Benenden School tells us about the benefits of boarding
Benenden Boarding brings enormous benefits for every pupil: she has the time and space to try new activities, develops great social and emotional skills, and makes friends for life. Boarding is also a partnership between school and family, and parents are always welcome to join their daughter at weekends or throughout the week to cheer her on in matches, have a catch-up, take her out to lunch or enjoy the food at school – Sunday brunch here in the Café is particularly popular with parents!
Under our popular Benenden Boarding model, girls boarding is balanced with Long Home Weekends when all girls go home, as well as two or three optional weekends at home each term. Therefore on average, boarders can go home every second weekend if they wish. The popularity of the Weekend Programme means that Benenden is a vibrant, friendly and exciting place to be at weekends. In fact, on any given weekend around two-thirds of girls are in school.
Benenden prides itself on giving bespoke pastoral care to all students and on supporting their family ties. In Houses, pupils have a team of staff who offer them emotional, academic, social and practical support. Staff set out to develop firm, meaningful, nurturing relationships, beyond the normal realm of adult/student contact seen in many schools. Each pupil is an individual, as well as part of a House. Each needs an individual approach, which can only be developed through open channels of communication and time spent getting to know one another.
We are pleased to have welcomed a limited number of day boarders to Benenden from September 2021. Our day boarders play a full part in every area of school life: leaving at the end of the day does not prevent any pupil from benefiting from the Benenden experience! Day boarders are fully immersed in the academic, co-curricular and personal and professional elements of our Complete Education. We have carefully planned their role in the boarding side of school life: being affiliated to a boarding house means they benefit from the pastoral care and close friendships that are hallmarks of the boarding programme.
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