BOARDING UPDATE

[msabmsad]

I have read dozens of threads about parents looking for boarding schools for there children. I would like an update on what you have learned over the last few years. I would like a thread where parents of current boarders could give advice to parents of prospective boarders. (The stuff that you wish someone would have told you at the beginning.) please no anti-boarders as all of these children will have been at school for at least a few years already. I want this thread to be a Q&A for parents of prospective boarders.

Thanks for your advice Huntzoey

Maybe try the Education section rather than Primary Education?

Hi, OP we had a long running thread in "Education" it was lovely and not a bad word spoken from anyone.
It didn't quite reach 1000 posts and ran for nearly a year iirc.
I'll join your thread, but not looking for support atm.
Happy to support others, If I can though

I will start the question part of this thread.
What do you look for in the boarding house?
The bedrooms?
The activity area?
The study area?

Hello msabmsad

Tbh, we didn't know what to look for either.
I don't think it's all that important really, if the school is a good fit for the child.

I suppose I wanted to know how many would be in the dorm, but we never got to see the boarding house until we took her to start the term.

I'm not sure a study area is really necessary if they have supervised prep during the evening.

Maybe the bathroom would be a good idea to check out, luckily they were all right but we did wonder what it would be like.

The most important factor for us as parents was knowing that she would be happy there, so I'd say the trial board is the most important part of the process.

What did you learn after the trial board?

Odd title and topic if you want traffic. Perhaps better in education or secondary education with a title that reflects the subject Boarding Q&As or something. Boarding update makes it sound like an update to a situation you have posted about previously.

Shurley

We had a great description and dd saw it when she had her trial board, in addition to all the other facilities.
There was no preparation needed, if she hadn't been happy then she'd have said so after the trial.
She stayed an extra day as she enjoyed it that much

msa

The food, was the first thing she talked about, the bed and how it wasn't the most comfortable. We bought a mattress topper, quite thick, so this did the job.
She takes her own duvet, pillow and bedding.
Any delicate fabrics, wool, polyester, etc needs to be brought home unless she wanted it ruined in the laundry
I suppose she learned what it would be like, both in the dorm, classes, year group.
What she would like to do with her free hour each night.

Did she know anyone at the school?

She knew lots of names of people who attended who we knew, but hadn't met anyone until the trial board.
They soon make friends though as they live quite closely.

What advice would you give to international parents?

Find out the ratio of boarders to day students, and then what spread of different countries the boarders come from, then find out about how much the boarders and day students are integrated, and what they do at weekends. The school that my dd was going to go to initially had a large number of students from one country and so I guess they formed their own bond, and tended to speak their mother tongue. There was very little social interaction between day and boarders. It really seems to vary from school to school. My dd is a day student at a boarding school called Westonbirt (although she choses to board some evenings when has fixtures/fun events), they have a strong inclusion policy between boarders and day students (there is saturday morning school for all and day students often join boarders for weekend activities) and an even balance of girls from many different countries, which everyone seems to find mutually beneficial and enriching for all. I hope this helps. If you have any more info (based on my limited knowledge/also, based mainly on my dd's school) feel free to message me. p.s. based on seeing how well it can be done, I'm now really pro-boarding and would consider it for my dd when she gets older/needs more focused time for study and activities. Good luck

Why did you decide to go the single sex route verses co-ed?

I am a student looking for parents experiences, seeing as I come from a family that makes 30K a year, this is pure academic for me, unless you know of schools that offer full scholarships.