WHAT MAKES A GREAT BOARDING EXPERIENCE?

Every now and again I have the pleasure of meeting with boarding alumni, some of whom were boarding at the School before I was born. I very much enjoy listening to the stories of their time at the School and how things used to be in the good old days. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they never seem to mention the quality education that they received here for several hours per day over a number of years, nor the soggy porridge, but they do take great delight in reminiscing about the homely chaos of twenty students sharing a dorm, battling cold showers in the depths of winter, and recounting various tales of clandestine midnight mischief.

Times have changed. Legislative standards are constantly being raised under the umbrella of safeguarding and schools are evermore on the lookout for an edge within a crowded market. This has led to increasingly fanciful facilities and blankets of smothering support whenever a child displays a hint of emotion. I feel sorry for students opting into new-build boarding facilities with their single bedrooms, kitchenettes, underfloor heating, and all of the ambience of a Travelodge. They are missing out on the essence of a great boarding experience, which is communal living and shared experiences.

Yes, a dorm needs to be clean, safe, and comfortable, but an espresso machine isn’t going to one day be the best man at your wedding. Yes, a boarding program needs to be well organized and administered, but spreadsheets don’t make you laugh until you cry (unless you’re a Bursar). Yes, we need to make sure that the safeguarding of students is a priority, but keeping them under constant lock and key is akin to keeping a lion cub in a cage before releasing her and expecting her to have accumulated the necessary skills to survive in the wild.

schools find a balance between risk and experience in order for young people to flourish both within school and on into their adult lives.

Communal living creates memories. Investing time and resources in social events, trips, and fun activities is vital, and young people will deposit those memories into a bank that they can draw upon for a lifetime. Communal living also creates problems for young people to work through, which is equally as important as what they learn within the classroom. Ensuring that our boarding students are able to develop independence and resilience within a highly legislated

environment is complicated. We want students to learn how to problem-solve and manage their own well-being. This sometimes requires a lighter touch than metaphorically wiping their noses for them at the first sign of a sniffle.

Ultimately, we want our young boarding students to be happy and successful and to leave us with a sense of belonging, so that one day they’ll be the ones returning to campus and reminiscing for all of the right reasons. My favorite day of the school year is senior graduation, and that’s not just because it’s the final hurdle before an epic summer holiday. It’s special as so many of the students cry their eyes out, because they are sad to be ending a significant chapter in their young lives. Communal living ensures that this chapter is not a gray monologue, but a creative collage of shared experiences. We as boarding schools must never lose that sense of shared belonging, because that lies at the heart of what we are.

Matt Kiely, Boarding Manager TASIS England

BEYOND RESULTS

An exercise schools routinely undertake is to create a profile of their graduates. For parents, the question is: What will this school provide to ensure my child thrives?

From the perspective of a school governor, leader, and/or teacher, the question is: How does our school mission drive all that we do in our schools to support the development of the attributes required for students to thrive? Another question may be: How will other schools, colleges, and employers perceive our students?

Once a school initiates this process of identifying the attributes that represent the core of the graduate, it is revealing and powerful to see the characteristics emerge. They do not include words like “excellent grades” or “great test-takers,” but they do include attributes — or qualities — such as being principled, compassionate, and open-minded. In a landscape where schools are rightly held more and more responsible for business-oriented concepts such as higher standards of accountability, expectations, and targets, it is equally important that school leaders and teachers do not lose sight of their high sense of moral purpose. In my experience, in addition to academic rigor, schools desire to provide service, create community, stimulate inquiry, and nurture a sense of justice and equality.

In my over 25 years in international education, I am humbled to have belonged to and served such learning communities. We are fortunate to have school governors, leaders, faculty, and staff who are committed to inspiring future generations to gain more from school than just knowledge and academic success. While gaining the knowledge students need to continue their learning journey is obviously important, so too is the development of attributes that will promote a focus on community as well as self and define our current generation of students as principled, compassionate, and open-minded.

When school governors, leadership teams, faculty, parents, and students focus on more than test scores, it can transform their learning communities. These schools flourish through the positive and supportive relationships they build, both within the school and the wider communities to which they belong. Community service features high on the list of priorities and, as compassionate school community members reach out, they will be inspired by those for whom they provide service. These flourishing schools also provide balance through a range of pathways that offer a wide variety of subject areas and co-curricular activities that engage students in learning through physical, cognitive, and affective domains.

Students from these schools commit to the quality of relationships they wish to have with their peers and teachers. They are confident, not only in the areas in which they find joy and success but also when faced with challenges. This selfassurance enables our young people to embrace the possibility of failure and to pursue a less well traveled, but ultimately more illuminating, path. This courage sparks innovation through the opportunities that students, teachers, and school leaders identify that will enhance learning and teaching. Such innovation and creativity go far beyond introducing various technologies and revising course guides or content. It delves into the exploration of meaningful questions and real-world issues, providing our future leaders with the ability to be open-minded enough to embrace and analyze multiple perspectives and opinions, to respectfully communicate their questions, suggestions, and solutions,

As educators, we know how important rigor and results are in determining school success, as evidenced by the plethora of marketing emails and posts we see from schools following the release of examination grades each summer. But we need to courageously take that additional and challenging step to focus our school communities on creating opportunities for our children to inquire, explore, and discover within and beyond whatever content our curriculum defines. In this way, we will promote the skills and attributes that will serve them (and us) well in the future.

The strength of this foundation will help schools truly embolden our children and inspire a life-long passion for learning that will ensure they are ready for whatever challenges face them and their communities in the future.

Bryan Nixon, Head of School TASIS England