Flexi vs Full Boarding

[Anonymous12783]

My daughter is currently boarding for senior school; she is a weekly boarder so most weekends she comes home after her sporting commitments on Saturdays and goes back Sunday nights or Monday mornings. She loves boarding and is having a great time.
We are moving her after her GCSEs next year to a new school, but our issue is that we do not know whether we can afford the full boarding fees at the new school with the VAT policy. As she is enjoying it, we don’t want to pull her from boarding completely and have her become a day girl, so we are wondering whether flexi-boarding is a good mid point.
She is keen to weekly/full board again: she has made most of her friends through boarding, has a good relationship with the teachers and enjoys the activities and being able to stay in school for weekends after sport if she wants.
She is concerned (as am I) that if she flexi boards it will be harder to integrate into the house and she is worried about being at a new school, making new friends while being on the edge of things in boarding.
I am keen to know whether anyone has had experience with flex-boarding or has opinions either way. For context, flexi-boarding is offered in all houses at her new school and there is around 3 per year in each house.

I think it is very school specific tbh and depends on how it is managed. I guess there is a risk that she feels neither part of the boarding community or the day community - my DC go to a school with day students and full boarders (no flexi) and while there is good integration between the two, both have their own "sub culture" (not a bad thing, just a fact). Are the day houses completely separate or are the day pupils also integrated into the boarding houses?

Everything is going well at current school which is super to hear, however at new school boarding may be a different kettle of fish, new students, change in facilities, different expectations. She may well not enjoy boarding as much as before. The child’s cohort is a huge factor in my limited experience of 2DC. Both my DC are day pupils at a boarding school. Officially it’s either day or weekly boarding and no flexibility. Since introduction of VAT many children are now flexi-boarding so I expect she will be in the majority. My DC1 has never wanted to board despite being well integrated in the house. He likes to have an escape. DC2 wants to flexi-board but we are resisting due to age and the eye watering costs. The key difference I can see is the cohort. DC1 needs a break from the very boisterous and loud house. DC2 has a calmer group of friends. I wish you well with the change in school.