"We are family" - the attractions of the small boarding community

Considering a boarding school for your daughter? Worried about how she will feel away from home and family? Read a Head’s view of the benefits enjoyed by girls in smaller boarding communities today…

Many of the anxieties parents feel about sending their daughters away to board are to do with size – they assume that their girls will be exchanging the nurturing comforts of a supportive family home for an environment which, despite its comforts, will be nonetheless an institution where life will be run in an institutional way.

If the parents were themselves educated in boarding schools a generation ago, there may also be some less than helpful personal experiences of dull food, irksome and restrictive regimes or less than approachable staff thrown into the equation.

And yet nothing could be further from the truth about modern boarding, in small or large schools, where positive, child-centred values are the norm.

Whether they are made up from smaller schools with boarders, or bigger institutions whose boarding community represents a small but significant part of its educational existence, these smaller boarding communities are thriving within girls’ schools today, offering a home from home with superb standards of care. They offer a really attractive option for those wishing or needing to give their daughters a boarding education. I say ‘need’ because one section of boarding parents who are increasingly looking for a home from home for their daughters are those serving in Her Majesty’s armed forces.

With the frequency of deployment abroad at the present time, and the associated stress that this might engender in families where one or both parents are serving, many service parents are looking to boarding as an excellent way of ensuring continuity – both educational and emotional – for families whose future movements may not be very predictable.

One of the great things about the smaller boarding communities is that girls of different ages are able to live in closer proximity, giving more of a family feel – there won’t be age defined houses, corridors or even dormitories. The younger girls feel they have ‘big sisters’ close by and for the older girls, especially if they do not have younger siblings at home, there is the chance to extend their social skills with a wider age group.

In my own school, we have had a significant rise in younger girls boarding, welcoming our first Year 4 boarder recently. Parents like the fact that all members of our boarding community do most things together; trips and excursions, fun activities and talent shows are undertaken by the friendly international group of girls of all ages that make up our resident community at school. They eat, play and often study together, forming friendships that cross boundaries of age, culture and nationality. A phrase that sums up the modern boarding ethos is that ‘the school is an inclusive community in which all boarders feel safe and valued.’

If you are looking for a boarding place for your daughter and you feel instinctively that small is beautiful, do visit some of the smaller schools in your target area – I guarantee that you will receive a very warm welcome.