Under our popular Benenden Boarding model, girls board full-time and this is balanced with Long Home Weekends when all girls go home, as well as two or three optional weekends at home each term. Therefore on average, boarders can go home every second weekend if they wish.
The popularity of the Weekend Programme means that Benenden is a vibrant, friendly and exciting place to be at weekends. In fact, on any given weekend around two-thirds of girls are in School.
Benenden Boarding brings enormous benefits for your daughter: she has the time and space to try new activities, she develops great social and emotional skills, and makes friends for life. Boarding is also a partnership between School and family, and parents are always welcome to join their daughter at weekends or throughout the week to cheer her on in matches, have a catch-up, take her out to lunch or enjoy the food at School - Sunday brunch here in the Café is particularly popular with parents!
There are sometimes weekends when it is compulsory for either the whole School or individual year groups to remain in School, because there are specially-organised events, such as socials with other schools. These are always advertised well in advance to help families plan their diaries.
Our Housemasters and Housemistresses are always happy to discuss weekend options with girls and parents so that the arrangements work for everyone.
All terms are different but as a guide, we thought you may find it useful if we laid out how a typical Term could work for your daughter, if she chose to come home as often as possible.
For illustrative purposes, we have used an example Spring Term:
Typical Term
Eleven weeks, nine weekends, of which:
- Four in School
- Five at home