boarding school

Cliff Walker

Boarding schools have been dropping like flies in recent years but Co Tipperary still seems to have an usually high amount, i wonder why this is ?

MeatTwoVeg

People in Tipperary hate their children.

NUTLEY BOY

Cliff Walker wrote: »

Boarding schools have been dropping like flies in recent years but Co Tipperary still seems to have an usually high amount, i wonder why this is ?

If the inmates escape during term where are they going to go ?

I went to school in Dublin - day dog in a boarding and day school. We had a sister college in Tipperary to which some of my former classmates would be sent as boarders. The variety of reasons included parental break ups, domestic problems or poor academic performance. In the latter case the idea was to remove the pupil from distractions by sending them to Tipperary and that is no disrespect to the place.

PARlance

Cliff Walker wrote: »

Boarding schools have been dropping like flies in recent years but Co Tipperary still seems to have an usually high amount, i wonder why this is ?

Is it to do with the length of time it takes to get there?

4ensic15

The last social class availing of boarding schools to a great extent are wealthy farmers. Tipperary is perfectly positioned as a catchment area for them. The wealthier people in the cities can now commute to private schools but the farmers often live a considerable distance from the towns, making commuting a lot of hassle, and they value the social kudos of going to a fee paying school.

Smondie

Cliff Walker wrote: »

Boarding schools have been dropping like flies in recent years but Co Tipperary still seems to have an usually high amount, i wonder why this is ?

probably because that's where the buildings are?

byhookorbycrook

"The best families , in decline, put a daughter in the Urseline"

DEFTLEFTHAND

Does Tipperary have many? Off the top of my head I can only think of Rockwell, Roscrea and the Ursuline girls school and Pres in Thurles which also accept day pupils.

stimpson

If you're sending your kids to boarding school there is probably a good reason. You probably don't like spending time with them and possibly can't stand the sight of them. It stands to reason you'd like to send them as far away as possible. And everyone knows it's a long way to Tipperary.






























I'll get my coat.

cml387

stimpson wrote: »

And everyone knows it's a long way to Tipperary.

Speak for yourself.

SEPT 23 1989

Boarding school was always used as a threat when my teenage years were getting out of hand

Fluffy Cat 88

A few of my friends went to boarding schools, it was the norm in wealthy rural families back in the 1980s.

I went to the local tech. I used to imagine boarding school was like "Mallory Towers" or "St Clairs" as described in the Enid Blyton books I loved as a kid.

My romanticised imaginings were very far from the reality though. Cold miserable dormitories, sh1te food (in sparse quantities), strict disciplinary procedures, (or abuse )especially in the boys schools.

Shint0

There are still some around. I went to one. I didn't have much choice in the matter as it was a tradition going back in the family.

My cousin's daughter goes to the same one now that she went to. That one is much more liberal than the school I went to but they all end up sounding like Rachel Allen.

ProudDUB

My brother went to boarding school and hated every second of it. He was always a fairly quiet and withdrawn chap and the parents thought it might make him more outgoing. It backfired badly. I think a lot depends on the personality of the child.

cml387

Mrs CML went to a certain school,as a day pupil, which also had boarders.

The boarding school girls were so badly fed that they got Red Cross parcels every Christmas.

vicwatson

"But it's for the child's education". Bollox

El_Duderino 09

NUTLEY BOY wrote:

I went to school in Dublin - day dog in a boarding and day school. We had a sister college in Tipperary to which some of my former classmates would be sent as boarders. The variety of reasons included parental break ups, domestic problems or poor academic performance. In the latter case the idea was to remove the pupil from distractions by sending them to Tipperary and that is no disrespect to the place.

From what I know domestic break up could equally apply to an urban school. The naughty boy from a good family could be sent to a school in the countryside though. That probably did happen but it worked because there was so much distraction. There was school 6 days a week and wall to wall sport, music, art, craic. They almost always straightened out the wayward lads.

4ensic15 wrote:

The last social class availing of boarding schools to a great extent are wealthy farmers. Tipperary is perfectly positioned as a catchment area for them. The wealthier people in the cities can now commute to private schools but the farmers often live a considerable distance from the towns, making commuting a lot of hassle, and they value the social kudos of going to a fee paying school.

