Boarding school: Yay or nay?

 

Boarding school is a concept with many stereotypes. Harry Potter, Enid Blyton and Worst witch filled childhoods with wonder and amazement at these mystical places. People write entrance letters and frame them on walls. But for some boarding school is their reality.

‘It has improved my relationship with my family’ a friend of mine said as we discussed our experiences being boarders. Boarding can have a strain on relationships especially when you live overseas. However, it makes those moments with them even more special. You learn to enjoy the little things and there is nothing better than not seeing a loved one for close to a month and seeing their face again.

Boarding school also develops independence and decision-making skills. When students are at school, they must do our own laundry, pick nutritious and balanced meals, socialise in a way that is beneficial to them, get to bed on time and keep their dormitories tidy and clean. These are all things that are so important to future lives as adults and boarding school allows children and teenagers to practise these in a safe environment with trained staff on hand to help if things go wrong.

 

Boarding schools often have amazing facilities, with schools having netball and tennis courts, astro pitches, shooting ranges, squash and fives courts, gyms, swimming pools, theatres, music and art facilities, libraries and study spaces, and many fields on which to play numerous sports. These things keep students very busy with bands and choral societies, plays, debating, volunteering, not even to mention the sports. This broad range of activities gives you diverse skills that could even become a career later in life.

 

And perhaps the most important, studying. Being on site allows you to ask older students, friends or even teachers of the subject for help whenever confusion will inevitably occur. There is time to complete schoolwork to the best of student’s abilities and be able to expand knowledge drastically. There are drawbacks to living in school though. There are feelings of suffocation with expectations being placed on teenagers who haven’t even completed GCSEs, teachers put students in overtime expecting them to work for hours every day. But when friends are the next door down there is time for goofing around, going on walks together, and going to the neighbouring town for a meal.

 

All in all, to put it as a friend did ‘Boarding school is just a big sleepover’. When you are in school you may be stressed, feel homesick, or feel as every other teenager does. Nonetheless, when you are an adult and looking back on your schooling you won’t remember the mark on your test or what that girl said. You will remember those bonds that you cannot get anywhere other than boarding school. You will remember the joys of boarding school, and I think that’s why it is so special.