A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils not only study, but also live during term time, with their fellow students and possibly teachers. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board", that is, food and lodging. Most boarding schools also have day students who are local residents or children of faculty.
Many independent schools in the Commonwealth of Nations are boarding schools. Boarding school pupils (a.k.a. "boarders") normally return home during the school holidays and, often, weekends, but in some cultures may spend the majority of their childhood and adolescent life away from their families. In the United States, boarding schools sometimes comprise grades 7 through 12, but the most reputable cover only the high school years, from the 9th through the 12th grades. Some also feature military training, though this is generally offered only at specialized schools. Many New England boarding schools traditionally offer a post-graduate year of study, unknown in many parts of the U.S., in order to help students prepare for college entrance.
Boarding school description
Typical boarding school characteristics
A boarding school is when the pupils sleep, eat and work in or near the school grounds. The term boarding school often refers to classic British boarding schools and many boarding schools are modeled on these.
A typical modern fee-charging boarding school has several separate residential houses, either within the school grounds or in the neighborhood of the school. Pupils generally need permission to go outside defined school bounds; they may be allowed to venture further at certain times.
A number of senior teaching staff are appointed as housemasters, housemistresses or residential advisors, each of whom takes quasi-parental responsibility for perhaps 50 pupils resident in their house , at all times but particularly outside school hours. Each may be assisted in the domestic management of the house by a housekeeper often known as matron , and by a house tutor for academic matters, often providing staff of each sex. Nevertheless, older pupils are often unsupervised by staff, and a system of monitors or prefects gives limited authority to senior pupils. Houses readily develop distinctive characters, and a healthy rivalry between houses is often encouraged in sport. See also House system .
Annexed to the house staff accommodation, houses usually include study-bedrooms or dormitories, a dining room or refectory where pupils take meals at fixed times, and a library, hall or cubicles where pupils can do their homework. Houses may also have common rooms for television and relaxation, kitchens for snacks, and perhaps computer, ping-pong or billiards rooms, together with facilities such as cloakrooms and cycle sheds. Some facilities may be shared between several houses.
In some schools each house has pupils of all ages, in which case there is usually a prefect system which gives the older pupils some privileges and some responsibility for the welfare of the younger ones; whereas in others separate houses are designed for the needs of different years or classes.
Each pupil has an individual timetable, which in the early years allows little discretion. Pupils of all houses and day pupils are taught together in school hours, but boarding pupils' activities extend well outside school hours and a period for homework. Sports, clubs and societies (e.g. amateur dramatics, or political and literary speakers, or hobby clubs), or excursions (to performances, shopping or perhaps a school dance) may run until lights out. As well as the usual academic facilities such as classrooms, halls, libraries and laboratories, boarding schools often provide a wide variety of facilities for extracurricular activities such as music rooms, gymnasia, sports fields and school grounds, boats, squash courts, swimming pools, cinemas and theatres. A school chapel is often found on site. Day pupils often stay on after school to use these facilities.
British boarding schools have three terms a year, approximately twelve weeks each, with a few days' half-term holiday during which pupils are expected to go home or at least away from school. There may be several exeats or weekends in each half of the term when pupils may go home or away. Boarding pupils nowadays often go to school within easy traveling distance of their homes, and so may see their families frequently; families are encouraged to come and support school sports teams playing at home against other schools.
Most school dormitories have a "lights out" time when the pupils are required to be in bed, depending on their age, and perhaps a later time after which no talking is permitted; such rules may be difficult to enforce, and pupils may often try to break them, for example by reading surreptitiously by torchlight or escaping on nocturnal excursions. Pupils sharing studies are less likely to disturb others and may be given more latitude.
Some boarding schools have only boarding students, while others have both boarding students and day students who go home at the end of the school day. Day students are often known as day boys or day girls. Some schools also have a class of day students who stay throughout the day including breakfast and dinner which they call semi-boarders. Schools that have both boarding and day students sometimes describe themselves as semi boarding schools or day boarding schools. Many schools also have students who board during the week but go home on weekends: these are known as weekly boarders, quasi-boarders, or five-day boarders.
Day students and weekly boarders may have a different and perhaps unfavourable view of the day school system, as compared to children who attend day schools without any boarding facilities. These students relate to a boarding school life, even though they do not totally reside in school; however, they may not completely become part of the boarding school experience. On the other hand, these students have a different view of boarding schools as compared to full-term boarders who go home less frequently, perhaps only at the end of a term or even the end of an academic year.
Other forms of residential schools
Boarding schools are a form of residential school; however, not all residential schools are "classic" boarding schools. Other forms of residential schools include:
- Therapeutic schools which provide clinical inpatient services for students with disabilities, such as severe anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, Asperger syndrome, and/or for students with substance abuse and socialisation problems.
- Residential education programs, which provide a stable and supportive environment for at-risk children to live and learn together.
- Residential schools for students with special educational needs, who may or may not be disabled.
- Specialist schools focused on a particular academic discipline, such as the public North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics or the private Interlochen Arts Academy.
- The Israeli kibbutzim, where children stay and get educated in a commune, but also have everyday contact with their parents at specified hours.
- In rural areas of the United States, general attendance public boarding schools were once numerous; only one remains today: Crane Union High School in Crane, Oregon. Around two-thirds of its more than 80 students, mostly children from remote ranches, board during the school week in order to save a one-way commute of up to 150 miles (240 km) across Harney County.
Applicable regulations
In the UK, almost all boarding schools are independent schools, which are not subject to the national curriculum or other educational regulations applicable to state schools. Nevertheless there are some regulations, primarily for health and safety purposes, as well as the general law. The Department for Children, Schools and Families, in conjunction with the Department of Health of the United Kingdom, has prescribed guidelines for boarding schools, called the National Boarding Standards.
One example of regulations covered within the National Boarding Standards are those for the minimum floor area or living space required for each student and other aspects of basic facilities. The minimum floor area of a dormitory accommodating two or more students is defined as the number of students sleeping in the dormitory multiplied by 4.2 m², plus 1.2 m². A minimum distance of 0.9 m should also be maintained between any two beds in a dormitory, bedroom or cubicle. In case students are provided with a cubicle, then each student must be provided with a window and a floor area of 5.0 m² at the least. A bedroom for a single student should be at least of floor area of 6.0 m². Boarding schools must provide a total floor area of at least 2.3 m² living accommodation for every boarder. This should also be incorporated with at least one bathtub or shower for every ten students.
These are some of the few guidelines set by the department amongst many others. It could probably be observed that not all boarding schools around the world meet these minimum basic standards, despite their apparent appeal.
History
The practice of sending children to other families or to s
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