Boarding

Bryanston is a full boarding school with some day pupils. Full boarders are expected to be at school at all times apart from school exeats and holidays and, with their House Parent’s permission, on Open Weekends.

As a seven-day-a-week boarding school, weekends are vibrant, fun and busy. The school has three types of weekend, which are posted in the school calendar:

• Whole School Weekends, when pupils are expected to be in school.
• Exeat Weekends, when all pupils must be leave school on Friday at 4.20pm and return by 9pm on Sunday.
• Open Weekends, when pupils can choose to remain at school or choose to go home after lessons, sports matches or other school commitments on Saturday, returning by 9pm on Sunday.

For those families wanting their child home regularly, the pattern of weekends is such that a weekend leave is possible every two weeks. While a weekend leave request for a Whole School Weekend will be considered sympathetically, they are not encouraged. The House Parent will use their discretion, based on the needs of the individual pupil, as well as those around them.

The school is aware of the various needs of its boarders and their families at weekends, so is committed to ensuring a formula is achieved that can suit everybody and that exceeds the expectations of families who choose a full boarding education for their child.

The weekend activity programme is carefully managed by the Weekend Coordinator, who organises a range of activities that take place both in and out of school. This being said, pupils often organise weekend activities themselves; for example, the House Drama Festival, Balloon Debate, A3 Festival and A2 Charities Day. This means that there are always pupils present at the school outside of Exeats and school holidays. 

Approximately 20 per cent.

No, Day Pupils are integrated into boarding houses alongside their peer group. They have a designated study area within the boarding house which is shared with other day pupils.

Day pupils are expected to be in school from 8.15am. They can leave at 6pm (during the winter timetable) once their classes and any co-curricular activities have finished (from Monday to Friday) and after their school commitments on a Saturday. Current pupils can discuss specific arrangements with their House Parent.

We have 12 boarding houses: five girls’ houses, two junior boys’ houses and five senior boys’ houses.

There are up to 40 boys in each of the two junior boys’ houses and 60-70 children in each of the senior houses.

The composition of each house is directed by the Head’s Office. Our boarding houses do not encourage the cliques and intense tribal loyalties sometimes found in schools whose social arrangements are based on a strong, inward-looking house tradition. Bryanston is a living community working together rather than a federation of separate houses.

Bryanston is one of the most experienced co-educational boarding schools in the country and understands that girls’ and boys’ needs differ when they enter the School in Year 9.

The girls are in the same boarding house throughout their time at Bryanston. The older girls in the house tend to act as ‘big sisters’ to the new arrivals and will help them to settle in. Boys can be less mature at 13 and differ greatly from young adult pupils at 18 and so, in their first year, they join one of the two junior boys’ houses where they find their feet among their peer group.

At the end of the year, boys will express a preference for the friends they would like to have with them in a senior house. Alongside many other factors the Deputy Head, Head of Boarding and the junior boys’ House Parents work hard to ensure that, as with all houses, the senior boys’ houses have a good mix of interests, talents, cultures and backgrounds.

The transition phase from a junior to senior house is skilfully and expertly managed by the House Parents and is less daunting for the boys after having had a year to settle in.

While each house has a social area and small kitchens for making hot drinks and snacks, main meals are taken in the central dining hall, enabling pupils to develop relationships outside their house.