Why boarding schools offer many benefits
Headmistress at Benenden, Rachel Bailey, discusses the positives of choosing a boarding school
When did you last visit a boarding school? Everyone has a view on boarding schools – even though most people have probably never set foot in one.
Like it or not – and I am definitely in the latter camp! – the outdated stereotype persists that boarding schools are places with cold dormitories, near-inedible food and fierce matrons from which children relish in trying to escape.
Such narratives may make for quaint TV dramas but this perception – if it was ever even accurate at all – is worlds away from the reality of modern boarding schools, which are seeing enormous amount of interest.
Step into a boarding school today and anyone expecting those stereotypes will be surprised to be greeted by warm, contemporary dormitories and stylish study spaces in the boarding houses; to sample the diverse and delicious menu; or to take in the outstanding sport, performing arts and science facilities.
Anyone who sympathises with that sneering view that parents of boarders are ‘sending away’ their children as if it’s some kind of punishment, you will be pleasantly surprised by the enormous amount of involvement from families in boarding school communities: whether it’s the sheer number of parents and family members cheering on their children at sports fixtures, joining them for a hearty brunch on a Sunday, attending numerous school plays, regular social events at school or a myriad of other activities. Boarding communities are warm and inviting, where purposeful students and staff enliven the site 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Boarding schools bring practical family benefits for busy, working parents: A modern boarding education is one where a student won’t be late home in the evening if they decide to try a new sport or pick up a new instrument after their lessons, one where the support they need is waiting for them when they get home at the end of the day, and where the opportunity to learn things about the world and about themselves is in no way confined to the classroom.
It is one where students benefit from an abundance of time – time to devote to their studies, to experience new things, and to learn to live with others by sharing spaces with their best friends, friends that any Benenden alumnae will tell you they keep for a lifetime.
Far from fragmenting family life, parents tell us that boarding enhances family bonds because school is shouldering so much of the daily strain of those challenging teenage years by imposing discipline and boundaries, making family time much more meaningful and enjoyable. And the school and parents are very much working in partnership to ensure the very best for their child: with constant contact an essential aspect of the partnership between families and the organisations they trust to care for their children.
Put plainly, boarding today is stronger than ever and remains immensely popular. At Benenden we are seeing record interest in our boarding provision, while across the sector more than 65,000 students are boarding in the UK – a total that has been broadly consistent for the past 25 years. And that interest isn’t driven solely by the parents. When children visit our school and see confident, well-mannered, globally-minded young women, enthusiastically grasping the opportunities available to them and without any sense that they don’t deserve a seat at the table – they know this is the kind of school they want to join. For so many, boarding school is absolutely a choice, and an easy one at that.
If your idea of boarding school is bound up in the iconography of Victorian novels, we would very much welcome you to come and have a look at the contemporary reality for yourself.
