The Value of Dedicated Boarding-Only Staff at International Boarding Schools

In the first of three articles on boarding at International Schools, Alannah Burns explores the roles available in boarding and the difference that having dedicated boarding-only staff can make to student wellbeing.

In this three-part series, Alannah Burns explores the roles, experiences and value of boarding staff at International Schools and the often-overlooked positive impact they have on student wellbeing. This series aims to raise the profile of boarding staff at International Schools and explore what schools can do to improve staff retention in boarding for the benefit of boarding students.

In recent years, academic literature examining boarding school staffing models, the varying definitions and titles of boarding roles across schools, and the impact of these elements on student and staff wellbeing has begun to emerge, and it is about time too. While ever-increasing pressure is being put on all schools to nurture and steer even more aspects of a student’s social, emotional, and physical wellbeing as well as their academic progress, boarding schools have always been responsible for both a student’s academic and personal growth. School for boarding students is, after all, their home, and for many of them, it may be the only stable point in a life stretched out across the globe. Boarding schools pride themselves on the family-like environment of their boarding houses, with boarding staff stepping in as caring family members. For boarding students who spend most of their year in these homes away from home, what difference do boarding staff make to their wellbeing?

Some schools favour a teacher-with-boarding-responsibilities format, while others favour a boarding-only team, with some successfully maintaining a combination of the two. For boarding-only roles, schools are looking for the most outgoing and vibrant personalities the 20 to 30 age category has to offer, highly valuing talented, open and supportive role models. Boarding Staff with interests in sports and the creative arts are particularly sought-after as a lot of the draw of the job comes from the running of weekend activities and excursions. Having a young team in boarding has its obvious benefits, namely that boarding students can relate to and will be most inspired by a fresh-faced recent graduate. Boarding-only staff experience the behind-the-scenes picture of the school daily, getting to know the students in a more personal and authentic way while huddled under umbrellas on a city tour, or halfway up a tree during a high ropes course.

In teaching, there is always some sort of balance to be struck, and in a boarding-only role, this balance takes the fine form of friendly versus a friend, with the latter being not only inappropriate from a safeguarding perspective, but also detrimental to a member of the boarding staff’s standing. When a member of boarding staff simply becomes one of the students, tipping the balance too far over to the friend side, the students left out of the friendship circle feel unable to connect with and, ultimately, trust that member of staff who seems to have picked their 'favourites'. In a role which involves medical care, safeguarding, and wider security responsibilities through the night, cutting off the majority of students from contact and trust is, at its extreme, dangerous. The inappropriateness of pulling students in too close is obvious, and by doing this, the member of staff also leaves themselves vulnerable to being walked over by their 'favourites'.

Those who successfully find that delicate balance in their boarding-only position become the most valuable members of staff in a boarding school. Living with the students they are responsible for lands the boarding staff right in the heart of the teenage world. Boarding staff are there when the friendship groups start to crumble, the homework piles up, the heartbreak sets in, the disappointments follow the achievements too closely, the homesickness leads to tears, when the most exhilarating experiences of their lives are lived, and cherished memories of community are created. Who raised that safeguarding concern, dealt with that medical emergency, offered a listening ear in the middle of the night? Who was the first to notice that change in behaviour, in eating habits? Who gave the first congratulatory high-five for that certificate honour, that competition win or that university acceptance letter? Who was always there? Boarding staff. That means a lot to boarding students who are young and far away from home and family. Having staff dedicated to the 24/7 safety and wellbeing of students makes a world of difference.

Boarding-only staff typically work six days a week and three weekends a month. This helps with relationship building. Imagine a school has a regular change of staff in the boarding houses during the week. If from one day to the next a different member of staff is in, boarding students do not have enough time to get to know them. They may also feel that these members of staff are not involved in their lives as they just flit in one evening and float out again the next morning, shedding any responsibility as they drift out the door. These members of staff will have no idea what happened in the boarding house the night before as their working hours do not overlap with the staff from the previous or following nights. Students will either not want to develop relationships with such transitory members of staff, or will use the fact that the member of staff in today will not know what happens or has happened during the rest of the week to their advantage. Boarding-only teams are in school almost 24/7. 

As for the teacher-with-boarding-responsibilities role, there are some fantastically dedicated teachers who throw themselves so wholly into their boarding duties (a few nights a week and perhaps two weekends a month) with such spirit and joy that they make an incredibly positive impact on the students. Other teachers might use their time in boarding as a chance to work with students they had not managed to catch in the school day, or to catch up on marking and lesson planning, all of which has its positives and negatives (making a student feel more supported but taking away from a student’s already limited free time, etc.). For some teachers, however, boarding duties can become an outright burden. The work done in boarding is a 24/7 kind of responsibility, and some teachers have enough of that already with their planning, grading, curriculums, exams, parent-teacher meetings and department meetings. Understandably, working in boarding is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. The value of dedicated boarding-only staff cannot be underestimated.

With this introduction to the typical formats of a boarding staff team, and with the beginning of a case made for the value of boarding-only staff, in the second article of this three-part series Alannah Burns will explore why too many staff in boarding-only roles do not stay in post for more than a year.