Boarding school????

[Raebabe]

I have been reading the boards for a while now and I have several questions about boarding schools.

Why do you have your children board from age eight?
People are always talking about the schools excellent facilities, What are you talking about exactly?
How much contact do you have with your child?
How many children share a dormitory at the school?
How did you decide on a school?

Sorry so many questions.
Hugs, Raeann

In the same way as no 2 day schools are identical, and different parents may have different reasons for choosing the same school, likewise opinions about boarding schools differ.

Try the Boarding School Association's website for some general information. If you have questions about a specific school, then you can also post it in the title - there are several mums on here with dcs in a number of boarding schools.

What does dc mean?

There are many reasons why a child boards from the age of 8 and this list is not exhaustive:

Forces families.

Children start of in the school as day pupils and then beg their parents into boarding - this is very common.

A move of location but the child wishes to remain at the school.

Living in an isolated location such as the Highlands.

Two working parents who work difficult hours.

A belief that a boarding education is the best form of education.

As for the amounts of time you see them this varies from school to school. DC is currently off school (if you add up the days) for about 24 weeks of the year. DC can come home every weekend and I can visit every Wednesday to watch matches.

In most prep schools there are 6 to a room and this is common in the first couple of years at most senior schools although some have single rooms only.

Schools are decided mainly on location nowadays as most parents live within one hour from the school. Or the senior schools they feed to. In saying that most parents go with the feel for the school.

DC means children (Dear/Darling child/ren).
What does "Hugs" mean?

Hugs means nothing, I just wanted a nicer way to say goodbye then sincerly Raeann, so I put Hugs, Raeann instead.

On these forums the posters are always talking about the schools excellent facilities, What are you talking about exactly?

You know, personalised masturbation stations in the senior school, a pony in your room, a circus monkey in every dormitory trained to fetch and carry.

Presumably they mean the schools actually have some green space, maybe a theatre and a swimming pool- surely each individual school will have a different set of facilities.

How many children do you have, what ages, and what do you want for their education?

A school I know a bit about which is mostly for boarders has I think 6 indoor tennis courts, a theatre with professional-standard sound/lighting etc, has several art studios, keeps its staff forever, lots of green space (plus is next to a huge National Trust park), and I don't know what else.

excellent facilities can mean anything from fantastic stables, very low child to adult ratio, with staff working very long hours so the children have the same staff teaching and caring for them, excellent sports facilities (swimming/squash/tennis ) all on tap, right down to tree houses and fencing lessons.

Snogs and kisses, Lynette.

Oh, and they teach children to put a capital letter at the beginning of each sentence.

Eton has it's own pub, if that's what you mean by facilities.

It has an observatory too which is much less important!

Oh and Harrow has it's own farm and teaches Falconry!

snort at sylvanianfamily - masturbation stations

falconry, that's useful too

If a state school offered farming and falconry skills as a vocational course for those less academically inclined then I doubt there would be such derision. Falconry is useful if you want to work with birds, animals or in conservation.

I think you've had some mean answers here. I can't speak for boarders as my children don't board. However, my older daughter is at a school which offers boarding, mainly to overseas students which gives the school an international feel whilst remaining essentially English (for good or bad).

In terms of facilities, it's a very small school - only a one form intake - and as such I believe there is far more inter-year integration than in many larger schools. My child is in year 8 but will converse with children from year 7 through to those taking their A levels.

Her school is on a very historic site and so modern facilities are limited but they have full access to the prep school facilities which is where most of the indoor sporting events take place.

She follows a standard curriculum and the school has the best results in our county.

DD1 boarded in the 6th form. I found it a useful bridge between school and university. It had similar exam results to her girls grammar school but DD did think some of the kids would have struggled to get such good results unless they had small classes and supervised prep. Their sporting, music and drama facilities were first rate. Some weekends she came home, others she chose to stay at school. She had the internet and her mobile to get in touch with us. There were loads of overseas boarders, mainly from SE Asia, so DD managed to pick up a small bit of conversational Cantonese.

I still think the masturbation stations have the edge

Forces family here. We haven't sent the DCs to board (yet) but don't rule it out for the future. Many friends/acquaintances do - when you've moved house 7 times in 9 years, then a settled school life takes on a whole new importance.

You choose in the same way as you would choose any school, plus thinking about location - eg is it near grandparents for short visits or some exeats if you are going to be posted far away.

Not sure what is typical for numbers sharing a dorm. The one we looked at had a maximum of 6, and most in smaller groups. The house masters and mistresses are very important, so looking for the right people in these posts matters too.

All schools I know about allow pretty much unlimited e-contact with parents. Rules on phone calls vary, but all are well reasoned, generous and sympathetic.

The pluses - from what I can make out from the children - are "having sleepovers every night" (ie they like living with their friends) and the amount of sport (timetabled games lessons plus sessions after lessons and before prep and at weekends) - and all on site, no being lugged round activities, it's all there.

The thing that seems most appreec

OP what is your interest? Your post sounds very journo. If you have a genuine reason for asking then it is better to say. You will possibly get some sensible answers. It seems an odd topic to idley wonder about when considering the huge range of topics covered on MN.

Why exactly do you want to know the answers to these questions when you claim to have attended a 3-19 boarding school yourself?
Previous posts would suggest you have a very good memory of your experience...

I find the use of the word masturbation to be disgusting and disturbing when we are talking about 8 year olds going to boarding school. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Well... she did say in the senior school.

My name is Raeann, I am visually impaired. I attended the Indiana School for the Blind, a day and residential school, for blind and visually impaired children, ages three to nineteen years old, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

When I was four years old, I began attending the school. The local public school, lacked the facilities for me to attend there school, they did not have the adaptive technology that I needed to succeed in the classroom, an aide or a vision teacher, so my parents enrolled me in the blind school. The school considered me a residential student, during the week I stayed at school. A bus would take me to school on Sunday and not bring me home until Friday. My dormitory had eight other girls. Weekends, Christmas, spring, and summer vacations, were the only times I went home. The school was like my home away from home, the people in my dorm were like my family. On the weekends I had a nice visit with my family. Summer vacation was like a breathe of fresh air, three whole months with my family at home. The only time I remember going home during the week is when I was seven years old. My dad was taking classes, he would pick me up after school, take me home over night, bring me back early the next morning. Being able to go home during the week to see my family was like a rainbow. It only lasted a few weeks before it had to end, I was so tired at school that I started falling a sleep in class.

My school was a five day boarding school, where the whole school closed on the weekends and everyone went home. My family lived an hour and a half from the school. My best friends Jessica and Lisa, lived at the other end of the state, had to ride the bus for five hours twice a week, just to attend school.