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Education Schools Profi le


Above, pupils from The Royal High School, Bath, and below, the school, right, Port Regis School, Dorset


“SCHOOLS HAVE WOKEN UP TO THE FACT THAT THEY CAN POSITION THEMSELVES AS A UNIQUE AND BANG UP-TO-DATE RESOURCE THAT COULDN’T BE MORE IN TUNE WITH FAMILIES’ CHANGING LIFESTYLES”


have dared hope just a short while ago. Boarding numbers, currently stable at


68,000, showed an increase of 1.7% last year. It’s a baby step, perhaps, but one demonstrat- ing that schools have withstood, as Hilary Moriarty puts it, “the vicissitudes of social disapproval in the last 20 years combined with whacking great recessions.” Mrs Moriarty, national director of the


Boarding Schools’ Association and a tireless campaigner on their behalf, is unsurprised that the fi gures have taken a turn for the bet- ter. “Schools have woken up to the fact that they can position themselves as a bang-up-to- date resource that couldn’t be more in tune with families’ changing lifestyles if they tried.” In part, infl uenced by the introduction in


2002 of national minimum boarding stand- ards, enforced by regular inspections, schools have upped their game. Accommodation, even if, as one parents says, tending more to- wards Travelodge than the Ritz, is now tickety boo just about everywhere. Food, too, has improved out of all recogni-


tion. At St Mary’s, there’s a boarders’ food committee that regularly meets the chef to do a two-way Oliver Twist, asking not just for more but, occasionally, less of a particular dish, and helping to plan the menu. At Harrogate Ladies’ College, meanwhile,


even Jamie Oliver might suff er a pang of envy when it comes to the sixth form boarders’ kitchen which boasts two of every appliance, allowing the pupils to cater on a grand scale. “We promote our upper sixth house as our next step to university so we encourage the pupils to cook for themselves,” says deputy head, Natasha Dangerfi eld.


20 FirstEleven Summer 2012


And it’s the facilities that are often the clincher, says Susan Hamlyn, director of the Good Schools Guide Advice Service. “Lots of families take one look at the wonderful play- ing fi elds most boarding schools can off er and want that for their children rather than being bussed across the city to bash a hockey ball about under some power station.” So it’s perhaps unsurprising, that while tra- ditional boarding may be on the slide, at least some of the slack is being taken up by work- ing families attempting to combine parent-


Port Regis School, Dorset


hood with demanding jobs and lured by the schools who can provide knight-in-shining- armour education and childcare combined. Day schools got in on the act some time


ago, off ering wraparound care that mirrors the hours of a parent’s working day in some style. At the GDST (Girls’ Day School Trust), for example, the learning vibe is likely to be buzzing for a good few hours after the end of formal lesson time. “When I think back to my school days, the only place you could go for further research was the library, but now you’ve got your laptop and your phone and the school’s become quite an inviting space to work,” says Dr Kevin Stannard, director of Innovation and Learning. Sometimes though, boarding is the only thing that will do. When her sons, day pupils at Trent College in Nottingham, asked if they could become weekly boarders, Rebecca Singleton, marketing director at supermarket chain, Morrisons, became a convert – though not without some initial misgivings. “I was thinking I must be a bad parent


because they wanted to board, and [was] con- cerned about how they’d be cared for. Within a matter of weeks, all those fears went away. It’s a fantastic school…they’re accessible and very caring and the boys have great fun.” It leaves her and her husband free to con-


centrate on their jobs during the week and work on making the weekends special. “By Saturday lunchtime, [my sons] are


ready to do the things normal families do.” With so much on off er for today’s boarders,


what’s not to like – with the exception, possibly, of the fees? While they may seem steep, says Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent


www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk








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