Few people now subscribe to the notion of schools being a punitive experience, as portrayed by Dickens, Disney, Dahl and many more. More recently J.K. Rowling has revitalised interest in boarding schools – indeed I know of a prep school that ran highly popular boarding taster weekends along the lines of wizards’ conventions. And yet one detects a lingering perception that ‘sending children away’ to a boarding school is somehow still perceived by some as a diminishing of family life, a confinement or incarceration for the children, a narrowing of childhood.

It is time to set the record straight, to show not just how inaccurate this is but indeed how the very opposite is the case: many boarding schools, and certainly Lincoln Minster School, constitute a carefully crafted, multi-faceted microcosm of our global society, far richer, and far more laden with opportunity and discovery than most families can hope to provide, unless they are in a unique position themselves or extraordinarily determined!

Consider the environment in which a boarder at a thriving independent school will grow up: it is more than the ‘long sleepover’ vaunted by many schools. The somewhat unpleasant term ‘socialisation’ masks the rich web of occasions through which boarding pupils experience the give and take of living in a small community with regular meals round tables (and often a single television set!), board games, birthday parties and barbecues, formal dinners, occasional ‘take-outs’ and helping to host events. There are numerous occasions to celebrate achievement, whether their own, or – equally important, surely – to applaud the efforts and triumphs of others. Expectations of each boarder playing a role range from cleaning their own shoes on a regular basis, to being responsible for their own space and tidiness (often on a slightly more routine level than at home), arbitration in squabbles, initiating activities, and planning outings and events. Most schools develop leadership roles for their boarders, not only to help things along but to give them an additional sense of self-worth.

The activities that extend beyond the usual curriculum, and even beyond the so-called extra-curriculum are often augmented for boarders who probably spend less time in front of a screen than their peers going home every night. Schools pride themselves on providing ample challenge for pupils, whether it is a climbing wall, the sailing club, polo or kayaking, singing in a cathedral, playing in a jazz band, making a newspaper, competing locally or even nationally in some discipline or interest, or fundraising for the school community project in a developing country. It is always heartening to hear pupils talk about their scariest moment when they were taken, or rather when they took themselves, out of their comfort zone.

The point is, far from being disadvantaged by being a boarder, by ‘missing out’ on family life, our boarders reap huge advantages from the opportunities afforded to them. In their busy lives, they are engaging with others, not just at school but in the sports clubs, sharing interests, experiences, curiosity, discoveries. They learn what it is to be a member of a group, of many groups. They play at being mini citizens. Little wonder that these young people develop into self-sufficient, confident young adults poised to go forward on the next leg of their journey.

More often than not, their good citizenship, far from being restricted to a local or even national level, plays out on a wider platform. Schools are increasingly welcoming pupils from overseas more than ever before, with the result that British pupils grow up learning alongside youngsters from different cultures. With Education UK being held as the gold standard by parents in many nations, the clamour for places in UK boarding schools and at British universities is probably doing more for intercultural understanding than we realise. Some of us in the education world worry that the fervour with which parents from other countries seek to widen their children’s horizons and want their children to be comfortable in the English-speaking world as a route to professional success in later years, is not matched by our own interest in such schemes. For most children, the French/German or Spanish exchange, valuable as it is, still constitutes the main mechanism whereby pupils can see what it is like to be a foreigner and, more vitally, learn to appreciate that British is not the default nationality!

Have schools exploited sufficiently the new global nature of their communities? Most have moved on from treating overseas boarders as pupils with a learning difficulty, but the proposition seems to be that such entrants come to learn English and experience the British system, a desire that leaves us a comfortable margin for remaining ethnocentric in our approach, rather than embracing the potential geocentricity. A step too far you think? Well schools have become much more courageous in the twenty-first century, mindful of the need to bolster our pupils’ credentials as global citizens, fit to work in a global world; witness, for example, the rise in Mandarin options in schools. Undoubtedly PSHE, debates, assemblies and religious studies classes are enriched with the wider perspectives afforded by a multiracial mix in the classroom. One has only to wander into the art studios in schools today to see how the fusion of cultures is making colourful and thought-provoking inroads into our educational mindscape.

Change is now engrained in the thinking of many schools and I suspect that we have but begun this journey towards the global perspective. Meanwhile, let us stand back and acknowledge just how far we have developed from the days of Dotheboys Hall, and continue bravely on our journey to give young people the life-enhancing experiences to enable them to fulfil that mission described by Woodrow Wilson:

 

‘You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.’

 

 

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