Published August 13, 2009

What is a junior boarding school? It is a residential school which offers grade 9 and lower. Most schools cover grades 6-9. A few schools begin boarding as early as grade 3. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider choosing a junior boarding school.

Accelerated Learning
Probably the most compelling reason to send your child to a junior boarding school is to jump start his high school academics. Having really good, experienced, credentialled teachers in middle school is a huge plus for impressionable adolescents. If your son is passionate about math and science, he will have the opportunity to give wings to that passion. That's what a junior boarding school can do awfully well. Junior boarding school students discover that despite all the pressures of adolescence, it is cool to be smart. Learning is challenging and stimulating, full of discovery and the satisfaction of accomplishment.


24/7 Supervision and Guided Independence
Young people need plenty of guidance, mentoring and supervision in order to make the transition from child to adulthood which is adolescence. Junior boarding schools offer the 24/7 supervision every child needs and deserves. Situations arise and questions need answers, not always at scheduled times but in the middle of the night or on a Saturday afternoon. A junior boarding school has the trained, experienced staff on hand to gently guide and direct its students to become independent, confident young adults. This is a huge benefit for parents with demanding schedules and careers. You will no longer have to worry about who your child is hanging out with or what she is doing. A member of staff will know what's going on, literally all the time. A boarding school becomes your child's extended family. The campus is her backyard. She has her books, her field hockey, and, most importantly, her friends, all in one convenient package. The security factor alone is a calming influence for both parent and child.

Enriched Sports and Extracurricular Activities
One of the reasons a boarding school works so well for many students is the lack of distractions. Because you live above the store, as it were, you aren't wasting time commuting back and forth to school. You finish classes and walk over to the auditorium for play practice. Or perhaps you are taking guitar lessons. Maybe your soccer team is playing a game. There's always something to do. If the band director needs an extra 30 minutes to get a new piece right, he can make that happen without incoveniencing parents waiting outside the auditorium in parked cars. If the French club decides to go into town to sample the crepes at the local bistro, again, it's easy to arrange and supervise. The seamless integration of academics with extracurricular activities, athletics and her social life make a junior boarding school life a happy, convenient experience.

Character Development and Teamwork
Most junior boarding schools are small, typically about 125-250 students. You cannot hide or be a number in a small community like that. Everybody knows everybody. Really knows everybody. Character building is an integral part of the mentoring and guidance the school family encourages. Young people have a chance to work the kinks out by discussing concerns, fears, dreams and plans in an ongoing discussion with their peers and adults. Most importantly, the adults' job is to provide that guidance and support so necessary to help young people work through adolescence. Adolescents love to experiment and push all kinds of limits. Doesn't it make so much sense to have them doing that under the watchful experienced eyes of professionals who know what to expect and what to look for? Of course it does.

Opportunity for International Students to Improve their English Skills
Junior boarding schools offer the middle school age student a couple of years to perfect his English skills. If English is your second language, learning to write and think proficiently in your adopted language will be an important thing to accomplish before you commence the demanding academic work of your high school, college preparatory years. Junior boarding schools know how to teach students whose primary language is not English. They understand the huge adjustments which an international student has to make to adjust to the American culture and way of doing things. They know how to ease the transition and make it a happy time for your child because they have been doing exactly that for hundreds of children who came before yours.

Conclusion
Now you are thinking that these five reasons certainly make sense. Of course, several other reasons come to mind also including the fact that the junior boarding school you are looking at sends many of its graduates on to one of the top New England prep schools. Also the location set on several hundred acres of pristine countryside is simply gorgeous. Your son will learn so much about the environment and sustainability. But, then that inevitable, nagging thought creeps in. "Won't she miss her family? It seems so young for her to leave home. She needs her mother." Every parent has to deal with letting go. That's a good thing. Just remember one very important thing: you are sending her off to a professionally managed environment which has been around for years. She will be exposed to new, exciting teachers, new friends and more activities and stuff to do than you could ever give her back home. Junior boarding schools are an attractive option. Visit one near you and see just how wonderful they are.


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