To ask for your experiences of working in a boarding school

[amamdaandmark]

I've seen a teaching position advertised in a boarding school - definitely a proper boarding school as opposed to a day school with a couple of boarders. I am interested but I have a young family and so I am wondering what expectations there might be of evening work, and generally how much pressure is put on teachers. I currently work in the state sector and I'm not unhappy in my job; as much as this could be a wonderful opportunity, I don't want to be less available for my family than I am currently. I know not all boarding schools are the same but Im just really interested to hear from anyone who has ever worked in one!

Awful. No work/life balance at all.

I was "day" staff but two nights a week, I wasn't getting home until 11pm (after a 7.30am start!) due to being assigned to a house and having to be on duty. I also had to go away on residentials at weekends fairly regularly.

It would only have really worked with a family at my old school if you lived onsite, as some families did.

Lessons officially finished at 5.30 but we were all expected to do at least one "club" or "library" duty and these often lasted until 8.30 pm, with a short dinner break. There were also Saturday lessons.

Then all the open evenings, international obligations, school events (from Speech Night to Chapel to Concerts). Holidays and exeats ARE long BUT there is no guarantee you'll get them all off. Some, mainly international, students stayed at school all year and some staff acted as guardian and there were also lots of summer schools plus the obvious results days (at my school for GCSE, A-Level, BTech and IB!) and insets.

It felt like working at the school meant the school owned you.

There were some senior staff, mainly childless, who lived onsite with essentially free accommodation, bills, food, no travel expenses as they never left school, who had been able to afford several properties outright which they rented out, making them extremely wealthy and able to retire young and for them the pay off was worth it. They lived and breathed school though. I found it very claustrophobic.

I actually walked out in the end after working a 60 hour week on a part-time contract and being refused payment!

Thank you so much for sharing. Those were my concerns but you've definitely put the cherry on top of the cake for me!

I can echo the previous poster, at least to some extent. Have worked in two schools with large percentage of boarders. Days are long and usually expected to do at least one evening a week duty - one school (pre-kids) it was until 10 pm, other (when my kids were small) not so bad but still until about 7.30 pm. I liked both schools, lovely places to work, but not particularly family-friendly. I think the Saturday open-mornings, etc. is a feature of private/independent schools, rather than boarding schools specifically. The independent sector has its perks, including a significantly lower percentage of contact time (I’ve had around 75-80% in 3 independent schools, compared to my 90% in my current state school) and a lot less ridiculous bureaucracy from Ofsted/DfE, etc. but they do usually expect far more in terms of extra-curricular contribution and days are often a lot longer (particularly boarding, obviously).

Yep. Friend works 07:30- 21:30 6 days a week on average. He probably does a bit more than required, but it's definitely full-on. OTOH, he is well remunerated for it.

But he was also doing that with a small family, so it's not impossible.

thanks everybody, excellent feedback

It's only worth it if you get a full package (good free house- i.e. not a flat in a boarding house, big fee remission, free food, gym etc). The school owns you during term time.

DH does it and it's worked for us because I worked round him to be able to do ALL the childcare when DS was little.

It will take over your life and you have to want to live and breathe school. I only did it for a short while and then got in to a school with day pupils only - MUCH better!

Thanks so much. I'm the default parent just now and children are very young so I'm going to stay put. Really appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences.

Just to add, there is a noticeable divide between those who live in (on campus) and those who live elsewhere at the boarding school I’m in. It’s cliquish.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 good to know, thank you. I'm definitely not bothering, doesn't sound worth the upheaval at all! Thanks again