Practical advice for new boarders

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Any gems of wisdom or practical advice for new boarders would be appreciated. DC is starting next week and suddenly feel unprepared.

We’ve obviously got everything of the the kit list and sorting a few home comforts, but it’s all unknown territory for us.

How old are they?

13, going into y9.

Alarm clock was useful and some nice pictures of friends and family to go on their noticeboard.

Good luck!

Excellent snacks in shareable size packs/ own blanket or bed throw / bedside rug / lots of loungewear

Thanks. Hadn’t thought about alarm clock and will reassess amount of lounge wear. Think we may need more.

Mattress topper - boarding school beds are usually uncomfortable.

Defo mattress topper. Not sure if you have a boy or girl but I personally would hold off buying too many clothes if a girl as my DD wanted a whole new look as soon as she started boarding - her yr 8 clothes were just not it ;)

Sliders for the showers!

Agree with a mattress topper.

Sliders
Bedside lamp
Multicharger as they'll usually only have one socket by their bed
some books to read
some little storage baskets for in the wardrobe to store socks all together
a box of spare pens, pencils etc so when they run out they dont have to walk to the school shop (especially if pen runs out during prep when shop is shut)
teabags
squash racquet for free time in case friends fancy a game

Bit of a brain download- Don’t take any clothes that won’t survive a normal 40 degree wash and tumble drying. Don’t take white things ( mixed wash for own clothes). Just generally don’t take loads and loads of clothes/ stuff as storage is fairly limited and it seems that the more they have the more they lose. Lockable box for valuables. Coat hangers. Bedside light- some schools have them built in, some don’t so worth taking a cheap one and if you don’t need it just return it. Apple tags for sports bag and instruments so if they dump it somewhere random on way to somewhere else they can hunt it down easily. One of those magic shoe shiners- not sure it ever gets used but still. Sheet of Stick on name labels so that anything they get while there ( Vinted is a thing) at least gets one of those and isn’t immediately lost ( I find Stikkins to work best and survive the most washes). I don’t bother naming underwear and socks ( other than sports socks) as it goes in the wash in a named mesh bag anyway but check if this is the case.

Assuming mesh laundry bags were on the school list I'd get a second set. Then one is used to collect the dirty stuff. When it comes back full of clean clothes they can just store the clothes in the bag they were washed in and then rinse and repeat.

Toms trunks are a boarding school uniform staple.

Two things in shortest supply when boarding are sleep and solitude so think about what may help your particular DC achieve these: some kind of noise-cancelling headphones, thick mattress topper, reading lamp, alarm clock, paperwhite kindle if allowed.

Toms trunks
Sliders
Power bank

Then revisit the list at half term by which time your DC will know what they want or need.

Boys are much more minimal than girls generally I think - for eg, mine don’t need masses of home clothes as they seem to live in their sports kit. But yy to the mattress topper, long charging cables, some food to start off with, name EVERYTHING
Oh and put the duvet cover on the duvet before you go so you can just stick it straight onto the bed when you get there!

lots of pairs of socks
a fan in the summer

as said anything that helps them sleep and relax - books, headphones etc.

Ours (yr7) takes lots of photos and teddy bears. And in our case tennis racquet, golf clubs, bike etc.