The many benefits of a boarding school education

Boarding has helped the shy 11-year-old son of Alan Stevens, HMC head and master of prestigious Malaysian boarding school Marlborough College, become independent, poised, confident, well-rounded and accomplished.

Stevens said: “My wife and I were taken aback when our shy 11-year-old son announced that he wanted to board at school. With every expectation that he would be back by teatime for home cooking and his comfy bedroom, we arranged a few trial nights in a boarding house where he shared a room with five other boys of his age.

“Five years on and we still see him at exeats and we adore our time together as a family on holidays.”

He loves coming home, but he regards his boarding house as a second home and his friends as an extension of his family.

For several reasons, boarding is a hugely popular choice for those for whom it is an option.

For some children, it offers a unique opportunity to experience lasting friendships and stability while their parents’ occupations take them away from home.

For others, boarding frees up valuable time which would otherwise be taken up by long bus journeys to and from school.

Some appreciate the structure of prep (supervised homework) during week nights and the abundance of support from the range of pastoral and subject specialists who live in a boarding school.

As boarders grow older, typically they enjoy greater privacy and independence, with sixth formers in most schools having private study/bedrooms, which often make university digs look quite shabby.

Many, particularly those in the sixth form, enjoy a level of independence from their parents which, while still being cared for within school, provides an invaluable experience of communal living before they move away to university.

Boarding life at Marlborough College Malaysia is deeply valued and is an integral part of the pastoral care that is provided.

Marlborough College has 175 years of tradition and heritage and this expertise is now available in Asia where pupils from year 5 (age 9) through to upper sixth (age 18) are given the opportunity to experience a true British boarding education in one of six houses.

The boarding programme is modelled on the boarding experience at Marlborough College UK with a near identical structure and routine in each house.

There are four senior boarding houses and two junior boarding houses, each with a housemaster or housemistress, resident house tutor, dame and team of visiting tutors.

Boarding offers students an opportunity to enjoy the full range of first-class facilities on campus and the college ensures that every weekend is filled with fun activities such as cultural trips to Singapore, paint balling, go-karting and laser-questing.

Formal dinners and boarders BBQ suppers are part of boarding life, which provides pupils with the chance to relax with their friends outside of the classroom and to also learn vital social skills, manners and etiquette, developing their communication skills by socialising with adults, college guests and peers.

Boarding today is as far removed from Tom Brown’s schooldays as quidditch is from the modern sports facilities and swimming pools which today’s boarders can enjoy and which rival many private sports clubs.

Marlborough College has opened a second campus and is a genuine expansion, not a franchise, of Marlborough College Wiltshire. The preparatory school admits children from age three, and the senior school includes a sixth form to age 18.

For further information on the college and to register for the admissions event in Ho Chi Minh City on January 26 visit www.marlboroughcollege.my