Editing Boarding school (section)

===United Kingdom===
{{See also|List of boarding schools in the United Kingdom}}
[[File:Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, June 2013 (3).jpg|thumb|[[Charterhouse School]]]]
Boarding schools in Britain started in medieval times when boys were sent to be educated by literate clerics at a monastery or noble household. In the 12th century, the Pope ordered all [[Benedictine]] monasteries such as [[Westminster Abbey|Westminster]] to provide charity schools, and many [[Public school (UK)|public schools]] started when such schools attracted paying students. These public schools reflected the collegiate universities of [[Oxbridge|Oxford and Cambridge]], as in many ways they still do, and were accordingly staffed almost entirely by clergymen until the 19th century. Private [[Tutor|tuition]] at home remained the norm for aristocratic families, and for girls in particular, but after the 16th century, it was increasingly accepted that adolescents of any rank might best be educated collectively. The institution has thus adapted itself to changing social circumstances over 1,000&nbsp;years.

[[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|Boarding preparatory schools]] tend to reflect the public schools they feed. They often have a more or less official tie to particular schools.

The classic British boarding school became highly popular during the colonial expansion of the British Empire. British colonial administrators abroad could ensure that their children were brought up in British culture at public schools at home in the U.K., and local rulers were offered the same education for their sons. More junior expatriates would send their children to local British-run schools, which would also admit selected local children who might travel from considerable distances. The boarding schools, which inculcated their own values, became an effective way to encourage local people to share British ideals, and so help the British achieve their imperial goals.

One of the reasons sometimes stated for sending children to boarding schools is to develop wider horizons than their family can provide. A boarding school a family has attended for generations may define the culture parents aspire to for their children. Equally, by choosing a fashionable boarding school, parents may aspire to better their children by enabling them to mix on equal terms with children of the upper classes. However, such stated reasons may conceal other reasons for sending a child away from home.<ref name="EU-Canada">[http://www.sws.soton.ac.uk/cwab/Session6/ICWs62.htm CWAB – Session 6.2 – Reasons for displacement] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320151456/http://www.sws.soton.ac.uk/cwab/Session6/ICWs62.htm |date=20 March 2012 }} European Union – Canada project Child welfare across borders (2003)</ref><ref name="duf">Duffell, N. "The Making of Them. The British Attitude to Children and the Boarding School System". (London: Lone Arrow Press, 2000).</ref><ref name=Schaverien>Schaverien, J. (2004) Boarding School: The Trauma of the Privileged Child, in Journal of Analytical Psychology, vol 49, 683–705</ref> These might apply to children who are considered too disobedient or underachieving, children from families with divorced spouses, and children to whom the parents do not much relate.<ref name="duf"/><ref name="Schaverien"/> These reasons are rarely explicitly stated, though the child might be aware of them.<ref name="duf"/><ref name="Schaverien"/>

In 1998, there were 772 private-sector boarding schools in the United Kingdom with over 100,000 children attending them all across the country. They are an important factor in the [[British class system]]. About one percent of British children are sent to boarding schools.<ref name="Dansokhs">Dansokho, S., Little, M., & Thomas, B. (2003). ''Residential services for children: definitions, numbers, and classifications''. Chicago: Chapin Hall Center for Children.</ref><ref name="HealthDept">Department of Health. (1998). Caring for Children away from Home. Chichester: Wiley and Son</ref><ref name="Little">Little, M. Kohm, A. Thompson, R. (2005). "The impact of residential placement on child development: research and policy implications". ''International Journal of Social Welfare''; 14, 200–209. {{doi|10.1111/j.1468-2397.2005.00360.x}}</ref> Also in Britain children as young as 5 to 9&nbsp;years of age are sent to boarding schools.<ref name="Power">Power A (2007) "Discussion of Trauma at the Threshold: The Impact of Boarding School on Attachment in Young Children", in ''ATTACHMENT: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis''; Vol. 1, November 2007: pp. 313–320</ref>