Although boarding schools were once thought of as antiquated and a thing of the past, more and more foreign children are attending boarding schools each year.
Boarding schools may not be for every child, but those who do attend boarding schools learn amazing life skills. One of them, of course, is independence.
While to the uninitiated, boarding schools may seem cold and clinical, but what is it really like to attend one?
In this article, we’ll discuss what boarding school is like, and what you can expect if you, or your child, decide to attend one.
World-Class Education
Boarding schools offer your children world-class education and education that they may not be able to get locally. Most boarding, especially those in Switzerland, where there are a number of prestigious schools, are private. As such, they often make a rigorous curriculum that prepares students for life at university. It also makes many of them ready to attend some of the top universities in the world, like Oxford or Yale.
For quality education, you’ll often need to look no further than a boarding school.
There are a few boarding schools that are public, meaning they’re state-funded and students do not need to pay tuition. However, these schools are few and far between. But, they still provide an education you cannot get elsewhere, and often hand-pick their students. A tuition-free school that fosters student education in this way is something that many students are interested in, and therefore, few are able to receive.
Global Opportunities
Many boarding schools have links with prestigious universities all over the world. As such, when you graduate, you’ll be ready to attend a number of world-renowned institutions.
If you apply for a university that isn’t in your home country, often this will involve translating your diploma, and a wide variety of other hassles. You may even need to prove that you can speak the language of the school by sitting for exams or taking language classes.
However, if you attend a boarding school, you’re often given a choice as to which diploma you’d like to earn. You can get an American-equivalent, Canadian, British, and so on. This allows you to understand that country’s education system and get you well on your way to your path of future education.
Independence
This is a huge one. Most kids don’t really learn independence, or how to live with people who are different from them until they get to university. For a lot of people, the transition to university is a shock to the system. It is the first time they’re away from home, and the first time they live in a room with someone they don’t know. As a result, it can cause emotional issues, as well as clashes.
However, students from boarding schools learn to get along with people from all over the world earlier in their lives. They learn that people are different than they are and that they need to learn to navigate that in order to get through.
Living away from parents also makes students form fast friendships and strong bonds. Because students have to learn to make it on their own, they rely on their peers who are also learning to navigate this new frontier of their lives.
Students also learn to rely on themselves in times when they may have relied on their parents. They’ll also learn that sometimes, they need to rely on their own intuition and smarts in order to make it through. They’ll learn what’s right and what’s wrong quite quickly, and how they need to adapt to be a successful student.
More Activities
One of the perks of boarding school is that you can participate in more activities, and often they are more intensive. For example, some children attend boarding school specifically for the activities. There are some schools that provide intensive lessons in acting, ballet, horse riding and other endeavors, which is why some students may be attracted to the school.
Students have unique opportunities to have their academics scheduled around their horse riding or ballet and live with students who also share this passion.
If you attend a professional school, such as a school preparing students for a career in theater or ballet or horse riding, you will do this activity almost every day.
However, some schools will offer activities that are just for fun or academic enrichment. Whatever you’re interested in, there is most certainly a boarding school that provides you with a link to the activity.
Learning About Other Cultures
Many students attend boarding schools in other countries, and even if you attend one in your own country, you’ll be exposed to many other cultures. Students from all over the world attend boarding schools, and often because of their fantastic reputations.
You won’t only learn what other people are like, but you’ll learn what people from other cultures are like and how they live. Intercultural communication is very important with our digital culture, and learning how to navigate that is a huge life skill and bonus.
What a Boarding School is Like: It’s Different for Everyone
This article touched on what a boarding school is like in a universal way. But it is important to keep in mind that the experience will be very different for each student. Still, students will universally learn skills like independence and intercultural communication.
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