Opinions on Boarding School:

Parentberries
1

I am currently at boarding school. i go because I live 3 hours from [name]Perth[/name] and 1 hour from the nearest 8-12 high school and I would have to board there anyway. i see my parents 1-2 times a month. I love it its my second year. First year is hard because some kids had been at the school since Year 5 (boarding school starts in yr 7 but not that many people go) and I had to make friends with girls who already had there best friends.

Ok so did anyone go to boarding school or have kids who will? Thanks :slight_smile:
Ebony

2

I didn’t go to boarding school, but I’m a teacher and I’ve taught at boarding schools! I wouldn’t send my children to one because I live in the city and I think it’s only worth sending your child to a boarding school if you live in a rural area (far away from good quality schools). I’m glad you’re enjoying the experience! By the way, I live in [name]Adelaide[/name] :slight_smile:

3

I have always wanted to go to [name]Adelaide[/name]. The schools near me are terrible but one is getting better. There are three District highs but they are really bad as well with no specialist teachers. It was best for me to go to the catholic school I go to now. But I should go as I am currently sitting in science.

4

When I was young I really didn’t like high school and their weren’t many choices for me to change school so I wanted to try boarding school but they were and still are super expensive and my parent weren’t able to afford it so I didn’t go. I settled into high school and ended up loving it. We won’t put our boys’ in boarding school unless they would like it and we were able to afford it at the time.

5

I would only send my child to boarding school if there were absolutely no good schools within an hour long distance of our home, and at that, it’d be a tough decision. We’re lucky enough that we have a plethora of good schools (primary, secondary, and university) in our general area so hopefully its not something I’d ever have to do.

The selfish side of me would hate to send my kids away. I want them close to me. I wouldn’t send them unless it was absolutely necessary, though I do appreciate that there are lots of benefits to them and that they offer a fantastic education.

6

I loved boarding school! I grew up on a Cattle Station in the middle of Australia, an hour and a half from the nearest supermarket! So I had the choice to do school by correspondence or go to boarding school in a capital city or larger country town. My parents chose boarding school for me and it was the best years of my life! I went to a coed school and met my husband there. Honestly the only downside was I only saw my parents 3 times a month when they flew in, but I had never left my farm before I was 12, except for holidays of course, so it was a huge challenge in the first few months.

I wont need to send my kids to boarding school cause I live in a city with dozens of fabulous schools, but if I was isolated I’d send them in a heartbeat!

7

I’m not that isolated I live 15 minutes from a town but 50 minutes from the nearest Woolworths. I see my parents once a month.

@pinkballerina there are no good schools near me. The only non-boarding full school I would have to drive half an hour to catch the bus and honestly I wouldn’t be educated. And my mum really misses me but I know she knows its the best thing to do.

@caitlinanne my mum has been working a lot to send me and my 2 siblings to boarding school. But know she is considering moving to perth due to the Year 7’s are in high school thing and the three of use would be in the same time (me in yr 12, my sister yr 9 and my brother in year 7). And I go to a medium cost catholic school.

8

My sister and I both went to boarding school. We grew up in [name]London[/name], so there were plenty of great schools around, but my fathers job included a lot of traveling, so my mum had enough with my brother during the week. I loved boarding school, I went to an all girls one (my sister was in a mixed one) and had lots of fun, the teachers were great and the buildings and grounds were fantastic. There were all sorts of clubs and societies (classics, creative writing, fencing, drama, history of art, philosophy, photography, polo, dance to name a few), the lessons were amazing (we had lots of real distinguished scholars lecturing) and I was very prepared for university and living on my own when I left.

I guess I saw my family 2 times a month maybe? But the time we had together was amazing, all family and cosiness. I am absolutely sending my children to boarding school when they’re 13.

9

I went to boarding school for high school, and I loved it. Only one of my four siblings also went to boarding school, and he loved his school as well. We didn’t have to go, we lived in a decent-sized city near several good schools, and we had been homeschooled up to high school. My brother decided to apply because one of his friends was applying. He got more enthusiastic about it as the application process went on, and ended up going. I saw how much fun he was having, and decided that I wanted to go too. I didn’t see my family much (move-in day, Parent’s [name]Day[/name], and move-out day; I stayed with the family of a friend of mine over shorter breaks) since I went to school so far away (about 1,000 miles/1,600 kilometers) from where I lived, and traveling with children is expensive and difficult.

I will definitely give my children the choice to attend boarding school, once they reach high school years, but I don’t think I would let them go before that. And I certainly would never force them to attend. We have an interesting dynamic in the city that I currently live in–we are surrounded by some of the best K-12 schools in the country, so many students graduate from those schools, but so many also end up at boarding schools. It’s more a mish-mash of what parents/children want, and who gets accepted to what schools. And we also live much, much closer to the majority of boarding schools in the US, than I did when I was growing up.

It also sounds like boarding schools in the US and boarding schools in Australia and the UK are very different. Boarding school here is seen (by those who don’t attend) as a place for the extremely wealthy, or for students who got expelled from everywhere else. The vast majority of schools only offer grades 9 through 12 (the last four years of mandatory school), though there are two or three that offer grades 3 through 12. And there are a few schools specifically for students in grades 6-9.

10

I honestly wish I had, I always wanted too…and I’m 99.9% sure I’d have been much more secure, and better adjusted than I am now.

When I have children, if I can afford it, I’ll offer them that option. Though I know I’ll miss the heavens out of them.

