Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

What’s the appeal of boarding school stories?

118 replies

Meduse · 03/03/2022 07:17

Good morning!having read the long thread about the Chalet school books I’m very interested to discover the ongoing appeal of boarding school stories.It’s an area I’m thinking of studying for an essay so the chalet thread was timely. Malory Towers is still being read ( and has new stories published with new characters) but real boarding schools are less common,especially in the state sector.
I have theories but would love to know any thoughts…
Thanks!

OP posts:
kookievee · 03/03/2022 07:18

For me as a child it was the excitement of midnight treats and being away from parents - I only read Maollory and St Claire's though.

Dailywalk · 03/03/2022 07:19

I think for children that don’t go to boarding school the idea of friends being around 24 hours a day and no parents to interfere or to go home to foes found good fun.

Dailywalk · 03/03/2022 07:20

*does

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 03/03/2022 07:20

Its an easy way to separate children from their parents for adventures without trauma. Like one big long happy sleepover. Chalet school goes another step as they are abroad

Woollystockings · 03/03/2022 07:20

No parents, and children together - recipe for adventure and stories.

Dinoteeth · 03/03/2022 07:22

It gives children a certain amount of freedom and less parental supervision. So makes it easier to write.

Even non boarding school stories it's not that unusual for children to be orphaned or have lost at least one parent, even Nemo had lost his mum before getting separated from his dad. Harry Potter has all of it.

mocktail · 03/03/2022 07:22

Harry Potter is set at a boarding school too Smile

I agree with others, it's having the children living together together day and night without parents.

MrsMoastyToasty · 03/03/2022 07:22

As someone who went to a boarding school (as a day girl) it was to get an idea of what to expect.

mocktail · 03/03/2022 07:23

And the Worst Witch books.

Changechangychange · 03/03/2022 07:25

@Dailywalk

I think for children that don’t go to boarding school the idea of friends being around 24 hours a day and no parents to interfere or to go home to foes found good fun.
This. I suspect children are boarding school who know the boring reality find them less interesting.

Having adventures, with just your friends, but without needing to kill off the parents or do anything else traumatic to create that situation. American kids have summer camp, we have boarding school.

EdgeOfSeventeenAndThreeQuarter · 03/03/2022 07:29

Is it too late for me to enroll? Hanging out with my friends, midnight snacks, someone else doing the cooking/cleaning/washing/thinking.

Happy to sit a maths exam weekly in return.

It’s that or prison.

Abra1d1 · 03/03/2022 07:33

They are ‘crucible’ stories. People (children) are forced together and have to find a way to resolve the tensions that build up whenever different types are in close juxtaposition. Away from their parents they are reliant on themselves, so they are simultaneously liberated and confined.

Woollystockings · 03/03/2022 07:37

@Abra1d1

They are ‘crucible’ stories. People (children) are forced together and have to find a way to resolve the tensions that build up whenever different types are in close juxtaposition. Away from their parents they are reliant on themselves, so they are simultaneously liberated and confined.
That’s a great analysis.
midsomermurderess · 03/03/2022 07:41

Harry Potter is set in a boarding school? How did I not know that?

refreshingseahorse · 03/03/2022 07:41

I got really into this and ended up writing a dissertation about it many years ago. In addition to the aspect of being away from parents you shouldn't underestimate the appeal of the boy free setting. You might enjoy 'A World of Girls: Appeal of the Girls' School Story' by Rosemary Auchmuty

ClariceQuiff · 03/03/2022 07:43

I think, for me, it was the idea of a mini-world where the 'right' values prevailed. Character was more important than looks or wealth; bullying was definitely wrong; working hard was good; people who were nasty got their just desserts - in other words, a world where everything was fair.

sashh · 03/03/2022 07:45

I think most children's books involve getting rid of parents for at least part of the time.

Boarding school did and still does that.

In the days before vaccinations children being sent to a distant relative, often an older disinterested adult leaving mum at home looking after the child with a fever.

Secret societies / clubs.

Throw in an old building with a secret passage or two and the book almost writes itself.

Grinling · 03/03/2022 07:46

@Abra1d1

They are ‘crucible’ stories. People (children) are forced together and have to find a way to resolve the tensions that build up whenever different types are in close juxtaposition. Away from their parents they are reliant on themselves, so they are simultaneously liberated and confined.
And the best boarding school stories are brilliant and creating the crucible in all its complexity — I’m thinking of Antonia Forest’s Kingscote books, which are extremely sophisticated, and where the Marlow family at the school kind of operates as a crucible within a crucible.

And yes, what everyone else said — children’s stories have to go to a lot of trouble to make adults either absent, ineffectual or evil, and boarding school removes parents and sets other adults at a distance. (Though even then JKR has to do a lot of work to construct situations where even the presence of Dumbledore, a heroic double agent, and many other powerful good witches and wizards can’t help Harry.

gingerhills · 03/03/2022 07:53

I think they carry all the appeal of being away from parents and having adventures without the loneliness and homesickness of real boarding school. They are also quite socially educative. Blyton reveals how bossy girls get to be leaders and quiet or fragile ones get mocked and overlooked and have to toughen up.

Original poster
Meduse · 03/03/2022 08:03

Wow! I never expected so many replies and so early!! Thank you all! You are saying what I have been thinking,it’s funny though that the modern boarding school stories have to have bigger issues such as murders to solve as in the Robin Stevens or Elly Griffith series. I wonder if todays child needs more than a midnight feast…
Many thanks again

OP posts:
CaptainMyCaptain · 03/03/2022 08:05

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

Its an easy way to separate children from their parents for adventures without trauma. Like one big long happy sleepover. Chalet school goes another step as they are abroad
Exactly this.
Ifailed · 03/03/2022 08:15

Agree with PPs that it allows children to have adventures etc away from parents and adults, but I also suspect the authors are drawing on their own childhood, whether from attending a boarding school, or at least private education. I doubt they could write convincingly about about a group of children living in the slums of Manchester, Glasgow or London.

MapleMay11 · 03/03/2022 08:16

This. I suspect children are boarding school who know the boring reality find them less interesting.

No - I loved them. I thought they made boarding schools sound like lots of fun and then I found out that this was actually the case. My boarding school was never boring.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 03/03/2022 08:16

@Meduse

Wow! I never expected so many replies and so early!! Thank you all! You are saying what I have been thinking,it’s funny though that the modern boarding school stories have to have bigger issues such as murders to solve as in the Robin Stevens or Elly Griffith series. I wonder if todays child needs more than a midnight feast… Many thanks again
Have you seen the recent TV adaption of Malory Towers? They have definitely added more intrigue so I think you maybe right.
VaginaRegina · 03/03/2022 08:26

I think, too, that a setting where the adults are not the children's parents allows the children to be more fully realised characters. If the children are presented within their families, then the family dynamic is part of the picture and the child a part of the family unit. Taking this away places the child as an individual firmly in the foreground.