty fucked up adult.

It specifically says ' Boarding from age 8' on their website if you look more closely.

Swiss school days almost guarantee one parent has to be a stay at home parent. A child might have a morning session starting at 8.30 but then leave the school for 1.5 hours, maybe longer and then go back for an hour or two.

There are also frequent holidays.

@WilieCoyote I'd guess drugs, or inappropriate relationships (meeting that need for human connection)

Strictly speaking though there are boarding schools that take pupils from say 3-13 or 3-18 but the reality is boarding is only available at age 7 up and below that it is as day pupils only but they are still a boarding school.

Pretty sure in the UK boarding is usually from 11, with a diminishing number of schools offering it from 7yrs. None of the local schools where I live in Surrey offer boarding below 11. I think 3 (well, 7 too, if I’m honest), is far too young and desperately cruel/neglectful.

My son is going to boarding school for 6th form - his instigation and at a ‘state’ 6th form - due to wanting space away from an older sister with ASD/ADHD/MH issues and, as he is ASD himself, wanting to prepare himself for university. It’s only 40mins away, thank God, as I’m gutted to ‘lose’ him at 16!

They have a students to teacher ratio of 1:3.
Which presumably doesn’t include additional staff like the houseparent, school nurse, social worker etc. The staff ratio is therefore closer to 1:2, I’d assume. That’s much better than the vast majority of nurseries, afaik!

Is this something I would choose? No.
But are there situations where this may be appropriate / the best solution? Absolutely.

They also offer flexi boarding. Which would allow for tailor made solutions for various exceptional situations and circumstances.

I am glad these options exist. I simply wish they were accessible to everyone in need.

It definitely isn’t the same, I agree.

(speaking as a Swiss person who used to live in the UK btw.)

For a school that charges circa 40k a year you'd think they'd have a better website.

Just because they can take them from three I doubt there would be many boarding at that age.

@PumpkinsAndCoconuts "I am glad these options exist. I simply wish they were accessible to everyone in need."

This in buckets. People don't realise social care type problems are in all families, poverty just makes them glaringly obvious. The rich has the money to outsource the help. The threshold for involuntary social care intervention in England, is alarmingly high. By the time kids reach that stage they're so traumatised they struggle to manage even in the best foster care setup.
Schools like this are basically early help for the rich. It looks very small and like a lovely caring care home in a way. I wish more kids had access to it.

On ratios- most schools actually use all their staff (teaching and pastoral) for ratios so they're often not reflective of the reality and ratios are usually a bit higher than stated. I imagine they don't have many under 7s and if they do, they're probably massively doted on.

Short term boarding is available for little ones but that's for parent working abroad for a few days. Never heard of it under 7/8!in the U.K. for prep

Most elite school websites are weirdly pretty crap! I don't think they like to air out all their laundry, plus they know they're not getting their clientele from a website. It's almost always word of mouth and reputation at these schools.

Someone in my family went to boarding school at 4. This was during WW2. It's far far too young (ask me how I know)

I used to work with someone who moved in banking circles. I will always remember her telling me about a couple she knew who had twins who lived with a nanny in a separate flat during the week and who had weekend nannies when they were at home. You'd bloody hope they never get rid of the nanny, who is essentially the primary carer.