The farmers point was true in the past but not for the last 20 years. They were probably cheaper than the urban schools though with most of the benefits.

There was much less emphasis on material things. That was the impression I got anyway. In the past it was normal for farming folk to scrimp and save to send a child for a good education. So they were in the school but there was much less expectation to he wealthy.

I gave limited experience though.

vicwatson

Shint0 wrote: »

There are still some around. I went to one. I didn't have much choice in the matter as it was a tradition going back in the family.

My cousin's daughter goes to the same one now that she went to. That one is much more liberal than the school I went to but they all end up sounding like Rachel Allen.

Ugh roise

osarusan

All I know is everybody plays lacrosse there and the French teacher will unwittingly make hilarious puns in English.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Cliff Walker wrote: »

Boarding schools have been dropping like flies in recent years but Co Tipperary still seems to have an usually high amount, i wonder why this is ?

Because Tipperary is an incredibly diffcult place to escape out of.

Shint0

vicwatson wrote: »

Ugh roise

Exactly!

I will reserve comment in case I offend anyone.

donegaLroad

Tipperary : the landed gentry are still alive and well.... fox hunting, horses, shooting, fishing rights etc..... you know the usual malarkey

joebloggs32

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Does Tipperary have many? Off the top of my head I can only think of Rockwell, Roscrea and the Ursuline girls school and Pres in Thurles which also accept day pupils.

I hate to be pedantic, but Cistercian Roscrea is actually in Offaly. They did after all win the Leinster Schools rugby last year.

El_Duderino 09

joebloggs32 wrote:

I hate to be pedantic, but Cistercian Roscrea is actually in Offaly. They did after all win the Leinster Schools rugby last year.

A county border stream runs through it so they can claim either county. They play some competitions in Munster.

SEPT 23 1989

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Boarding school was always used as a threat when my teenage years were getting out of hand

Oh wow remember that one.

A threat made by the Mum, protests to Dad, issue dropped as there was no way he'd have inflicted it.

IvyTheTerrible

We got the boarding school threat too. Dad went to one and I gather he hated it (doesn't talk about it much) so in his head it would have been the ultimate punishment.

BionicRasher

I went to boarding school and loved almost every minute of it.
Great if you were in to sports. It was well structured days and we even had school classes on a Saturday morning - Agghhhhh.

However made great friends and had a ball even though we only lived 30 minutes away from the school I went home only on the odd weekend but stayed in the school most weekends.

conorhal

joebloggs32 wrote: »

I hate to be pedantic, but Cistercian Roscrea is actually in Offaly. They did after all win the Leinster Schools rugby last year.

Rockwell is still thriving, but largely on foreign students sent here because of our supposedly high education standards and because we speak english which the foreign business classes are eager for their kids to be fluent in.

Winterlong

I was a day student in a boarding school. Some of them boarders we just plane nuts. There was one lad who had been a boarder in england in primary school. He was the worst of them.
Cant imagine sending a kid to primary school boarding school.

Boarding school in Ireland is very democratic. You can get a private education in some Jesuit schools for a fraction of what is typical in British 'public' schools.

In fact, Protestant boarding schools are often 'free', in effect, because of special government grants to low-income families.

I went to a protestant boarding school where plenty of the farming families sent children pretty much for free, or about the same cost as public schools. I'm not sure if 'the grant' is still going. Seems a bit outdated now in this day and age. The 'cheap' schools like Villiers and Wilson's Hospital would have had to shut without that grant.

blacklilly

I went to boarding school also. The school closed it doors to boarders about 2 years ago.

The majority of my best friends are from school and we are all still very close. I enjoyed it for the most part but if I had children I don't think I'd send them. My school was very strict with study, think we had 4 hours of it each day after school in 5th and 6th year.
They were also quite a few dysfunctional girls in the school and I'm not sure how boarding school really could have helped their behaviour.

