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The Institute of Boarding Recognising
THE INSTITUTE OF BOARDING
Robin Fletcher discusses the role of the newly launched The Institute of Boarding in formalising and acknowledging the professional role and contribution of dedicated boarding staff .
What do the Institutes of Tourist Guiding, Fire Engineers and Groundsmanship all have in common?
Apart from sharing the word ‘institute’ they all represent people working in specialist professions or sectors. Not the organisations they work for, but real individual people.
In a previous life when I ran my own communications company, I belonged to two such organisations – the Institute of Directors (IoD), and the Institute of Management Consultants (IoMC). Both provided me with useful information and support, and in the case of the IoD, helpful meeting rooms in different parts of the UK, plus access to the First Class lounges at UK airports!
The wider benefi t, however, was not about rooms and airport lounges but about sending a message to others about me, my skills and experience – in other words, professional recognition.
Professional recognition
Now imagine you are not a director, a management consultant, a tourist guide, fi re engineer or a groundsman (or woman). Instead you work in a boarding house at a school providing vital pastoral care for perhaps around 50 students who could be as young as eight or as old as 19.
The job you do is important. It takes time, skill and a facility to multi-task, work very long hours, deal with myriad unexpected situations and above all keep young people (often from many different countries and cultures) safe and well.
House staff dedicated to boarding duties
Boarding staff have been performing this role at King’s Canterbury boarding school since the year 597, making it perhaps one of the UK’s oldest professions. Yet despite 1,500 years of demonstrated best practice, those working in boarding have until now had less formal, professional recognition than tour guides. This seems odd and wrong – without wishing to offend the tour guide profession!
That is why Boarding Schools’ Assocation Group (BSA Group) has now launched The Institute of Boarding (TIOB), the world’s fi rst professional institute for boarding staff.
Since 1965, the BSA has developed into the largest network of boarding schools in the world with more than 630 members in 39 countries.
Representing boarding staff
Representing a boarding school, however – a bricks and mortar entity, whether it is open and full of students and staff or closed for the summer break – is different from representing boarding staff, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
TIOB had its genesis in 2016 when two senior members of the boarding school community separately in the same week raised with me the issue of professional recognition for staff working in boarding.
I asked them to work together to devise plans for a new scheme resulting in the launch of the Accredited Boarding Practitioner (ABP) programme, jointly run with BSA’s sister association in Australia, ABSA. ABP works by offering boarding staff a one-off chance to have their experience recognised
at four levels, with Level 4 being the highest. The scheme has proved very popular, with now more than 1,000 ABP members from over 300 schools around the world.
The idea of TIOB is to build on the principles of ABP, but rather than a one-off assessment of experience, it will be a permanent support for individual boarding staff.
That is why TIOB has a dedicated website with resources boarding staff can access, blogs from experienced boarding staff, and a list of courses and workshops focusing on working in the boarding sector. That is why it also has a dedicated Director (Lorraine Atkins, former principal of Padworth College and Bishopstrow College) and an Executive Committee made of representatives from independent, state, prep and international boarding.
One of the most obvious benefi ts of TIOB, however, is the opportunity for its members to have recognition in a genuine, external form through ‘post-nominal designation’ which is a complicated way of describing letters after your name.
Like ABP, there are four levels of membership for TIOB (Support, Member, Fellow and Emeritus) and members can use the letters MTIOB (Member, TIOB) after their name as soon as they join.
Although it will take a while for these letters to become familiar to others, it is hoped that as TIOB grows over time, the boarding sector will get used to them and give them value, most obviously for schools recruiting staff or TIOB members applying for roles.
Another benefi t of TIOB for both schools and members is addressing an increasing challenge in the sector around fi lling boarding house roles.
strong role models
Boarding staff planning
Many schools still run a model where teaching staff do boarding duties alongside their classroom work (with teaching loads being reduced substantially for housemasters and housemistresses). However, it is clear that some younger staff coming into schools are not as keen as their predecessors at the idea of the extra hours boarding can add, especially during evenings and at weekends, on top of very busy day jobs.
