Boarding
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The extended day and the less-travelled week
About one in twelve of our pupils are boarders. They live in family houses on the school site, in an atmosphere that provides fun and flexibility, within an underlying structure of routine and support. Boarding life gives opportunities to take responsibilities, learn to get on with people and build self-confidence. It provides more time for uninterrupted study as well as great opportunities for leisure in one of the UK's most popular holiday environments. Most importantly, it prepares young people for the transition away from home to Higher Education.
Boarding in pre-Sixth Form year-groups is being phased out and within about three years it will be Sixth Form boarding only.
Both boarding houses – Trennick (boys) and Malvern/Pentreve (girls) are on the main school site, and are family-run communities with married house staff and other residential staff who are all teachers in the school.
We see boarding as a real opportunity for young people to prepare for life away from home at university; it also gives those from outside Cornwall time to enjoy the quieter, less hectic life-style of Cornwall and its exciting coastal environment; for those from Cornwall, it saves a lot of commuting, too!
There is a programme of games matches on Saturdays, and various optional leisure activities are arranged for boarders at weekends. There are no restrictions on the number of weekends that a student may go home: arrangements are as flexible as we can make them.
There is a main line railway station in Truro (5 minutes’ drive) with regular Intercity services to London. Newquay Airport has regular flights connecting with London Gatwick, Stansted and other “up-country” airports (25 minutes by road).
Road connections to Truro from the south of England are now excellent - Exeter is about an hour and a half's drive, almost entirely on good dual carriageway.
Flexi-boarding
If there is space available we are always happy to offer accommodation for temporary boarding, for which there is a pro-rata charge. If your son or daughter would like a “taster”, that too can be arranged subject to availability of space. Please contact house staff Mr Austin or Mrs Collenette.
For latest news from the boarding houses, click here:
How boarding can be better than a family
The Times newspaper September 14th 2007
National director of the Boarding Schools' Association (BSA), Hilary Moriarty, comments on the recent transformation of boarding schools.
BOARDING MISSION STATEMENT
The most important aim is to provide all the advantages of boarding education within the wider ethos of the school as a whole. Among the aims of boarding education here, are the following:
1. To live a life which provides pupils with an important moral and social education: they have to “get on with people” with many different personalities and backgrounds; they are likely to encounter many situations (major and minor) which call into question a huge range of issues requiring moral judgement. (e.g. respect for other people’s property and personality; the problems of peer-group pressure; the relationship between work and leisure etc etc). All this will occur in the context of the care and guidance of the house staff; such issues will be discussed in house meetings and other group discussion as well as in individual contact with staff. Pupils will also be given opportunities for taking responsibility - particularly as they get older. The prefect system is one way in which this is done.
The aim is to promote a particular quality of personal relationships. This is sometimes known as “the hidden curriculum” of boarding schools, and pupils who have benefited from it tend to find the transition to Higher Education, for example, easier than those who have lived at home until they are 18 or 19.
2. To live in a routine which is conducive to good academic performance and provides opportunities for extra-curricular activities. The first aim entails following a regular routine of prep during the evenings together as a group (which is supervised in the earlier years but which entails greater responsibility and self-organisation later). An incidental advantage is that pupils have some opportunity during the evenings to consult staff on academic matters.
While providing these advantages of communal living, the school also respects the pupils’ need for privacy, and their rights to some of the features of home-life.
The role of the resident House Staff is a vitally important one: they establish the “tone” of relationships within the house. At present most are married and have families of their own. They are people that the boarders get to know very well, and that inspire the confidence of pupils. The School expects them to provide pupils with sympathetic attention when they need support and advice; they are also expected to maintain a clear and firm framework of discipline in which the pupils can grow up well. House Staff are also expected to maintain good contacts with parents. The House Staff meet regularly both informally and formally as a group: the purpose of such meetings is not only administrative but also to promote a common sense of purpose. All House Masters and Mistresses (and Assistants) also have academic teaching posts in the school.