Dr. Rishi Khurana
Principal
Shanti Gyan International Sr. Sec. Boarding School,
Goyla,Nr. Sec-19 Dwarka
There are many reasons for parents and children to choose residential schools such as: –
· Better Education/High Academic Standards
· Better at Meeting Personalized Needs (tutors, sports, extra-curricular)
· Better Preparation for University
· Physically and Emotionally Safe Learning Environments
· More character, morals and values
· A well-rounded education
Normal day schools have often been criticized as elitist, class-conscious in a nominally class-less society, where those who could afford to pay the fees sent their children to meet others of the same class and values and to make contacts to serve them for the rest of their lives. This emphasis is intended to leaven the mixture of students and spread the effects of a day school education throughout the society.
During a period of rapid change in education, some parents are concerned at the values and ethics to which their children are being exposed. By choosing a day school, they may be able to select more directly the qualities they prefer for their children’s environment. Discipline and academic achievement are often emphasized in day schools and combined with athletic and artistic endeavours to fulfill a more traditional curriculum. A residential school will also focus on the need for inter-dependence and social skills to allow faculty and students to live together in harmony, acknowledging the needs of ethers in a more or less protected setting.
Residential schools have often been the academic choice for families who are mobile, either because adequate education doesn’t exist in their present location, or because educational and psychological continuity that increases in importance as children mature may be compromised if the family re-locates. For some of these young people, the school becomes their most stable physical environment, since if the family moves, the central element of ‘home’ has changed. Visiting the family in the new environment is important, but some allegiance will have been transferred if adaptation to the school has taken place.
Some of the students at any residential school will be there because of problems, either within their families, with society or in academic subjects. Each school will deal with these issues in its individual way; some schools specialize in helping children with their difficulties, and some rely on a tightly structured environment and low teacher-student ratio to keep problems under control.
In examining a school it is essential to be open in discussing your reasons for looking for a new educational environment, since the right school for the child must rely on a ‘good fit’ to be successful.
Tips for Preparing Children for the Boarding School
Remember that going to boarding school is a major transition—for the child and the family. Learn all you can about the skills needed to handle other transitions in life successfully and seek to apply them when facing the transition to boarding school.
Be sensitive to the individual needs of your children. Children are not all ready at the same age to face separation from parents. If one of your children seems particularly insecure and fearful of the separation, investigate other options for that child’s education to allow for additional maturity. A year or two delay may prevent many years of difficulty later.
Get as much information as possible about the boarding school before sending your children. Find out about its purpose, philosophy, discipline, rules, the expectations/privileges/restrictions for you as parents. If you don’t understand something, seek clarification from appropriate sources. Prefer schools which are exclusively boarding as there will be no any discrimination among day scholars and boarders.
If at all possible, visit the boarding school and meet the boarding home parents with your children before you have to leave them there. This will give you, as a family, an opportunity to talk specifically about what it might be like for your children to go there, and they will be able to go to a place that is at least somewhat familiar. You as parents will also be able to visualize your children in their setting when they are away from you. All of these things make it easier to maintain a sense of being “connected” even when you are physically separated.
Talk about the boarding school experience well in advance—be realistic about what will be enjoyable and what will probably be difficult. Express your feelings honestly, and encourage your children to do so as well—without trying to talk them out of feeling the way they do or telling them they shouldn’t feel a certain way.
When your children go to boarding school, allow them to take along some reminders of “home” that are meaningful to them—family pictures, favorite toys or books, pictures to hang, a special pillow or blanket.
Provide your children with some tangible reminder of your love to take along to the boarding school. Affirm your love to them and be sure they understand—and feel—that you are not sending them away because they are a bother to you or keep you from doing things that are more important to you than they are.
