I've been thinking about this programme a lot over the past 24 hours. My (4) children will be the first in many generations on both sides of our family not to go to private school, let alone boarding school. I can't imagine sending my boys away at 7 (my eldest would be going next year); I know that for my parents it wasn't a choice they made lightly, but being a military family meant that from a very young age, we knew that we would be going to boarding school, as my mother, my father, their parents, grandparents etc had done for generations, and therefore it wasn't weird, it was just what happened, and what all of my friends were doing. In fact, they sent my brother as a day boy to his prep at first, but he BEGGED to board because he was 'missing out on everything'! He suited it, and the school, but obviously it's not for everyone.
My DH wanted to follow his father into the army because he wanted to fly helicopters, but he failed the eyesight tests and so couldn't join the air corps and didn't want to do anything else. We've ended up being in a position that educating four DCs without any allowances (from the military/FO etc) in the private system just isn't possible, and therefore because it was never going to be an option, there has never been an issue about 'preparing' the children to board.
I would educate my DCs privately in a heartbeat if we could - I had an amazing experience and I also think that for all of those people saying they know people who were scarred emotionally etc, boarding schools nowadays are very different places - there is much more contact - email exists for starters! When I went to boarding school we weren't allowed out for the first three weeks of term and were only allowed one phone call home a week (with weekly letter writing on a Sunday). Now there is weekly/flexi boarding and much more contact with the parents.
I thought that the boys came across really well, that the head was a really positive role model and it came across as a lovely, small school. One of my colleagues went to Harrow and is one of the nicest people I know; he visited India as part of a school trip and still donates money and time to an orphanage that he visited, and continues to forge links with. My BIL and his brothers are all OEs and are well adjusted, normal people - it doesn't mess up everyone!