Charlotte Phillips learns about the community values instilled by modern-day boarding schools, teaching skills beyond the academic
Ask any modern-day boarding school pupil whether they’d recommend the experience and you’re likely to receive a resounding ‘yes’.
For those at the top end of school (boarding leaps in popularity among sixth formers), convenience is a major factor. When exams loom, having everything you need to study effectively, from out-of-hours use of the library to extended access to teaching staff, is a powerful incentive to live on campus. Other pupils are won over by the chance to do more of the sport, music or drama they love without having to worry about making the last bus home.
The boarding experience has changed substantially over the past few decades. Long gone is the strongly disciplinarian, rules-based culture, the disproportionate power wielded by the oldest pupils and the antediluvian facilities, including big, anonymous dormitories. In their place is spruced-up accommodation, plentiful and delicious food and pastoral care that ensures pupils are well cared for, happy and supported.
And it’s the pupil voice that counts. Nowadays, children increasingly exercise the biggest influence on – and have the final say in – the decision. But parents’ involvement is welcomed from the outset to help build a sense of community, adds Clare Ives, head at The Leys. “It’s not just us saying, ‘we’ll take it from here, thanks and now back off’. It’s us partnering with the parents through the induction process and then partnering them and their child through their child’s education so that they feel part of the journey.”
What hasn’t changed, however, is something that remains central to the boarding school experience – a sense of community and belonging that binds boarders together, often forging lifelong friendships along the way.
Home from home
“When alumni come back to visit, the first thing they want to do is go and see their boarding house,” says Dr Carolyn Dunn, vice principal (pastoral) at Abbey College Cambridge. “It’s been their home; they’ve done very well academically but actually they want to go back and see the boarding house with the house parents who looked after them.” Boarding houses are organised in a variety of ways from school to school. Whether big or small, new-build or centuries-old, they share the same aim: to form smaller communities within the school as a whole, each with a reassuring family feel.
Creating that secure environment matters because it has a fundamental impact on children’s ability to learn, says Peter O’Connor, senior school deputy head (academic) at Bishop’s Stortford College. “When pupils feel anxious or isolated, they avoid challenge. When they feel safe and supported, they take the risks that serious learning demands.
“Belonging is therefore not a pastoral extra; it is a condition for scholarship. In a strong boarding house, belonging is built into the everyday: shared meals, shared responsibilities and the small rituals that can make a place feel like a home away from home.”
Some schools let families express a preference for a particular house. Others manage the allocation process themselves, which requires a judicious evaluation of various personalities and interests to get the balance right. “We place students very carefully by religion, culture and language etc, so we get a good mix in each house. We want them to have the experience of meeting others,” says Helen Walker, deputy head (boarding and pastoral care) at St Andrew’s College, Cambridge.
This also involves learning how to live with and tolerate others, whose ideas can be very different to your own. Boarding builds connections and breaks barriers down, says Laura Hadden, head of boarding at Kimbolton School. “The best part is the fact that pupils can get to know each other, support each other, make mutual decisions, have a voice and test their interaction skills in a safe environment.”
Finding common ground is vital, agrees Dr Carolyn Dunn at Abbey College Cambridge. “It’s about learning those cultural differences and how to navigate them without offending people; to get to know how other people think, which might be in a different way to you. They might have different priorities in their life and that’s where boarding can really help.”
A rich experience
Boarders lead full lives. While each school organises boarding activities differently, variety is guaranteed. From sampling Nigerian recipes or learning traditional Uzbek dancing at Abbey College to playing Cluedo in Kimbolton’s very own castle, or relaxing with meditation at Cardiff Sixth Form College Cambridge, there’s something to appeal to almost everyone.
Meanwhile, competitions that pit different boarding houses against each other are carefully planned to tread that delicate line between house loyalty and rivalry, cementing those social bonds without undermining the unity of the school as a whole.
“Students thrive on competition,” confirms Clair Curtis-Dyke, vice principal (pastoral and boarding) at Cardiff Sixth Form College Cambridge, where popular and hard-fought house contests span sport and music.
The richness of boarding life, with so many shared activities and experiences, can be a highly effective way of reducing the siren call of smartphones and screens – something that isn’t always easy to achieve at home, explains Clare Ives at The Leys, who is a ‘massive advocate’ of a phone-free childhood. “When boarders don’t have their phones, they have a social context they can lean into. But for a lot of parents, when they’re at home with their child in the evening, the only social context is the family. If the child doesn’t want to engage with that, you’re then under pressure as a parent, whereas here there’s always someone they want to spend time with.”
Creating opportunities for discussion can be easier in a boarding environment, says Laura Hadden at Kimbolton School. “It is encouraged to sit and talk rather than have your phone with you all the time. We
create discussion times, where we ask pupils to get together and talk about how they can be big sisters to each other.”
Helping things along are trained staff, who get to know the pupils in their charge inside out, so that they can spot even the smallest signs of struggle.
“They are able to give pupils really individualised support, engaging with them and working out any issues they might have, which is a massive benefit for the children,” says Helen Walker from St Andrew’s College.
Getting on with a range of characters and understanding how they all tick even when there’s no obvious common ground is a vital part of becoming a successful and functioning adult. In a society where so many of our interactions are online, the experience of bonding through boarding has the potential to make a world of difference when pupils move on to the next stage of their lives as young adults.
“Living together and learning together creates shared identity, fosters that sense of belonging and creates a nice support network that I would hope continues long after pupils have left school,” concludes Clair Curtis-Dyke at Cardiff Sixth Form College Cambridge.
