FAQs: All you need to know about Boarding

There are currently around 100 boarders at Hazlegrove.

In Year 3, the boarders can go home on Friday evening.  For Year 4 and above, there is Saturday morning school and so the children are allowed to go out of school at the end of lessons at 12.45pm or after their sports match commitments on Saturday afternoon, if applicable. The exceptions to this are the in-weekends and the exeat weekends. 

Children are allowed to board at Hazlegrove from the age of 7 when they join Year 3.  We have children joining the boarding community in most, if not all year groups each year.
 

We are very happy for pupils to join the boarding in the Summer Term, but this is dependent on space availability in the classroom and the boarding house. If space is not available for the Summer Term, there will most probably be space available in the following September.

The first and last weekend of each term at Hazlegrove are in-weekends for the boarders. These are weekends when all the boarders are expected to remain in school, participate in the activities and enjoy special occasions such as the Christmas Feast. These weekends are excellent for developing the sense of community amongst the boarders.

Exeat weekends are when the school closes for the weekend. All pupils go out for the weekend at 4pm after school on Friday and return on Sunday between 6pm and 7.30pm. Occasionally if an exeat weekend coincides with a Bank Holiday weekend, the exeat will be extended to include the Monday. Exeat dates are published at least a year in advance in the termly calendar and on the website.

Flexi boarding is very popular at Hazlegrove - please see here for further information. 

Those boarders who have been out for a weekend either return on Sunday evening or Monday morning as arranged with the house parents. 

Apart from the in-weekends when all the boarders are in school, we would normally expect between 50-60 children to enjoy being part of the boarding community at the weekend  The programme for the weekend's activities is usually published in advance on the website. 

Around one third of the prep school pupils are boarders - that is around one third of pupils from Year 3 (age 7) upwards. The proportion is generally higher in the older age groups than in the younger ones. Due to the nature of the day at Hazlegrove with many day pupils staying for after-school activities and boarding on an occasional basis, the difference between day and boarding pupils is largely seamless.

We have a small number of international pupils who contribute to the rich and diverse life at Hazlegrove. 
 

Only pupils whose parents are resident outside the UK require a guardian, our full policy regarding guardians is available on the website. However, the house parents should be informed if parents are away from home for a significant period and advised who will be acting "in loco parentis" if applicable. 

Mobile phones are not allowed at school. If pupils need to speak to their parents during the school day, permission must be sought from the School Office. Boarders need to go through their Houseparents. To allow for time differences when families are able to speak to one another, overseas boarders (and boarders who need to have access to a telephone for travel) are allowed to bring a mobile telephone to school and are kept securely by the Houseparents. These could be used to contact parents during the week.

There is plenty of opportunity to keep connected with all that your child is enjoying as a boarder. There are three telephones in each House for the children to call home, parents can also email or call the Houseparents on the House office number, the numbers are all published in the school calendar and in the Parents' Guide to Boarding. 

All boarders have email access and the regular use of this is actively encouraged to keep in contact with family, there are also a number of devices to enable skype calls for children whose parents are overseas. 

Keeping in touch wtih your child is key and we are here to help that to happen!