Of the pupils in schools who are members of the Independent Schools Council, 442,000 are day pupils and 67,000 are boarders. Most of the boarders are over the age of 11, the biggest group being sixth formers. Boarding schools are expensive, £23,000-£29,000 a year, but in fact boarding schools make very little ‘surplus’ on their fees - often less than day schools – because they set their fees to just cover costs.
There is little to choose between boarding and day schools in terms of academic results and in fact the structure of the academic programme in the two types of schools is similar. Boarding schools have two slight advantages: they do not have to have all their lessons between 9am and 4pm (they can have sport every afternoon when it is light and resume lessons between 4pm and 6pm), and boarding schools are more able to offer off-timetable lessons in the evenings (for example, in Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Astronomy and Art at Harrow).
Boarding schools have four big advantages:
- They are able to offer a much wider range of extra-curricular activities to a much higher proportion of pupils than day schools. Quite a few pupils at day schools do very little in terms of sport, music or drama but at boarding schools no pupils fail to engage in these types of activity at some level. This is the case not only because boarding schools have much more time at their disposal, but also because the House system provides more opportunities for low-level competitions. Also, boarding schools naturally attract staff who want to be involved in extra-curricular activity at a high level; many staff in day schools teach their subject and do little else.
- Boarding schools often have a stronger sense of community, both at school and boarding house level. Friendships made at boarding schools tend to be deeper and longer-lasting. Recent years have seen the individualisation of society. In the post-modern era people, and especially teenagers, have become more self-obsessed, more selfish. Both religion and the family are failing to provide the community structures which they once did. Being in a boarding school forces young people to think more about the needs of others and gives them an experience of community life which has the greatest value.
- Boarding schools look after pupils very well – the standard of pastoral care is often outstanding – and for teenagers particularly, the quality of social life is often far healthier than that of pupils in day schools, especially those who live in cities.
- Boarding schools can take pupils from all over the country and all over the world. This is an educational experience in itself: the opportunity to know people from many walks of life and from many different cultures.
And of course boarders do not have to travel to school, something which is becoming harder and harder in many parts of the country.
Boarding schools have some disadvantages:
- Pupils will not have the same level of privacy that they often have at home. The boarding environment is not for everyone and some older pupils find the loss of freedom quite irksome.
- Boarding schools are wonderful for the outgoing and active pupil, less ideal for the shy and non-sporty child.
- Some children are homesick and of course some parents dislike not being able to see their children every day.
- Some boarding schools have a large number of day pupils or weekly boarders and the full-time boarders can have a distinct feeling of being ‘left behind’ in the evenings and at weekends; such schools will also have less going on for pupils at weekends than the full boarding schools.
As with the co-education debate, however, there are good and bad boarding schools, good and bad day schools. Boarding schools exist in the twentieth century because of the excellence of their extra-curricular provision – they are expensive but worth it.