weekly boarding - how does it work?

[boredofironing]

Hi everyone,
We're going to view a school tomorrow where dc might weekly board.
I don't want to ask any stupid questions tomorrow, so can I ask them here instead?
The school offers full, weekly, flexie and occasional boarding in dorms of 4 or 5 beds.

1. Do you have to take everything home on a friday? bedding etc?
2. Would anyone else sleep in dc's bed at the weekend?

I'm guessing schools will be different, but a vague idea would be really useful. Any questions you'd recommend we ask?

Thank you.

I went to a weekly boarding school and ds starts in September. Bedding was taken home every two weeks, but there was spares and a washing machine for emergencies. And nobody else ever slept in my bed.

1. no
2. no

If they use boarders' rooms for external courses, they are usually during the long holidays to avoid disruption to the main residents.

You could ask them where they put occasional boarders, and if the boarding houses are used to host residential courses during the holidays. That should give you a clue about how tight they are for space, and how often they might want more beds.

As for questions, ask about meal times, what they serve, do they get other options if they don't like the menu items, do they have chores, is homework time supervised, who supervises - is it an actual teacher? What entertainment do they have for free time, do they go into town,

They're not silly questions at all. Do ask everything you're unsure about when you visit.

Thanks. I know they will throw an extra mattress on the floor if someone needs to stay at short notice. (I've already done a 1st visit) The whole school has a homely feel to it which I like. When I looked round the school was having an event the following day so there was a mattress in each of the dorms - like a sleepover! Would you consider this a good or bad thing?

Our weekly boarding experience at two schools is that only have to bring everything home at the end of term. Nobody ever uses the bed at weekends or exeats/half-term. The room only gets used between terms when all belonging our taking home or put in storage. At weekends just brings home small rucksack with books and the odd thing.

Most schools will offer laundry facilities for weekly and full boarders. Flexi boarders may wish to take bedding home when they are not in school. Where mine boarded, plenty of parents took bedding home to wash anyway. They prefered the luxury of it smelling nice! You might want to take a few clothes home to wash but you do not have totake anything home at all if you don't want to. Possessions such as pictures, posters, books and any other items from home can stay. Someboarders go with trunks and these are stored for the term. You just tfake anything home in a laundry bag and/or weekend bag.

No-one will use the bed whilst a pupil is not there.

However, what I would say is, try and decide what type of boarding you want. Popping in and out on an ad hoc basis is not really the best way to get the most out of the school. Weekley boarding involves going home on a Friday night and returning on a Monday but schools differ and some will expect DC to go in for sports fixtures on a Saturday. Or drama reharsals. Or orchestra practice.Therefore some go home after that. Some schools like them back on a Sunday evening. Do ask all about it.

Often the senior member of staff in the house will be a teacher, but not necessarily. They should be experienced in the job though and know how to look after young peope who might be boarding for the first time. Many boarding assistants are not teachers. It would be a very expensive staffing model to have all house employees as teachers. Sometimes they might be married to the Housemaster. This is fairly common in some co-ed and boys' schools.

My dd is about to start weekly boarding for 6th form in Sept, it's all new to us too OP.

As far as I understand, she shares a room with a full-boarder (the idea being the full boarder gets the room to herself over the weekend) and the bedding is laundered over the weekend.

I'm expecting to bring bedding home over holidays, but I understand that term time, that's her bed

How did you get on, op?

Thanks everyone.

Dc liked the school, and the dorms. we were shown round the school by the housemistress which was nice. Then had a chat with the head which was all directed to getting to know about dc.

The weekly boarding is Sunday night to Friday teatime which works well for us. All in all a very positive visit for dc.

Boarding for 6th form works really well. Hope your DD enjoys it!