Two Tips for Parents Whose Children Are off to Boarding School Soon
Here are some tips you'll find helpful if your child will be heading off to boarding school soon.
Don't go overboard with communication during their first few weeks
Because you might not be accustomed to being away from your child for long periods and because you might feel nervous about how they'll fare in this new setting, you might find yourself wanting to be excessively communicative with them during their first few weeks.
However, it's important not to go overboard with communication and to instead chat to them a normal amount (i.e. a couple of texts each day, one or two phone calls per week and a visit to the school once a month). The reason for this is as follows: many children get slightly homesick when they first go to boarding school. This is nothing to be concerned about and usually disappears as they make friends, become focused on their studies and start doing several fun extracurricular activities.
If, however, you bombard them with texts and phone calls all day long, asking them how they're doing, telling them how much you miss them and reminding them of the things at home that they love, they may feel homesick for longer than they would if you had been slightly less communicative and had instead given them space to get used to their new school. This matters, as in addition to being an unpleasant feeling, any homesickness they feel may make them less interested in socialising and might cause them to perform much more poorly than they usually do at school, as they may be fixated on how much they miss their home.
Never miss a parent-teacher meeting
Whilst you can get away with skipping the occasional parent-teacher meeting when your child goes to a day school, you must not do this if your child is at boarding school. The reason for this is as follows: when you don't see your child every single day, you can't, for example, check that they've completed their homework or ask to take a look at the grade they received for a test. Because of this, parent-teacher meetings are invaluable, as the teachers will offer you a detailed description of your child's behaviour, exam performance, and general attitude to schoolwork.
Having these meetings regularly (perhaps more regularly than you may have done, when your child was at day school) will ensure you quickly determine if your child needs extra help (such as a tutor to help them with their French schoolwork), if you need to have a stern word with them about their attitude towards school, or if things are going swimmingly with them and you can relax and not worry quite so much about them.