Charterhouse School - is it a "proper" boarding school....

[Trix2323]

or does everyone go home at weekends?

According to the statistics, it is 94% boarding, but is there Saturday school, matches, etc?

As I understand it, there is Saturday school and matches etc on Saturday afternoon, but they are then allowed home. So I get the feeling quite a few of them do go home.

it's weekly boarding...nearly all go home after saturday school and matches

so not particulary good for someone from oversees, who would be one of very few left in school Saturday evening and all day Sunday?

Correct. Are you looking for a back up for H if their wait list doesn't move? What else is on your list? Is full boarding your priority?

Thanks for confirming that, milkshake. I would not like DS to be one of very few left each weekend for over 24 hours without much company.

... and you are correct, these are back-up plans. I have found another school - or rather, the prep school head did (thanks for the tip on that - he called up). I think he picked the school when I mentioned that I wanted all boarding.

I now have an unconditional offer from that school, but it quite far. DH wishes for something that is more convenient and came up with Charterhouse as a suggestion. Charterhouse is also more academic (which DH likes), but I expect that DS would do just as well at the less selective, co-ed school.

tbh, I can hardly be bothered to start dealing with another registrar at this stage or even to approach the prep head about another option. I am thinking it is just best to wait and know that DS will go to one of two good schools, one of which is famous and the other that is far but would probably be just as good.

Many people do go home, but there are still plenty of people who stay in, and a very large number of overseas pupils. The school isn't swarming at the weekends, but it certainly isn't a weekly boarding school. Some houses are better than others for numbers in at weekends - Hodge is especially well known for being quite full at weekends. It would be very rare to be left for 24 hours without company - one would have to be a total recluse to manage that, and there were only one or two weekends when I was the only one left in my year in my house at a weekend (my house was not a big one for overseas people, and many lived nearby).

I found there to be always plenty of things to be doing at the weekends anyway, so even when others were in, I would often not see them anyway during the day as I was normally either in the engine bay of an armoured car in Motor Club, in the RVW or chapel playing music or in the darkroom in Studio with photography. Regardless of what your son enjoys, there will always be something to do, whether it be the weekly Sunday trips to interesting and fun places, playing sports or joining the Network Gaming Society's weekend blasts.

Incidentally, I'm not some school propaganda machine (you'll get enough of that wherever you end up), I happened across the first half of the title on a different Google search and thought I'd give you a knowledgeable account of weekends to save you from a tragedy of speculation.

I honestly don't get why one would send a child to a Public boarding school and then bring them home evey weekend. Is it to make sure they are coping academically? I'd assume any 13-18 year old boy would rather be having fun with his peers or trying to meet up with girls in town.

Trix, I'd definitely look at Oundle and other schools that have no exeats. Dean Close is another one with no exeats and I assume Cheltenham College does as well. Oundle is very academic and better than CH in my opinion.