Figure 1.-- The boy in his own clothes here is waiting with a mate to be picked up for one of his exeats. The boarders look forward for these weekends with their parents. Schools vary on how they offer exeats. Most allow the children to take two or three each term. |
There are commonly exeats (leave weekends) when boarders go home for the weekend. This varies from school to school. Most schools rotate exeats. A few schools have a fixed exeats in which all the children go home. Normally exeats begin Saturday afternoon. A few schools have a fixed exeats beginning Friday afternoon once a term. The standard procedure, however, is to begin exeats Saturday afternoon. Almost all schools have Saturday morning classes. Exeats allow the parents to pick up their children for the weekend together. Usually the children are picked up about 1:00 pm after the morning classes. Many schools allow the children to put on their refular clothes for their exeats, but some schools insist the cgildren stay in their school uniform. Sometimes there are complications such as afternoon games with other schools which parents also often attend. Schools vary as to the numbers of exeats allowed. Some schools allow 2-3 exeats per term. A few schools allow the children to leave any weekend, which is essentialy "weekly boarding". Families vary on how much they take advantage of the exeats. Most parents who can pick up their children, often planning some kind of special activity together. Some parents are outside the country, so the children can not take advantage of their exceats. Sometimes grandparents or uncles and unts might pick them up. Normally the children asre expected to be returned by Sunday evening. The schools normally arrange a variety of activities on Saturday and Sunday for the children not leaving with exeats. These range from school to school and depending on the size of the school there may be alternatives. Ofren field trips are planned to museums, historical sights, sports events, festivals, and other interesting sites. There are also activities like orienteering, treasure hunts, and others organised and supervised by the teaching staff.in which the children may want to participate.