I feel I missed out on my family life and also my friends from home but don't regret it all the same.

steddyeddy

I'm not sure how good it is for a child's happiness but it may provide some independence. I believe grammar schools are far more productive.

vicwatson

vicwatson wrote: »

"But it's for the child's education". Bollox

My parents careers took them abroad for various periods, and myself and my siblings all boarded for secondary. It provided us with a lot of security and structure that we otherwise wouldn't have had.

I went to secondary school in Kent in England, we were well fed as our menus were devised by dietitians, well looked after by our house mistresses and masters, my own school had almost 400 acres of grounds with every conceivable sports facility including hard and soft tennis courts, our teachers were fantastic, from maths and science to art and music. Older students were encouraged to get involved with charitable endeavors. AS and A level results were generally in the very upper end of the spectrum. I have many fond memories of my time at boarding school, though of course it also had disadvantages, like everything else.

My parents didn't send us off to school to get rid of us, and are the best people anyone could want for parents, and the best role models anyone would ever need. The assumptions that people board because of dysfunctional families, or because of disinterested or bad parents, or because they themselves are disruptive, or because they would otherwise fail academically, are in my experience completely wrong.

Maybe Irish boarding schools are very different; I get the impression most of them are run by religious orders - mine wasn't and that might make a huge difference. I've never met anyone who boarded in Ireland, but it doesn't mean all boarding schools are the same and everyone is there for some miserable reason, and it's insulting to families like mine - close, involved families, to suggest so.

El_Duderino 09

steddyeddy wrote:

I'm not sure how good it is for a child's happiness but it may provide some independence. I believe grammar schools are far more productive.

Some people are very happy and some aren't.
Definitely does provide opportunities for independence but you can't really control your own cooking or cleaning. Great for social skills and making lasting friendships. If you act the maggot, you'll be found out because there's nowhere to hide. Most people learn to treat others fairly and expect fair treatment in return. Very good for confidence.
There is constant distraction and routine so you get used to having structure to your life but you rarely have to do the structuring yourself. It's a very different set of teenage experiences.

It suits some. Doesn't suit others

steddyeddy

My grandmother was educated by French nuns in a boarding school and liked it. It depends on the person. I'm old fashioned but manners and independence are lacking in some of today's lot.

foggy_lad

The old Boarding school Mantra "Up the Bum, don't tell Mum*, No harm done".


*Boarding school Mum or dormitory matron etc. Most schools had a motherly figure who was a surrogate mum to boys and girls when they got homesick or when they needed some good old-fashioned mothering.

freedominacup

foggy_lad wrote: »

The old Boarding school Mantra "Up the Bum, don't tell Mum, No harm done".

My Mrs has a version of the Christmas Carol deck the halls. They used to sing it about the matron (generally a young woman from the local town) who used to supervise their dorm at night.

foggy_lad

freedominacup wrote: »

My Mrs has a version of the Christmas Carol deck the halls. They used to sing it about the matron (generally a young woman from the local town) who used to supervise their dorm at night.

Haven't heard that one, how does it go?

pajor

I went to a day and boarding school. Did my time for two and a half years. The running joke towards people who began boarding was "So why are you boarding? Our parents didn't love us either."

Wouldn't know about Tipperary exactly, but there are a lot of boarding schools in the south east and Cork. Our inter-school sports games were always against them.

MeatTwoVeg

steddyeddy wrote:

My grandmother was educated by French nuns in a boarding school and liked it.

Porn scene scenario ahoy.

Cliff Walker

Deleted User wrote: »

A friend of mine was taken out of our local national school in high infants and sent to a boarding school. He was about five years old. He had unquestionably the most miserable childhood I have ever witnessed. About once a month he would come home and we'd meet and I never witnessed so much anger and hatred in a fellow child. He really stood out among us. This went on for the entirety of his time in that school, and his parents paid a fortune for his "privilege", so that they could get back to their horses and business. It really was as simple as that.

As there are, thankfully, only a handful of such private, fee-charging boarding primary schools in Ireland it's not difficult to find out the school I'm talking about. Whatever about for secondary school, sending your child to boarding school for primary is unadulterated misopedia. Parents have prioritised clearly, and spending time with their children is not a priority. Hopefully, they are plagued with regret later on when they've sorted out their career and have no financial worries.

