My ex was adamant that our 7th grader go to a boarding school in PA (we are MD). No way!!! Not even an hour away. I'll raise my own kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone done this? Any school recs? Money is not an issue.

What are your reasons for choosing this? I'm curious.

We are busy with work travel.

Why not hire a live in nanny/house manager?

My mother told me a story about a friend of hers whose parents took him to "visit" a boarding school in England. While on the tour of the dorm with the HOS, he looked out a window only to see his parent's car heading down the driveway towards the exit. It was the last time he saw them for several weeks.

My cousins were sent to boarding school in the UK at around 8 or 9. One of them turned out well and is still close with the parents, one of them is no longer close.

Age 10 is too young. Wait until age 14/15--and then it still depends upon the particular child's maturity level.

We lived overseas and were in a British curriculum international school. As I recall there were two entry points for most UK schools, age 10/11 and age 13 or so.

We looked at it as an option, but opted not to for a variety of reasons, including:

kid's maturity
our desire to be with our kid
the desire for Uni in the USA
racism problems in boarding schools.
Discrimination against international students (subtle, but it happens from teachers / grading / school leadership selection, etc)
Eventual visa issues for our kid post-Uni (boarding school, uni in the UK, and then what? No visa or right to work? Losing all their friends)

If I was transitioning back to the UK for work, or wanted my kid to attend uni in the UK, then I think we would have taken a much harder look at the British boarding schools.

I guess you’re not British, otherwise, you wouldn’t have to ask this on a US Internet forum. Why English boarding school? Are you in the UK or based somewhere in Europe? Why not consider boarding schools here in the US?

I haven’t don’t that so can’t share my experience, but have a 10 year old now, and just can’t imagine not being there every day with them. I also have friends who went to boarding schools at high school level, because their parents worked in remote areas that didn’t have good school options at the time - this was 40 years ago. But going at 14-15 is very different from 10.

I understand there can be different circumstances that make this a necessity, but I just wonder why specifically a British school. But in any case, consider somewhere that you could easily reach or there is family support, so the child does not feel lonely when they have regular visits / packages from family and your child doesn’t because of the distance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone done this? Any school recs? Money is not an issue.

What are your reasons for choosing this? I'm curious.

We are busy with work travel.

Why not a boarding school in the US, where you could presumably visit more often? Why another country?

https://northcountryschool.org/

North Country should not be at the top of anyone’s list. There are plenty of more reputable schools with higher academic standards, unless your kid plays hockey, figure skates or skis and has Olympic aspirations. Ask a few current parents how they feel about the school cutting their teaching staff, the fuzzy logic of their new grading system, and shift to more online instruction. Definitely not worth the $70K they charge. Maybe that’s why they are taking more international students who are full pay. Would also like to see a current 990 to see salaries and how they spend their money.

Anonymous wrote:I am British and have several friends who attended boarding schools. I will say that none of them have chosen to send their own kids to boarding school.

This. Boarding schools before roughly (US) 8th or 9th grade are an awful idea. Depending on the child, the school, and the fit between them, sometimes boarding schools can make sense for (US) 9th-12th grade. In the Uk, the elite boarding schools (e.g., Eton, Winchester) go through upper 6th Form.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone done this? Any school recs? Money is not an issue.

What are your reasons for choosing this? I'm curious.

We are busy with work travel.

Wait, you feel a responsibility to travel for work, but not feel a responsibilty to raise your kid? Sorry, I would quit my job.

If Money is no object… do better for your child.

Yeah obviously money is an object bc you are working for a W2 wage or something and considering unloading your (only?) child. How about you grind for another year for all that money, don’t waste it on baby boarding school, and take a career pause to be w your kid.

Where I grew up (affluent but rural area in virginia) we all went to boarding school in New England, and a handful had younger kids programs. I would say over half of my peers came back home after the first year and went to the local day school. But honestly OP, now that I’m in the DMV and our options are so dynamic, the pros don’t weigh out the cons of sending your child away unless there are extenuating circumstances. But w a question like this there has to be something going on? What’s the deal.

I would send a DC away to boarding school if it clearly offered better opportunities. I have a DC who is in elementary school, extremely extroverted, independent, and able to self-advocate, and has already asserted they want to go to boarding school when they're older.

Kids these days often read books featuring boarding school (Harry Potter pretty much started a trend in kid lit) and it seems exciting to them. But for kids with a real-world specialization, like in the arts, it can be a fantastic experience that also removes the annoyances of commuting all over the place for their extracurricular. And I'd send DC to a boarding school for like-minded gifted kids in a heartbeat.

I went to boarding school for a bit when I was fairly young and it was a good experience for me.

But I wouldn't pack a kid off to boarding school unless I was expecting them to get something significant out of it that they couldn't get living at home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the junior boarding schools in New England start in 6th grade

which ones?

This one starts in 4th grade -https://www.hillsideschool.net/about/welcome-message. They are called junior boarding schools and there are surprisingly a lot in the US.

Anonymous wrote:Many of the historic British schools have seen huge declines in boarding students of younger ages. It used to be quite common to start as early as K but now there are only a handful and most aren't starting until age 13 or so.

Prince William and Prince Harry started at 8… just crazy.

Anonymous wrote:In China they start at 3!

You mean their indoctrination "schools"?