What is life like at a boarding (prep) school?

What is life like in a UK Boarding School?

• I will briefly explain. In my story I want my main character to board in a mixed boarding school (boys & girls). I know a little about boarding schools so please answer all of my ...show more

• Answer:

  1) Any which way they choose. The days of dedicated 'school trains' have long gone. Often schools in more rural areas will take boarders to the local train station and pick them up. Otherwise parents tend to collect the youngest boarders by car and older boarders make their own way between home and school by train or bus (altho Mum will usually be persuaded to pick up older boarders at the end (and start) of term when there's a lot of stuff to carry back and forth!) Most boarding schools will offer to collect overseas boarders from airports Boarding schools with a significant number of "Weeklies", kids who board during the week and go home every weekend, often run their own bus service. Around here there are a couple of such schools that run a weekly bus service to & from central London ( c. 100 kms away). At Benenden (a local boarding school) the parents realised a lot of the boarders were travelling to school from Essex, and so the parents got together and decided to start their own bus service between there and the school. 2) Depends what sort of boarding she signs up for. UK schools have three types of boarding : flexi, weekly and full boarding. Flexi boarding is 1 - 3 nights a week and weekly boarding is when kids board during the week and go home every weekend. Full boarders (which is what I think you mean) usually go home - or to friends or family if home is overseas - for all the school holidays including half terms, that is every 6 weeks. Plus it is now usual for boarding schools to be closed one weekend every month meaning boarders have to go home or to friends that weekend. That means the longest continuous period of time any boarder is going to be away at school in the UK is 4 weeks. (The days when boarding schools stayed open during school holidays for kids who couldn't get home and boarders didn't see their families or homes for months or years at a time are very much gone. Now there's cheap and frequent flights to pretty much anywhere in the world, boarders will return home for at least the 3 long holidays each year, even if they have to stay with friends for shorter holidays.) 3) By law there has to be a seperate house for boys and a seperate house for girls (if the school has younger boarders, from age 8 in the UK, they will have their own boarding house(s) too). In the UK, boys and girls can only share the same boarding house once they're aged 18. The boarding houses are usually next door to each other, or at least close-by each other. Not all boarding schools have their boarding houses on campus. My brother boarded for years 12 and 13 and their boarding houses were on a neighbouring street to the school. Typically where there is more than one girls' house or boys' boarding house, the student gets to choose which house they want to join. At 17, your character will almost certainly have her own 'study-bedroom' (whereas the youngest boarders usually share 2-3 to a room). 4) Varies in different schools but typically something like this : 7.40am-7.55am Boarders breakfast 8.20am Registration 8.35am Assembly or House Meeting 8.55am Lessons begin 10.50am Morning break 11.05am Lessons continue 1.10pm Lunch 2.15pm Lunch break ends. Lessons (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday) or games (Wednesday, Friday) 5.00pm School day ends Optional societies and drama or music activities 6.00pm Prep 7.15pm Dinner Freetime 10.30pm Bedtime 5) Saturday morning - some schools have classes; others play games against other schools, for some it's just free time (with or without optional activities and outings). A lot of boarders in UK schools are "Weeklies" meaning they board during the week and go home every weekend. Saturday afternoon and Sundays will be free time for boarders who stay in school. Some Christian schools may have Chapel either Sunday morning or evening. For a genuine UK boarding school's weekend activity schedule, see http://www.benenden.kent.sch.uk/2406/pastoral-care/the-weekend-programme 6) Anything. Boarders can go out and do their own thing. Around here they often get the train to London or to the beach (in summer); some schools still organise planned outings etc for their older boarders; others let older boarders help out with the younger boarders' weekend activities and outings. For more of an explanation, see http://rochester-college.org/school/freetime 7) Weekday evenings and weekends. Some schools have classes on Saturday morning, others don't. 8) Yes. Examples of mixed (co-ed) boarding schools near my house. For more info about their boarding provision : http://www.sevenoaksschool.org/Websites/sevenoaks/images/documents/aboutus/boarding.pdf http://www.svs.org.uk/userfiles/files/senior/admissions/prospectus/boarding.pdf http://www.kings-school.co.uk/document_1.aspx?id=0:61103&id=1:31637 http://www.stedmunds.org.uk/boarding http://www.ashfordschool.co.uk/Boarding/Welcome http://rochester-college.org/school/section/sixth-form/sixth-form-boarding