Boarding School or Homeschooling: what you need to consider

Parents who are always traveling or otherwise require an especially flexible schedule for their children’s education may find that traditional schooling can’t fulfill their needs. If the family is uprooting every few months or years, then it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to reliably progress through a regular school’s curriculum.

To deal with this situation, the option of boarding schools has always been a valid choice for parents. However, the prospect of separating child from family is never an easy pill to swallow, and an increasingly greater number of families are turning to homeschooling as a viable alternative. Boarding schools and homeschooling both have their respective pros and cons, but which one ends up being the best choice for your child?

Quality of education

First and foremost of course is the kind of education that your child will receive. There is a distinct flexibility to the kind of educational style that homeschooling will provide for your child. And because the schooling is on a one-on-one basis, it’s perfectly tailor-made for your child, and can freely advance at their pace.

However, sometimes such flexibility may result in a lack of structure and rigor that you’d find in a school with a more fixed curriculum. In addition, your child may not have access to the same resources that they could have at a boarding school, such as science laboratories and libraries.

Boarding schools often offer far more flexibility than traditional schooling, while still providing that necessary structure required to help instill academic discipline in students. They might still require a fixed schedule, and the curriculum might not be completely adapted to your child’s needs, but it’s the goal of a school’s instructors to guide them to the finish line as much as they can.

Socialization

If you’re going to be a big part of your child’s education, as with homeschooling, then there’s no doubt that this could lead to closer family ties. In addition, there’s less of a chance of social pressure, bullying, or other negative effects that may be found within peer groups.

However, the downsides of this are that your child will have less interaction with children of their age group, and fewer chances to make friends as well. It’s not just the lack of classroom interactions, but opportunities such as team sports, field trips, and other activities you’d find at schools.

Boarding schools bring together diverse, multicultural groups and emphasize pastoral care, as well as seeing schoolmates and faculty as family, which help with the social issues like bullying that are often associated with regular schools. They also offer even more of the social opportunities and extracurricular activities that would help your child socialize.

Nurturing environments

Certainly no one knows what’s best for your child than you, the parent. That is another core reason why students are homeschooled, after all. That said, it’s not necessarily a huge sacrifice in care for your child to go to a boarding school. Top boarding schools focus on making their social environment one that’s nurturing and approachable, and as said above, students will see staff, and each other, as family. Along with this care comes education in life as well, which you may or may not be able to provide if you’re frequently traveling and busy, or hire a tutor instead of teaching your child yourself. And you’ll be able to contact their professors to ask how your child is doing, and the updates you’ll receive from them are coming from a place of care and concern, not as a teacher just doing their job and reporting test scores.

The right boarding school for your child

A proper boarding school will provide top-tier education that suits your child, opportunities for socialization, and a nurturing environment that will help them grow. Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai offers all these for students in the region, making use of the International Baccalaureate curriculum, taught in English with German or French, for an education that will advance along with your child. We also feature an international boarding school experience held to the highest standards of pastoral care, as well as elite facilities and extracurricular activities that will truly make it a home away from home.