The Best Boarding School for Your Child: Weekly, Flexi, or Full Boarding?

Modern boarding schools in the UK provide a wide range of boarding options: flexi, weekly and full boarding options. The flexible boarding options provide parents with more freedom to attend to their busy work schedules while at the same time removes substantial traveling time from the student’s day schedules. Some options also provide more study time and allow the child to participate in more extracurricular activities. So what’s the best option for your child?

Full boarding option provides residential education to students during the week and over the weekend-for an entire term. This boarding option is mostly proffered by overseas students and those who tend to cover longer distances to school.

A full boarding option inculcates a strong sense of community in students, allowing them to form friendships that are usually sustained in life-beyond school. Students also get an opportunity to learn to treat each other, school staff, and the whole community with sensitivity, respect, and kindness.

One the other hand, flexi and weekly boarding options are more customized to suit the needs various families. While weekly boarders are allowed to travel during weekends, flexi-boarders can opt to board only for part of the week, perhaps to study for upcoming exams or break up the monotony of commuting to and from school.

Many parents opt for weekly boarding options for their GCSE and 6th form years students. This is to allow the students to concentrate better in their studies by lowering the amount of time wasted in travelling to and from school as well as by giving them extensive access to academic and co-curricular activities during the boarding period.

Bottom-line

Irrespective of the boarding school option that you choose, strive to find out the number of students who will be taking the same option. For instance, if the school is empty during the weekend, a full boarding option could be a lonely experience to your child.