What makes most boarding schools work well is the vast number of activities, courses, and challenges available to students daily. The typical boarding school student is one who wants to embrace this huge opportunity they have been given: to live in a community where learning, personal growth and exploration are top priority; where courses and activities are abundant; where making friends is paramount; and where success is celebrated. They will reside in a community where traits such as honesty, respect and hard work are valued and emphasised. 

Providing students with options and choices which they make is key to developing and understanding themselves and others around them. They are given opportunities where good and bad decisions are made by themselves and others around them leading to celebration, reflection, and personal growth under the guidance of permanently resident Houseparents and Assistant Houseparents. Independence and self-responsibility are key features of our boarding programme. After a supervised session of evening study students will have options to continue study, independently or collaboratively, in small rooms or in the library, take part in one of the many activities that may be offered, or they may choose to return to the house and relax and chat with friends. They are in control. They choose. Boarding offers the opportunity for students to foster strong connections with their teachers, in part due to smaller, more intimate class sizes but also because teachers in boarding regard their position not as a job, but more of a vocation. They become an important role model in each of their students' lives. Teachers work with students, share meals and many also live with the students, making it a difficult environment to duplicate anywhere else.

Independence might be the greatest gift that parents can give to their children. Today, when so many parents (and often schools too) are over-vigilant and controlling and want to be involved in every aspect of the child’s life, boarding school can be the perfect remedy.

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School is absolutely the right place for a child’s academic and social development but for some children (and many at different times) it can become a challenging environment in which to experience success and for some even to feel happy.

Academic pressure either from themselves or from external expectations placed on them is a growing concern and one which most children face at some point in their school life. In boarding children are allowed to make their own decisions, direct themselves and are monitored to ensure a healthy work-life balance. Structures and opportunities are in place that allow students to choose. This is especially important in the teenage years where young adults need to feel a sense of control over their own lives. Research has shown that overbearing parents or demands and expectations from staff, where the child has no say, becomes a barrier to academic success as the student feels they do not have ownership over their learning (or life). 

First and foremost, children must feel safe at school and the boarding environment is designed that children feel part of a community in which they can feel accepted and safe. They are surrounded by other likeminded children who face the same anxieties as themselves and a mutual understanding alongside advice from older children in their boarding house and experienced staff allow them to navigate these emotional barriers. Children in their boarding houses are encouraged to engage with adults who listen to them, respect their views, and allow them to have a voice and a chance to direct outcomes.

Students have a chance to express their individuality: where they are not compared but their differences are celebrated.

While the educational experience in boarding is important to personal and educational growth and development, fundamentally it's also a great rehearsal for life.