Like both of my parents, I come from a huge family. As my father was given the option by his parents, I was offered the option of going to boarding school if I wanted to go on to be a priest. He was the only one of 8 surviving sons (all the girls for some reason went to secondary) who completed secondary school because he was going on to be the priest of the family, and he boarded. My mother was going on to be a nun and she, too, accordingly got free secondary education at boarding school (including, creid é nó ná creid, in an enclosed order of nuns on the continent for a couple of years - I've never seen this annual exodus of Irish children into continental religious orders highlighted by historians.) When they decided against religious life they both got very decent jobs by virtue of being among the minority of the population that had completed secondary school.

Ireland doesn't have boarding schools for 5 year olds. 4th class seems to be the youngest these days.

Cliff Walker

Cliff Walker wrote: »

Ireland doesn't have boarding schools for 5 year olds. 4th class seems to be the youngest these days.

In the 1980s, this child was definitely taken out of high infants and sent to a private preparatory school. I visited him there (in that culturally very alien environment) several times. This boarding school for primary students still exists today.

Aglomerado

osarusan wrote: »

All I know is everybody plays lacrosse there and the French teacher will unwittingly make hilarious puns in English.

And have midnight feasts. Always the midnight feasts! They should have renamed the school Calorie Towers....

NUTLEY BOY

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Boarding school was always used as a threat when my teenage years were getting out of hand

Yes, the Guantanamo bay threat of it's era.

Unfortunately one mate of mine had his bluff called and was sent there - Tipperary that is.

allibastor

I have cousins who went to Clongoes ? and loved it, became VERY good at rugby and ended up with very good careers off the back of this. They have some friends who are the best group of friends I have ever met.

I know some who went to boarding also and hated it, I mean really hated it.
Just depends on the child I suppose and the reasons for going. My cousins were mad about rugby and wanted to play it every day, which was good as it worked out for them

pauliebdub

I went to one in the 90s. I enjoyed it for the most part, though there was a fair bit of bullying there was also a massive amount of craic. It made me fiercely independent and self reliant - the results being a rather detached relationship with my parents.

It also attracted quite a few kids with behavioral issues such as ADHD who were a nightmare to have around, I suspected their parents couldn't cope and sent them away to boarding school.

pauliebdub

pauliebdub wrote: »

It also attracted quite a few kids with behavioral issues such as ADHD who were a nightmare to have around, I suspected their parents couldn't cope and sent them away to boarding school.

Moreso than a purely state-funded school?

A lot of kids have A.D.H.D. and their parents don't know it, especially if the school has no counselling service.

To take a well-known example, Bipolar is more common in high-income households than low-income households in the U.S.A.

But how much of that is a statistical manifestation of poorer access to therapy among low-income households, and therefore widespread under-diagnosis?

I went to a British Independent school with no kids with special needs, whether that was a policy or product of selection I don't know, but it's not my experience of boarding school that it was overrun with ADHD kids.

El_Duderino 09

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote:

But how much of that is a statistical manifestation of poorer access to therapy among low-income households, and therefore widespread under-diagnosis?

It doesn't matter as much as how well boarding school suits people with ADHD. Boarding school provides the whole day in structured tasks often broken down into small manageable tasks. That would really suit someone with mild ADHD.

They will struggle in long study periods but generally they could get on better in boarding school than normal life where they would have much longer periods which are completely unstructured.

Do you now what you call a poor person (or if it isn't diagnosed) with ADHD? A criminal. It's sad but as you imply, it's much more likely to he diagnosed and managed in wealthier people.

MRnotlob606

Boarding schools are a hive of deviant behaviour.

evolving_doors

allibastor wrote: »

I have cousins who went to Clongoes ? and loved it, became VERY good at rugby and ended up with very good careers off the back of this. They have some friends who are the best group of friends I have ever met.

I know some who went to boarding also and hated it, I mean really hated it.
Just depends on the child I suppose and the reasons for going. My cousins were mad about rugby and wanted to play it every day, which was good as it worked out for them

That's about it really.