British Boarding Schools: Day Children
Figure 1.--This prep school had only a few day boys. This boy at the end of the cday is waiting for mother to pick him up.
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Most boarding schools make some provision for day children. This has evolved over time. This became increasingly important in the 1980s when many parents began to reassess boarding for younger children. Some schools shifted from all boarding to sizeable numbers of day children. Generally speaking, day children were only a small number of the children at most boarding schools. This of course was especially true of the small schools in rural areas. Here there were variations from school to school. Often the schools might accept the children of the masters or local farmers' children on a day basis. The school location was a major factor here. Schools in or closer to cities tended to have more day children. As the cities after World War II spelled over into the countryside, there has been more interest day children attending the schools. Changing parental attitudes toward younger children was another factor. While small numbers of day children did not not affect the character if the school, larger numbers can have a significant impact on the school.
