Thread For Boarders

[morethanpotatoprints]

Just thought I'd start a support thread for those either starting this september or established boarders happy to help those with many queries.

There are quite often individual threads for particular schools but it doesn't necessarily say whether boarding, day, private or state in the title. So I thought this would be a good way of getting us all together and also for those people from overseas looking for particular types of schools.

My dd is starting in sept and will weekly board, atm I am gathering uniform and other essential items and will begin the labelling process soon.
I do quite like this as sad as it seems, I find hand sewing very therapeutic and relaxing for some reason.

DS is not into football, so we found a cheerful and fairly "grown up" stripy duvet cover for school. Seems to have been fine. I do need to get a second one from somewhere and a tuck box/ trunk before he moves from part to full boarding.

Excellent advice by Dancingqueen for a new younger or prep school boarder about practising changing duvet covers, cleaning shoes and organising clothes plus selecting items for washing. It means less different things for them to have to learn when they start.

If you are starting at prep school boarding this Sept another tip is to supply printed home address labels for the weekly letter home. This saves them a lot of time and trouble not having to write the envelope AND the letter!!

At our school the duvet covers all have to have velcro sewn in to fasten so little fingers don't have to battle with buttons and poppers!!

dancingqueen is absolutely right about duvet practice. One boy at DS's prep ended up in hospital having fallen over and hit his head whilst inside a duvet cover. pompoms If your boy wants to take teddies etc then that will be fine too- they're all in the same boat away from home and there will be all manner of slightly chewed favourites on the beds.

Labels for the weekly letter home are a good idea. Don't get too excitied about the content........

I got a letter once. In yr 7.

Ds had addressed it to:

Mum and Dad
Our Address

but hadn't realised it needed a stamp. Still got to us, with no payment needed. I think the post office felt sorry for him

I haven't received a letter since prep. Txt (wanting money) rare emails a weekly phone call but sadly no letters any more.
Definitely no news is good news.

Thanks for tip on duvet changes ???? lables are a great idea too. Vix mine has a monkey and has already designed a little top based on the school uniform for monkey to wear. He's not that soppy just really excited!

Oh no happygardening lol definitely no news is good news. I'm still in pre-teen denial that my DS is going to write, call and want to come every weekend to see me Haha. I remember watching a documentry I think about Harrow where the matron said mothers would call her worried the boys hadn't been in touch and where they still there?

I second the no news is good news.

If DD calls or whstsapps its one or two thinGS
1)she needs money
2)she needs an email to get out of something
3)she is not friends with someone
4)she really does want some more money
5)she has lost part of her uniform/sports kit. Please buy me a new one.
6)she needs an email to have a sleepover at her friends house.
So sometimes no communication is a good thing

Oh yes, the only text initiated by my son starts with
I need
I've lost
Please can you send me

Here we go with another stupid question.

When you take them on the first day, do you take a suit bag with uniform already on labelled coat hangers? so they can go straight in the wardrobe without getting creased?
Also, I don't know how many extra clothes to send and how many to keep at home.
I think I may be overthinking it a bit, but I was concerned about her ending up with too much at school and not enough here or too much here and not enough at school, both uniform and ordinary clothes.
The labelling is going well, but not sure 144 are going to be enough.

Not too many casual clothes to begin with, and try and operate a one in, one out system. Otherwise all her clothes will end up at school, packing up at the end of term will not be easy and it'll be harder to keep her room tidy! Don't forget to label all the casual clothes too!

Love the idea of uniform in a suit bag it'll probably be the only time it's hung up all term!

2 pairs jeans, 2 pairs shorts + enough tops for the week (5?) + 1 hoodie

At Dds school they don't bother with ironing much!

I'm currently wading through all the washing she brought home for the summer.

Thanks derek Tbh the suit bag idea is only because we have tons of them. dh and dd use them a lot for gig clothes for performances, I wouldn't get one especially .
Thanks for the clothes advice, there's a certain amount of concert dress/ gig attire to take as well. I couldn't have a straightforward child

I guess it's different at different schools but ds & her friend tend to just get changed into their onesies once they get back to the boarding house.

At DC's school the boarders only wear "home clothes" on Saturday evenings/ Sundays, and are strongly discouraged from having many at school. To this end, they go home and come back in school clothes for exeat weekends and the like.

As you say, this must vary hugely from school to school, and the amount of home clothes they need wil vary accordingly, but to answer the transport question, it may be worth checking what they are expected to arrive wearing.

At dd's school they go shopping on Saturday afternoons & donetimes out to the local park on Sunday's so they need clothes for that.

What does mufti stand for? I bet it's something very obvious.

I spent the night weeping last night. I'm usually a strong person but it suddenly dawned on me that dd will be gone 8 weeks yesterday. She wasn't aware of it as it was late and she was in bed. I won't tell her either, but come September if I haven't got it out of my system by then will need some hand holding from you lovely parents.
I suppose it will be a huge change for us all.
I know it's silly as she'll be at home part of the weekend, holidays and exeat, that it's the best thing for her...... but that doesn't help when you're baby is going away at 11.
Somebody tell me I'm being ridiculous

mufti = home clothes = non-uniform.

My ds comes home in uniform on a Friday and returns in mufti. After a few weeks we found all his trousers and shoes were at school. We quickly realised we needed to give him a list of things to bring home on a Friday including a full change of non-uniform clothes and shoes.

Top tip: make sure when your child returns to school they're wearing socks and underwear with name tapes on. Otherwise you end up losing lots of stuff to the school laundry lost property box over time.

The word originates from the Arabic: Mufti (????) meaning an Islamic scholar. It has been used by the British Army since 1816 and is thought to derive from the vaguely Eastern style dressing gowns and tasselled caps worn by off-duty officers in the early 19th century. Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive (1886) notes that the word was "perhaps originally applied to the attire of dressing-gown, smoking-cap, and slippers, which was like the Oriental dress of the Mufti".[2]