Until recently the idea that schools would not be able to fi nd a ready, steady supply of future boarding staff has never been questioned.
But if teachers are not volunteering for boarding duties as much as they once did, and making it compulsory might make it diffi cult to recruit new teachers in the fi rst place, what are schools going to do when it comes to long-term boarding staff planning?
Myriad backgrounds
One of the answers is to consider having house staff dedicated to boarding duties without the requirement to teach, especially as this presents the opportunity to bring in more mature entrants from myriad backgrounds such as military, social service, nursing, youth management or other non-traditional settings.
Former military personnel for instance, used to working with young people in other formal settings, could be attractive to schools as boarding house parents, bringing with them additional experience which could be used to support a school cadet force, for instance, or run outdoor activity programmes.
Photo: Gordonstoun School 22 | schoolmanagementplus.com | schoolmanagementplus.com | | Autumn 2022 Autumn 2022
Similarly, someone with a nursing background who might more traditionally be considered for a school nurse or matron role, could also be an interesting candidate as a house parent.
Commitment, seriousness and intent
Those from such richly varied backgrounds trying to enter a sector which might not readily understand the value of their professional experience can now use fi rst-level TIOB membership (entering boarding, or less than two years’ service) as a way to demonstrate their commitment, seriousness and intent.
It will also help schools to distinguish more easily those simply casting around for any job in any setting from those who genuinely have an interest in boarding. And perhaps that can play a part in shifting the dial away from the orthodox view that ‘only’ those who have taught can work in boarding houses.
Although a good idea in isolation, the ability of TIOB to offer real support, grow and expand its services in a meaningful, secure way, is helped by it being part of the wider BSA Group.
Until 2019 there was only BSA, with around 600 members, and no BSA Group.
Well placed to help
Now however, BSA and TIOB have sister associations in SACPA (Safeguarding and Child Protection Association) with around 440 members, BAISIS (British Association of Independent Schools with International Students) with around 140 members and HIEDA (Health in Education Association) with around 100 members.
This means that Lorraine Atkins as TIOB Director is able to call upon the wider assets of BSA Group, whether that’s colleagues helping to plan webinars, courses and events or others developing strong communications or enrolling members.
With more than 1,200 existing members worldwide across four other member associations, BSA Group is confi dent that it is well placed to help its newest member, TIOB, to fl ourish.
BSA Group is also aware that with thousands of boarding staff working at member schools across the world, TIOB could develop to become its largest association.
We would be delighted to welcome boarding staff anywhere in the world to TIOB. But whatever its scale and size, it is important that TIOB is there to support those interested in working in boarding, those who are currently working in boarding, those taking a career break, or those who used to work in boarding.
The missing piece
The two common denominators of TIOB are individual people and boarding. Boarding has always been at the heart of BSA Group, but with the emphasis and accent on the school and its staff, rather than simply the staff themselves. TIOB is the missing piece of the BSA Group jigsaw, and we are very excited about using our experience and resources to offer it to the boarding sector.
To understand the role of TIOB and its value for professional boarding staff we must also understand the huge importance of the role of boarding staff in supporting young people.
Photo: Gordonstoun School
Will Goldsmith, Headmaster of St George’s prep school, Windsor and a member of TIOB’s executive committee, captured this well in the book A Culture of Care (BSA Group, 2021):
“Fundamentally, the boarding team need to be utterly passionate about looking after children and possess the qualities needed to be a strong role model, demonstrating the core values of the school and the house.
“This is incredibly important as young people boarding need to know that the very people looking after them want to be there and have their best interests at heart. The staff also need to exercise their own judgement around things so things aren’t black and white. Every child needs a champion within the boarding house, that they know will look out for them at all times.”
This passage demonstrates the importance of boarding and the even greater importance of having qualifi ed, caring and professional staff to do it. If TIOB can play a part in supporting those people and the profession in which they work, it will be doing its job. ●
ROBIN FLETCHER is CEO of BSA and the BSA Group (robin@boarding.org.uk). For more information on The Institute of Boarding (TIOB) visit tiob.org.uk
