Investment in Boarding
“A good boarding school ensures pupils feel valued and an integral part of their school community, with an understanding of their role in the local and global community and a wide perspective on their individual responsibility to society.”
Parents’ Guide to Boarding Schools, 2018
What characterises Boarding at CGS?
Above all, we want your child to be happy and successful with us. That is at the top of our priority list. Children thrive in a positive, safe environment where they are equally supported and challenged to achieve academically and develop life skills that will stand them in good stead at university and in their chosen careers.
To achieve this, CGS Boarding is designed to be a home away from home. We offer a safe, secure, and supportive environment designed to ensure students benefit from the experience of boarding with us.
In our pastoral role, we ensure students feel known and cared for. We support students in their life and academic ambitions and provide a rich and stimulating environment with a wide selection of extra and super-curricular activities, including sports and music. We want our students to enjoy the opportunities of living in an international community and feel confident knowing they are valuable members of our community. We look after the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of all our students, enabling them to be the best person they can be.
Benson Ferarri, Headmaster, St Michael’s School
How does the CGS curriculum achieve this?
Caring and knowledgeable House Parents
In all our schools, our House Parents are there for our students at the beginning and the end of the school day. All our boarding staff work together to oversee the pastoral welfare of the students and are the bridge to informing teachers if any academic issues need attention. House Parents are the fabric of the home-from-home we provide. As such, CGS actively support their staff in training, including funding that encourages them to take BSA courses and a range of courses in associated wellbeing for students, such as becoming Mental Health First Aiders.
House Parents and support staff are there for each student and will provide the nurturing environment that is the basis for good emotional and mental health. Eating well is also important for physical health. Our menus are developed by nutritionists, and the food cooked in-house is carefully balanced. We can also respond to dietary requirements for individuals. Students have shared social areas to meet friends and access hot and cold drinks and snacks when the canteens are closed.
Jason Lewis, Headmaster, Bosworth Independent School
Character education
Boarding helps students develop lifelong qualities of respect, tolerance, self-regulation, independence, and resilience, all characteristics that will stand them in good stead at university, in their chosen careers, and in making good life choices. Meeting students from a wide range of countries and cultures means understanding others’ perspectives – and their own – from a place of strength and a positive appreciation of both difference and similarity. The foundations for lifelong friendships are laid here.
Dominic Tomalin, Principal, CATS Cambridge
High-quality accommodation
Where we live also impacts our happiness. Students’ rooms are clean, bright, and well-equipped, with comfortable beds, dedicated study areas, and modern bathrooms. Most boarding houses offer single, en-suite rooms with shared social areas where students can choose to socialise and relax. Our boarding houses are on the school grounds or within easy walking distance. They are secure and safe places to live. Allocation to the boarding houses is made on gender and age, and each house is fully supervised. All boarding houses have laundry facilities and cleaning services. Students have access to monitored high-speed internet connection. Rules are age-appropriate and overseen by House Parents.
Opportunity to take part in extra and super-curricular activities
The activities on offer will be tailored to each school and facilities available, but will always offer a wide range of activities, such as music and rowing.
Opportunity for a rewarding social life
Students in our boarding houses live in a stimulating international community where they have the opportunity to develop key life skills such as respect, tolerance, and emotional intelligence alongside independence and self-reliance.
“A good boarding school … will inspire pupils’ love of learning, develop their creativity of thought and give them opportunities to develop independence in their education and, more generally, in their lives… A boarding education gives pupils the skills and attributes they need to thrive at university and in the twenty-first-century world.”
Boarding Schools Association, 2020
Our Education Philosophy
We have an unrelenting focus on the skills and knowledge our students really need from education to live and thrive in a complex and ambiguous world. Regardless of the CGS school, students benefit from our well-honed philosophy, which centres around investment in five key areas: students, teachers, curriculum (what to teach), pedagogy (how to teach), and boarding.
Investment in Students
Empowering students to become leaders of their own learning
Investment in Teachers
Professional development for teachers at every stage of their career
Investment in Curriculum
Creating a curriculum to help learners be the best that they can be
Investment in Pedagogy
Tailoring pedagogies to meet our students’ individual needs
Investment in Boarding
Creating a home away from home for boarders
