The reasons for joining a boarding school are varied, like the profiles of the families and students who use it: professional specialization, need for supervision, discipline, rigor or simply better academic results… Boarding school is envisaged in many cases and their diversity sometimes makes it possible to establish a selection of the establishments most suited to the needs of the child. But how to make the right choice? Here are a few tips.
By Julie Laura Mermet
The boarding school is being modernized and has returned to the heart of the news since the announcement of the opening of new establishments as part of a public policy launched by the Ministry of National Education and Youth. To date, nearly 2,000 establishments in France welcome more than 200,000 interns each year .
There are many reasons for sending your child to a boarding school, reflecting the specificities of each establishment. It is therefore necessary to anticipate the return to boarding school in order to properly build the personal project of the child and to opt for the establishment most suited to his needs.
To find your future boarding school, the one that suits you best, go to the virtual Studyrama boarding school fair . A unique opportunity to discover the establishments and discuss with the educational managers to ask them all your questions!
Anticipate to build your project well and choose your boarding school well
Depending on the reasons that lead certain families or children to consider boarding school, several steps are to be anticipated. Whatever the planned project, it is first necessary to discuss it with the family as soon as possible and to scan the different options available to you.
To help you in this essential first step, you can consult the special boarding school directory set up by Studyrama or the online directory of boarding schools from the Ministry of National Education, which lists all the accommodation offers for colleges and high schools in France.
istock 1250230056This tool can allow you to easily identify the boarding schools closest to you by criteria and to contact them. Once your needs have been identified, the budget has been taken into account (from €1,500 to €2,000 in the public sector and from €2,500 to €15,000, or even more, in the private sector, excluding regional and state aid) and the visitof the boarding school are also key stages of the project.
Boarding school, a solution in the event of a distant family home
If your family home is far from the schools of your academy, you can consider boarding school as an interesting compromise to transform significant transport time into work time, thus promoting better academic success .
This is the choice made by Chloé, a 16-year-old student, educated in boarding school at La Nativité high school in Aix-en-Provence: “We made the decision by mutual agreement with my parents because this establishment is located far from my family home. I find it difficult to get to work directly after a day’s work, but the boarding school obliges us to do so, which provides a framework. It’s also a life experience, where you meet great people. Adapting can be difficult at first, especially when you’re an only child, but you get used to it ,” rejoices Chloé now.
His establishment allows him to go home to his family on weekends. However, some establishments allow returns to the family home only during school holidays. To make the right choice between these two options, beyond the necessary communicationwith the child, you can compare the sports and extracurricular activities offered by the different establishments, depending on the time the student will be required to spend at the boarding school.
The boarding school, a solution to bring discipline and rigor but also autonomy and maturity
Boarding school is sometimes considered for rambunctious students , who may lack focus and discipline in school . For a dissipated student or one with certain academic difficulties, choosing a boarding school that accompanies him and supports him in his progress may be a preferable solution to other more strict establishments that could punish him more. Here too, the severity of certain boarding schools may differ depending on the establishment and it is important to discuss this point upstream with the educational and teaching teams to best target the child’s needs.
For students concerned about obtaining good academic results, the boarding school can play a major supervisory role and push them to surpass themselves through the slots allocated to work in addition to the lessons followed. For sustained supervision, you may prefer certain structures that offer studies supervised directly by professors and not only educators, with subsequent verification of the work done.
The boarding school evolves in line with the expectations of families and their children
The boarding school is modernized with regard to the expectations of families and sometimes tends to move away from the image that was initially attributed to it as a strict establishment, advocating rigor and discipline. Indeed, according to Laurent Dumaine, head of establishment in Saint-Martin de France: “ Families come to seek an educational and structuring relay at a key age in the construction of the personality of their children.