‘Chilling claims for boarding schools’

May 21 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

‘We know just how completely assisted boarding has transformed hundreds of vulnerable young lives’

EVERY year in Britain more than 1,000 young children – some aged just two – are sent to boarding school for the first time.

Can it be good for them?

Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman, who chairs the Commons Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families, says not.

He said claims from independent school headmasters that boarding was beneficial were chilling.

Boarding schools, unsurprisingly, have denied claims that pupils can be left psychologically damaged after being educated there.

Now Mr Sheerman’s committee is to investigate.

The all-party group of MPs will look at the social and emotional impact of separating children from their parents.

Mr Sheerman says: “There is quite a body of knowledge that suggests taking a child to a boarding school between the ages of eight to 11 is psychologically not the wisest thing to do for their development.

“Lots of people argue – and there is plenty of psychological evidence – that the best place for a child to grow up is with a supportive family, whether it is one parent or two, for the child’s social and emotional development.”

The MPs’ investigation follows a recent Government move to boost the number of pupils going to state-funded boarding schools.

Ministers have also announced plans to open a new generation of boarding houses at semi-independent academy schools.

These will provide accommodation for pupils in the care of social services and those with parents in the Armed Forces.

A 3% rise in the number of boarding places in schools – following an estimated 40% fall in the past 25 years – has been revealed by a survey from the Royal Wanstead Children’s Foundation.

It’s a popular misconception that boarding schools are for the posh and the monied classes.

Quite a few children have their places paid by public money or charities.

Schools Minister Lord Adonis was himself an assisted boarder, funded at boarding school by his council.

The Surrey-based Royal Wanstead helps to support some 250 vulnerable children at more than 100 boarding schools.

It believes that many thousands more vulnerable children from one-parent or no-parent families could benefit from assisted boarding.

Colin Morrison, the foundation’s chairman, wrote a report last year outlining how boarding can make an immense difference.

He says: “Royal Wanstead has been collaborating with boarding schools throughout the UK to help support vulnerable children who have one or no parents and whose pressured families are frequently living below the poverty line.

“These are children at risk, whose capacity for normal, happy development is threatened by seriously adverse home and family circumstances.

“The evidence of the effectiveness of assisted boarding has always been there for us, contained in our bulging files of school reports, appreciative letters from parents and children and powerful, moving first-hand testimony at Royal Wanstead conferences.

“We know just how completely assisted boarding has transformed hundreds of vulnerable young lives. That evidence has been enough to catch the attention of Government.”

All of which cuts no ice with Barry Sheerman.

He says eminent psychologists will be called to appear when the MPs’ committee discusses the issue.

Marcus Gottlieb, a psychotherapist with the support group Boarding Recovery, said that children sent away to school often suffered psychological problems in later life.

He said: “It’s very unnatural for an eight-year-old to be sent away from home and away from their parents.

“It is a trauma which the child isn’t able to voice at all.

“You very often get characters that are very mistrustful.

“After all, the people you loved and trusted more than anyone in the world have dumped you, in a way, so it’s very hard to trust again.’’

Mr Gottlieb added: “You will see apparently happy children but the problems are there. They come out in later life.”