My first experience of boarding was at Warwick School, a day school with a boarding house attached. Next came Uppingham, a boarding school with a tiny handful of day pupils. Then there was Oswestry, a school where the mix was about 50:50 boarding-to-day. And most recently, I moved overseas to Harrow Bangkok where again - like Warwick - boarders are in the minority.
Each school and boarding community has been different, but the largest differences have been between UK-based boarding and boarding overseas. These differences boil down to:
- Differences in type - most international schools are commercially-run affairs, with a good number being proprietorial. This means that there the incentive is to cast the net as far as possible in terms of pupil intake. As a result, international schools tend to be of a type: all through, co-educational and large. If there is boarding it will an additional offering, not the raison d'etre. There are few if any, international schools which have gone all-out to be boarding schools. Those that try, often find that they end up being just the same as the rest - day schools with a bit of boarding.
- Differences in staffing - staff in UK boarding schools are generally in the post because they have actively chosen to work in a boarding school. Even those not directly involved in boarding will likely have some sort of role in the boarding community. International schools may recruit specialist boarding staff - many of whom are excellent - but the majority of staff will have little expertise or interest in boarding. The quality of the boarding offering, therefore, will likely be determined by the quality of a few key staff, not by the quality of the staff as a whole.
- Differences in parents - partly as a reflection of the above differences, the majority of international boarding parents have chosen boarding as a means to an end, not an end in itself. A good number send their children to board to eliminate a long commute, or to fit better around their weekday commitments. But surprisingly few choose boarding for their children because they value it in and of itself. This not to denigrate selecting boarding for purely pragmatic reasons - children are usually at the core of this sort of decision making - but merely to point out that in international schools it's more common to board out of necessity than choice.
- Differences in the status of boarding staff - there are some cultural differences in the relationships between boarding staff and other academic staff that are subtly different to those in many UK boarding schools. Whereas in UK-boarding schools boarding staff - and certainly houseparents - are revered, and their perks eyed jealously, the same is generally not true in international schools. Other academic staff tend to regard boarding staff with a degree of pity - stuck at the chalkface all weekend, whilst they are free to relax. Housing allowances available for all staff dull the shine of the pecuniary advantages of working in boarding. This does have the effect of ensuring that those who work in international boarding do so for the right reasons; but it also can act as a barrier to staff who might have given it a try, and been rather good at it, from chancing their arm.
- Differences at weekends - there is a well-established tradition of weekend sport in many UK boarding schools. The largest have enormous 'block fixtures' in the major games in which almost every child in the school - and certainly every child who's so inclined - gets to play sport. Full UK boarding schools will supplement this with Saturday morning lessons and compulsory activities on Sundays. Weekends are slightly different for boarders in international schools. There are large fixtures, but the nature of competition means that these tend not to be every weekend, and tend not to involve the majority of pupils. All but a few international schools simply lack the space to host super-sized block fixtures. Added to which, there is less of an appetite for frenetic weekend activity from parents who are habituated to being at home with family at the weekend. So the weekends in international boarding schools - structured and great fun though they are - feature more home-grown fun and more of the sorts of activities that families would typically be indulging in themselves at the weekends.
This, I hope, gives a flavour of the differences that I've noticed over the three years or so that I've worked overseas. I have tried here to be balanced, but honest. The two different types of boarding each have their strengths. Parents who wish to see their children every weekend - or children who guard their own time and space jealously - will find most UK-style boarding hard to adjust to. Equally, those looking for full immersion may find themselves left wanting a little more with the international flavour of boarding.
These differences - which are to be celebrated - have largely arisen because, as Dylan Wiliam reminds us: 'Everything works somewhere, and nothing works everywhere'.