At King’s College, we understand that one of the most important decisions for parents is the choice of boarding school. After all, they are trusting their children’s academic development and day-to-day welfare and happiness to the school.
Many experts say the benefits of boarding include developing independence, making lifelong friends, learning to structure your time, the extra-curricular activities, fun weekends, wonderful houseparents and making networks that last a lifetime. King’s is confident we tick all those boxes due to our strong boarding ethos that offers individual personal space to both day and boarding pupils alike.
The House Community
Each September we welcome pupils across the year groups to our seven vibrant houses (three girls and four boys). Having pupils of all ages in a house allows them to express their own individuality and personality whilst showing kindness and tolerance. They pass on their experience and mentor others, developing a maturity and solidifying the King’s community. House Captains and Deputy House Captains develop their leadership skills as they show initiative, inspire and lead by example.
Boarders come from far and wide, making a varied and vibrant community. Many are local, with a few living even closer to school than some of their day pupil friends, whilst others are from further afield in the UK and overseas. Wherever pupils come from, they soon develop a strong sense of loyalty to their house, resulting in exciting and hotly contested inter-house competition in sports and many other activities.
The Good Schools Guide reported: “King’s boarding houses are tight knit across year groups, and inter-house competition is healthy and fun with no one house coming out consistently as top dog. A Houseparent and army of live-in assistants run the house while senior pupils hold vital mentoring roles in looking after younger members of the house.”
Weekend Activities
Following Saturday morning lessons, pupils participate in sports matches before preparing for a house event on a Saturday evening. On Sundays, they take part in a full and varied activity programme that could include trips to theme parks and sports events, paintballing, shopping and cinema afternoons. This provides the support, attention and informal care that integrate pupils into their house and across the King’s community.
Head of Boarding, Daffyd Jones said: “Boarders enjoy a high standard of accommodation including homely common rooms and modern kitchens in which to practise burgeoning culinary skills. We know that pupils leave us well prepared for the demands and challenges of university life, and their friendships are extraordinarily long-lived. They develop into independent, resilient, resourceful, cheerful, tolerant, pro-active, kind, capable young men and women who go on to make their mark on the world.”