 | Boarding school: Encyclopedia II - Boarding school - Boarding school description
Boarding school - Boarding school description
Boarding school - Typical UK boarding school characteristics
The term boarding school often refers to classic British boarding school, and most boarding schools around the world are modelled on the classic British boarding school. It is of the essence of such schools that they are entirely free to make all their own educational and other arrangements, so this can only be an illustration of the characteristics of a modern UK public school.
A typical modern fee-charging public school has several separate residential houses, and classrooms and facilities allotted to different groups of pupils and activities throughout the day. Many boarding schools are self-contained, while others like Eton and Westminster have buildings and grounds in various streets in the neighbourhood of the school. Pupils generally need permission to go outside defined school bounds; they may be allowed to go out locally at certain times.
A number of senior teaching staff are appointed as housemasters or housemistresses, each of whom takes quasi-parental responsibility for some 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, 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 sporting prowess. See also House system.
The house will include study-bedrooms or dormitories where pupils may share sleeping quarters, a dining-room or refectory where pupils take meals at fixed times, a library or hall where pupils who do not have their own studies do their homework, and bathrooms, etc. It may also have common-rooms for television and relaxation, facilities for coffee and snacks, cycle sheds, etc. (Any facilities may be shared between houses.)
Each pupil has an individual subject timetable, which at first while he is young allows little discretion. Pupils of all houses and non-boarders are taught together in school hours; but boarding pupils' activities extend well outside school hours and a period for homework, with additional sports, clubs and societies (e.g. amateur dramatics, or political & literary speakers or debates}, or excursions (to performances, shopping or perhaps a school dance), until lights-out. As well as the usual academic facilities such as classrooms and laboratories, a boarding school may also provide a sanitorium, hall and chapel; recreational facilities such as boats, squash courts, a swimming pool, gymnasium, gardens and playing fields; a theatre, music rooms, an art studio, workshops, computer facilities and so on. These activities may be taught and perhaps examined, or may be made available as pastimes. Day-pupils may often stay on after school to use these facilities.
Most boarding schools have three terms a year, averaging about twelve weeks each, with a few days' half-term holiday during which pupils are expected to go home. There will be several exeats or weekends when pupils may go home in each half of the term. Boarding pupils nowadays often go to school within easy travelling distance of their homes, and so may see their families frequently.
Boarding school - Other types of boarding schools
Boarding schools are a form of residential school; however, not all residential schools are "classic" boarding schools. Other forms of residential schools include:
- Residential schools for students with Special Educational Needs, who may or may not be disabled
- Specialist schools, such as choir schools or stage schools
- Colleges and universities with residence halls (these are not described as boarding schools in British English)
- The Israeli kibbutzim, where children stay and get educated in a commune, but also have everyday contact with their parents at specified hours.
Some schools are semi-boarding schools (part day school and part boarding school). These schools take in some students as boarders and other students as semi-boarders, who would only attend school hours in the day alongside boarders and then return to their homes. These schools might also admit some students as day-boarders. These pupils would have meals at school along with attending classes, but they live off-campus. There are also quasi-boarders, who stay in boarding school but return to their families at mid-week and at weekends. Semi-boarders and day-boarders (collectively called as boarding-day scholars) have a distinct view of day school system, as compared to most other children who attend complete 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 do not completely become part of the boarding school experience. On the other hand, quasi-boarders have a different view of boarding schools as compared to most usual boarders (full term boarders), who would only go back to their homes either at the end of a term or by the end of an academic year.
Boarding school - Basic guidelines and essential regulations
The Department for Education and Skills 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 necessities.
A minimum floor area for each pupil with regarding to his/her dormitories, cubicles and bedrooms, is prescribed. This is attained by multiplying the number of students sleeping in the dormitory by 4.2 m², and then adding 1.6 m² to the resultant. A minimum distance of 0.9 m should also be maintained between any two beds in a dormitory, bedrooms and cubicles. 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 2.3 m² living accommodation for every boarder, at the minimum. This should also be incorporated with at least one bathtub or shower for every 10 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.
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