UK INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS ...Choosing a boarding school in the UK “I have been a tutor on the Boarding Management


Training course run by the Boarding Schools Association in conjunction with Roehampton University for five years,” says Ms Hughes. “Courses such as this one ensure that those in charge of students are well equipped to deal not only with the day-to-day organisation of boarding life, but also with supporting their academic progress, dealing with homesickness, organisation issues, friendship difficulties, anxiety, and the many other difficulties encountered by young people as part of childhood and adolescence, whether at home or away.” Tessa Howard-Vyse, director of external relations at


Mayfield School, believes that one of the most important questions to ask when opting for full boarding is how many other pupils will be taking this option. “If the school is empty at the weekend, as the weekly boarders and flexi-boarders disappear to spend time with their families, full boarding could be a very lonely experience.” In fact, it is worth noting that there are fewer and fewer boarding schools that predominantly offer full boarding. As Dr Niall Hamilton, senior admissions tutor at Marlborough College, in Wiltshire, explains, Marlborough does not offer day, weekly or flexi-boarding. “We are one of a very small number of full-boarding schools that do not take day pupils or weekly boarders,” he says. “The full-boarding environment encourages a firm sense of community and helps to develop friendships that will be sustained in life beyond the college. Pupils learn to treat each other and all members of the community with kindness, sensitivity and respect.”


Weekly boarding and flexi-boarding can offer a more tailored boarding experience to suit the needs of individual families. While weekly boarders can opt to travel home at the weekends, flexi-boarders can take advantage of boarding for part of the week, perhaps to break up a week of long journeys to and from the school.


“Families often choose weekly boarding for the GCSE and sixth-form years,” says a spokesperson for the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), a professional association of heads of leading independent schools. “This is usually to enable their children to concentrate better on their studies by reducing the time spent travelling to and from school, and by giving them full access to extensive academic and co-curricular facilities throughout the extended boarding day.” ACS International Schools, a group of international schools in south-east England and in Doha, Qatar, offers a range of fun activities to help boarders to settle in and build relationships with each other. ACS Cobham has boarders of more than 35 nationalities. From team high-rope challenges to visiting the West End or taking on It’s a Knockout, the ACS boarding team tries to make the transition to boarding as smooth – and as much fun – as possible. “We have introduced flexi-boarding this year,” says Mark London, communications manager at ACS, “enabling day students to use the boarding facilities, staying one or more nights in the dorm and experiencing our programmes. This flexibility is supported by our rolling admissions process, so students, whether boarders or day only, can start at any point in the year.”


Box Hill School


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