Downe House Boarding

[AMxx]

Does anyone know if Downe House offer (or would agree) to a flexi boarding arrangement?

When I went 20 years ago it didn’t really do this. In the 1st term (year 7) many of the weekends were fixed and at school - the rationale was to get us used to boarding and bond as a year group which made sense and worked well, I thought.

Things may have changed, but the staff there are very friendly - the head and deputy have been there since I was there. So i’m Sure you could ask (eg if it was due to high level sporting/music/extra curricular stuff or health/personal issues they might consider it).

Thank you Namenic, thats really helpful!

I think they have a few day girls there now so worth asking but they would have very long days.

Watch out for the anorexia.

Well there was one person in my year who left. I’m not sure exactly the circumstances, but she seems to be doing well now. The school seemed to be ahead of the curve in that they made us sign in for breakfast to make sure we had meals.

Probably best to check it out with people who have been there recently. But when I was there people were relaxed. Most people had no make up, chocolate crispy cakes flew off the trays.

Thanks all :-) malmontar, they do indeed have day girls and we are close enough for DD to be a day girl. I'm just a little worried that as a day girl, she'd be very much on the periphery rather than being able to integrate and develop friendships.

I think your gut is probably right. It is never going to be the same being a day girl in an almost all boarding school. You need to commit to boarding if you are sending her there tbh. Why not find a day school or flexi boarding school if that is what you want?

I would agree in that it’s very much a boarding school. They also do a term in France so she’d have to board then, I’m not sure how day fees reflect that term. Our friends daughter is in y8 boarding there and she loves it, a lot of the banter happens in the boarding houses and some of the inside jokes I’ve heard were about stolen trakkies and borrow clothes so she may well feel a bit left out but there has to be other day girls she could integrate with. It’s small enough to do so. You may find her wanting to board.

My dd is a day girl at a predominately boarding school and absolutely loves it. She likes getting out of the social group in the evening, despite having lots of friends and being very popular.

She still seems to borrow other girl's clothes and trackies!!