11

Boarding school is still pretty expensive over here and as such is mostly used by wealthy families. It’s become a lot more popular in recent years though because of [name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name] so the backgrounds of the kids could be a bit more diverse now.

12

Boarding school is very expensive in the US as well, but schools tend to be very liberal in handing out scholarships. There are even schools that will give an accepted student a full-tuition scholarship if their gross family income is less than a certain amount (usually around $80,000/year). I would never have been able to attend boarding school if it weren’t for those types of scholarships–the same with most boarding school students. There are still plenty of rich kids, but it’s a lot more diverse than people think, both economically and culturally.

13

Boarding schools here (United Kingdom) are really expensive as well, we’re talking £33,000 a year for the best ones. There are scholarships available for “exceptional students”.

14

I live in northern [name]Cali[/name], and there aren’t boarding schools in my area. I’m sure they exist in the US, but I’ve never met anyone who has gone to one. I wanted to go to a boarding school when I was younger, though. Obviously never happened!

I’m not against them, but I think it’s better (in most cases) for the kid to be with his or her family when attending school. Of course, it’s ultimately up to the parents and children to decide what’s for them. I think boarding schools are great for kids who live in the boonies, don’t have access to good schools, or have parents who travel a lot.

[name]Little[/name] off topic–what is the dress code like at boarding and private schools? In my area there is one private Catholic school with uniforms required for K-8. After that, there was just a strict dress code. At my public HS, it was kind of astonishing what some of the kids wore. The was a dress code, but it wasn’t enforced.

15

Boarding school in the US is such a mixed bag. On the one hand, many of them are mini-[name]Ivy[/name] universities with phenomenal teaching, resources, extremely high standards and very deep pockets. On the other, it’s so unusual to send children to boarding school here that there aren’t exactly loads of well-adjusted students for your child to socialize with. [name]Even[/name] the mega-wealthy do not automatically choose boarding school; most choose excellent day schools.

We go back and forth. Neither of us went, but we have innumerable friends who did. Most of those friends comment on the camaraderie, the academic opportunities, and the unique experience, but they also comment on the intense pressure to conform, the challenges of all of those hormones being away from parental supervision, the designer drugs and lazy sexuality and ever-fancier and more dramatic ways of rebelling.

I think we probably won’t. The academics and resources of the more established, top-tier private schools rival any of our more famous boarding schools, and the supervision is obviously much greater. Not to mention prolonging the separation by 4 years.

16

I applied for a few boarding schools for the second half of high school, any of them would’ve been 3-5 hour plane flights away. I ended up deciding not to go, but I think I would’ve been happy either way… it really depends on the kid and their level of independence. I didn’t struggle with homesickness or anything like that after leaving for University, so I don’t think a year or two earlier would’ve made a difference.

It would be a kid-by-kid basis, and really I can only see the use if they are specialized schools (arts feeders and the like, which is the type I considered for myself).
But then again, there are excellent schools (both public and private) scattered all around my city. If I live in a very rural area when my kids are that age (highly unlikely), things may be different.

17

I’m a teenager, and I personally love the idea of boarding school and think it would be amazing to go there…after you got over the “new kid, new school” part ;). I don’t know much about it, but I think that I would definitely send my kids there, but not any younger than 11 or 12 years old. Its funny, one of the (so called, its extremely pretentious -_-) best boarding schools in my country happens to be on my street :P, and there are a lot of them around and not very many elsewhere, so that would be kind of pointless for me. Anyway, boarding school seems like a good idea, good education, and a lot of fun to me :slight_smile:

18

Here, uniforms are the norm for schools (public and state) so I think they probably are for boarding schools too. I had to learn how to tie a windsor knot at four, lol.

19

Ottilie, the average school cost in the US is $44,700 (roughly £33,300). Most cost somewhere between $35,000 and $45,000, though there are some that can cost upwards of $50,000. And that is tuition alone. I don’t know how it’s done in the UK, but the schools here nickel-and-dime you for everything (health fees, post office fees, lab fees, music lessons, etc).

Sidura, there are several well-regarded boarding schools in California, but, you’re right, they are mostly in the southern part of the state. Cate School in outside of Santa Barbara, and The Thacher School is in Ojai. Many other schools are in the Ojai Valley as well. But the vast majority of boarding schools are focused in the northeast and the mid-Atlantic.

Also, in the US, uniforms are more common at private day schools, very few boarding schools have uniforms. Some have fairly strict, formal dress codes (slacks, sports coats and ties for boys, and dresses/skirts or slacks for girls; look at Phillips Exeter Academy or Groton School), and some have no dress code at all (Phillips Academy and Cate School). Most, like mine, are somewhere in between with a “clothes in good repair” dress code (few rules overall, but they are strictly enforced).

It’s definitely not something for everyone. Kids at boarding school have to be mature and motivated. Sure, the teachers and dorm parents are great, but there is only so much that they can do. Also, keep in mind that communication is a lot easier nowadays than it was even when I was in school (I entered boarding school in 2000, and graduated in 2004).

What blade says is true–boarding school is incredibly rare. Most people thought I was insane for wanting to go. But it is also a lot more common in the northeast, where boarding schools are more common, or, at the very least, people have more knowledge of boarding schools because they are so much more prevalent.

20

All schools in Australia require uniforms but private schools uniform code is just a lot stricter.

Most kids at my school aren’t rich most come from country farming families the richer kids go to more expensive ones.
@yellow I live in a rural area myself
@sudura I explained earlier in the thread that for me boarding is my only option and I have known I was going since i was 7.