Boarding

Upper Sixth Form Boarding House

Project description

We wanted to build a new boarding house for all the U6th Form, partly as a way to prepare them for life at university and partly to be able to expand the school. We had about 100 pupils in the U6th Form divided between 7 boarding houses. The new building can accommodate 126 (96 boarders and 30 day pupils). By moving the U6th out of the existing boarding houses, we can accommodate more pupils further down the school. We wanted to introduce the IB and it was important to increase the size of the Sixth Form in order to make it viable to run the IB and A Levels. From the School's perspective, this has been hugely successful. We are experiencing huge demand for places in the Sixth Form and many day pupils have converted to boarders in order to have rooms in the new house.

For the pupils' perspective, the move has also been good. They enjoy much greater freedom than before, being allowed to go into Edinburgh during the day, for example. There is much more of a university hall of residence feel about the new boarding house. They are not constrained by the routine of their previous boarding house (eg prep running from 7.15-8.45). The U6th Form are no longer running the boarding houses and the responsibility for that has now been given over to the L6th Form, who have relished the opportunity to run the houses.

Benefits

To pupils - better preparation for university, more freedom

To school - increased capacity, allowing the introduction of the IB

School

Contact

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