Have you ever wondered what boarding is like for an overseas pupil? For this article, I interviewed A Choudhury to find out. After finding out her parents were moving to an island with no school, A Choudhury had to find a new school. They lived in Kenya and went to a day International School. Christ’s Hospital would be their first boarding school. A Choudhury first chose Christ’s Hospital for its peculiar and historic uniform.

A Choudhury has quickly become accustom to this new way of life. She was particularly taken by the choice of clubs. They have joined the D&D club, South Asian Society and BEES. D&D was familiar to her and helped her to settle in quickly. The South Asian Society, which is new this year, has helped her to feel part of a recognised community. They find it to be a place where they can truly embrace their culture while at school. The society works with school to make a happier environment for every pupil making sure everyone can feel recognised. They said it is also nice to be able to help other South Asian people who find themselves detached from their culture while being at school. A Choudhury has also joined the Blues Expedition and Exploration Society. Through BEES she has learnt survival skills such as starting fires in different environments. Her favourite part so far has been raft building. The rafts were tested on Christ’s Hospital’s very own lake. Unfortunately her raft collapsed but it was a very exciting day.

She has also found the English school system to be challenging. She finds that she knows the content but it is formatted in a different way in the a UK. A Choudhry is a GE (year 11) so it is a very stressful year packed with revision, mocks and GCSE exams. They have found that the English school system also holds the exams higher than her school in Kenya. In the UK, the focus is on achieving marks in exams. In Kenya, she found the focus was much more on developing an understanding of the content. Another difficulty with boarding is not be able to see friends or family. In particular, she misses her cat. The weather is also a bit of a very grey.

Although life is different and boarding can be hard to get used to, A Choudhury is feeling settled at Christ’s Hospital. The range if activities has helped them find and develop a community.