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There are now a wide range of appraoches to boarding. Schools vary as to the approaches offered because of the complexities involved and financial constraints such as the need to use facilities as fully as possible. Until recently the standard and most common apprach was full boarding. Here the children remain at school the entire school term including the weekends, with the exception of excheats. Flexi-boarding is a relatively new approach. Here the families work out arrangements with the school on an individual basis, depending on the family circumstances. Partial or weekly boarding involves the children going home each weekend. This provides more time with the family as well as friends at home. Parents and children see as a way to get the best out of boarding life without loosing out on home life with family and friends. Weekly boarding help to more efficently use time and reduce the daily complexity of journeys associated with day students. There are many other possible options associatd with flexi-boarding where children might just stay at schools for a few days each week. This helps parents who have a range of weekday commitments. It is a bit hard on the schools, however, as it increases the complexity of the boasrding operation and does not msake full use of the boarding facilities. Occasional boarding involves full boarding on an occasional basis, such as an overseas business trip. Some schools offered day boarding. Here the children stayed at school after the dayboys went home. The actual scheduled varied, depending on when their parents could pick them up. Commonly they would do activities and prep with the boarders.
Full boarding is the sandard boarding arrangement at a traditional prep school. It was widely considered to be an essential aspect of the prep school program. For years this was what boarding meant and it was essentially inflexible. No alternatives were available. And given the transport system of the time, this was the only practical approach in most instances. Until recently the standard and most common approach at prep schools was full boarding. Many scgools did not even allow day children, believing that they would disrupt the school program. Full boarders remain at school the entire school term including the weekends, with the exception of a few excheats. This approach is still common, although most boarding schools now accept day children and offer more flexibility in the boarding arrangements.
Flexi-boarding is a relatively new approach which has proven popilar withnparents. Here the families work out arrangements with the school on an individual basis, depending on the family circumstances. Partial or weekly boarding involves the children going home each weekend. This provides more time with the family as well as friends at home. Parents and children see as a way to get the best out of boarding life without loosing out on home life with family and friends. Weekly boarding help to more efficently use time and reduce the daily complexity of journeys associated with day students. There are many other possible options associatd with flexi-boarding where children might just stay at schools for a few days each week. This helps parents who have a range of weekday commitments. It is a bit hard on the schools, however, as it increases the complexity of the boasrding operation and does not msake full use of the boarding facilities.
Occasional boarding involves full boarding on an occasional basis for a short period. This is an optional that can be useful to parents in a number of exceptional occassions. This may occur in the case of a family emergency or overseas business trips. If other family members did not live close to the school, being able to board for short periods was a useful option.
Some schools offered day boarding, although this term is not always used. Here the children stay at school after the dayboys went home, but do not stay over night. The actual scheduled varied. The primary factor was when their parents can pick them up. If mum is a stay at hime, this was not necessary, but if both parents works, it often was not possibkle to pick up the child until 6:00 or so. Some children may be day boarders so that they can more fully take advantage of the activities program. Commonly they would do activities and prep with the boarders. Here sport was a major factor, Older boys in terested in games sid not want bto miss out on the sports activities in the afternoon. This tended to go late into the afternoon, especially if there were fixtures with other schools.
