Our boarding culture
Felsted’s boarding culture is at the heart of the holistic education we offer all our pupils. Irrespective of whether your child boards, and many choose to as they progress through the school, they will benefit tremendously from the boarding culture. There is no substitute for an extended day in affording your child time and space to explore their unique combination of passions and interests outside the classroom. This, in turn, greatly strengthens confidence within the classroom.
Many staff members live on site, generously investing as much time as your child requires. As such, they will know your child holistically in a way that isn’t possible in a typical day school. In this way mutual respect is born. Most importantly of all, though, is the community that a boarding culture creates. By living, working and sharing life’s inevitable ups and downs on one beautiful, spacious campus, both staff and pupils become fiercely loyal to the community. It is this loyalty that makes staff go the extra mile for their students and students commit to being the best they can be for their teachers, friends and school.
Children may start boarding from Year 5 in our homely Prep Boarding House, called Hamilton House. Children may opt to board for a couple of nights or choose our weekly or full boarding option. Hamilton House has the capacity for 60 boarders, with dedicated bedrooms and relaxation/recreation areas for boys and girls.
Our committed and caring team are all familiar faces for our boarding children. With their encouragement, children feel at home and contribute to house life through joining in, enjoying being with their friends, eating and sleeping well and learning to manage and organise themselves. All alongside working hard and making the most of all that is on offer.
Boarding Options:
Boarding is very popular and does need to be booked in advance and committed to on a termly basis. However, it may be possible to board
Boarders at Felsted undoubtedly lead full lives, as they have the time to ensure academic work is completed to a high standard, to be involved in a breadth of co-curricular activities and to build lifelong friendships. Personal qualities such as confidence, independence, organisation and leadership are developed in a caring and happy community.
Freedom and responsibility increases as your child moves through the School, which naturally reflects what would happen at home. Pupils benefit from the advice and support of caring and experienced adults at school as well as from their parents. By the time Felsted boarders leave in the Sixth Form, they are fully prepared for university and adult life.
We offer a number of contemporary boarding options to suit modern family life, each bringing different individual benefits. Our boarding houses stay open throughout the term, only closing at half term and main school holidays. A jam-packed weekend activity programme keeps our full boarders happy and stimulated.
Boarding Options:
Felsted offers a comprehensive weekend activity programme for our traditional full boarders. This exciting programme includes a number of indoor, outdoor, physical, recreational and cultural activities.
Shopping and cinema trips to Braintree, Chelmsford and Cambridge are a regular Felsted favourite along with evening meals out to local restaurants and outings to Theme Parks and tourist attractions.
All houses have games consoles and subscriptions to film libraries and sports channels so there is a lot to do in the comfort of the boarding houses too. Each Sunday there is brunch followed by coffee club, plus a choice of an outing or an indoor activity such as dodgeball, baking, chess, water polo and craft making… the list goes on!
As well as these planned Sunday outings, the Activities Team offer a range of alternatives for Felsted students to enjoy on a Sunday.
Lewis Mann, Sunday Activities Club Coordinator, sums up the perfect Sunday below:
We all know Sundays are a day for relaxing or catching up on the sorts of things we have not had the chance to do in the week, whether that be cramming in the last four episodes of our favourite Netflix series, or blowing the cobwebs off the long forgotten trainers and having a good run around outside.
Starting with Coffee Club on a Sunday morning in Aroma, where students can socialise and chat to their friends or get stuck into the Sunday newspaper or latest magazine and just shut the world away for an hour.
After we have all had our fair share of relaxation/socialising it is time to roll out the fun. In the afternoon we offer a range of activities, from dodge ball to crafts (cake baking, card making), from Felsted Monopoly (an interactive game, where students have to complete a range of tasks around the local area in order to win that part of the board) to movie Sundays, or my personal favourite, the Sunday quiz. Whatever the activity, our aim is to make it fun and rewarding for our boarders!
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