Agenda item

Presentation - Boarding at City of London Freemen's School

The Head of Boarding and Co-curricular to be heard.

Minutes:

Governors received a briefing and presentation from the Head of Boarding and Co-Curricular on the Boarding offer at the School, and the following points were made.

 

·         The Head of Boarding and Co-Curricular noted that she had joined the School from King Edward’s School Witley in 2015 with a mandate to build in the recommendations for Boarding made following the Independent Schools Inspectorate inspection that year.

 

·         The Boarding House was staffed by three resident staff and three academic staff. The first Royal National Children's SpringBoard Foundation boarding pupil had joined the School in 2017/18. The mix of overseas students in the Boarding House was felt to be an asset by parents. Fees for boarding were three times those of day pupils, so the School had an obligation to ensure its boarding offer was commensurate with the fees, and an asset to the wider School. The ethos of the School’s boarding offer was informed by the fact that parents appreciated a rounded offer that was not overwhelmingly academic in focus.

 

·         Recent improvements to the boarding offer included improved security, Boarding House renovations to interior décor to create a more relaxed, homely setting for communal spaces, improved routines (e.g. personal greeting from residential staff and provision of home baked goods at end of School day to reflect shift from academic to boarding setting) and improved communication between academic, residential and medical staff. More work was to be done on improving processes around mental health and induction of new Boarding pupils.

 

·         The School’s Marketing Department would be issuing its Boarding survey soon. Issues that would need to be addressed included misconceptions among overseas parents of the traditional ‘Western’ boarding model, and the impact of Brexit. Other priorities included the development of the reputation of the Boarding offer, both outside of and within the School and the maintenance of numbers of Boarding pupils.

 

·         The Head of Boarding and Co-Curricular concluded by noting that Governors should be familiar with both the National and School Statement of Boarding. The Town Clerk agreed to circulate these to the Board outside of the meeting. Lastly, she noted that Governors were welcome to suggest a formal name for the Boarding House.

 

Governors then posed some questions to the Head of Boarding and Co-Curricular.

 

·         In response to a question from a Governor regarding social media access during night-time hours, the Head of Boarding and Co-Curricular noted that the School maintained a block on access to inappropriate internet sites, but that greater social media access was permitted during Boarding hours. Boarding pupils were not permitted to use Wi-Fi after 11.00pm, and devices were locked away for the night. Some overseas pupils were permitted to use Skype to contact parents in different time zones.

 

·         In response to a question from a Governor regarding Boarding numbers, the Head of Boarding and Co-Curricular replied that there were currently 57 Boarders of whom 4 were weekly Boarders.

 

·         Governors debated whether an expansion of the School’s weekly boarding offer could be a unique selling point for the School, with one Governor noting that, arguably, weekly boarding arguably detracted from the sense of community that was fostered among termly boarders.