Boarding

Boarding is an integral part of school life for children in Year 3 upwards. 

We provide full, weekly and flexi-boarding to children from the time that they enter our Prep School (from Year 3 onwards). Interestingly, now more than ever before, there is growing popularity for boarding among our youngest Prep day pupils, aged 7 and 8 years old, who are taking full advantage of our weekly flexi-boarding programmes.

All of our weekly and full boarders, in Year 3 upwards, participate in The Enrichment Programme on a Saturday morning. Resident staff organise activities for younger children on Saturday afternoons while older children are involved with matches on a Saturday afternoon. At least twice a term, Boarding Juniors (in Years 3, 4 and 5) also have sports fixtures

On Sundays, typically boarders have a welcome sleep-in followed by an organised outing, as described further below.  Mass is celebrated in the morning or evening.

During weekends, boarders also make the most of our facilities, such as the sports hall to play a range of sports and our indoor 25m pool to have fun swims. The School has 65 acres of land and boarders love spending time outdoors, exploring our woodlands, playing outside on our numerous fields, on-site adventure playgrounds and cycling around the grounds. Catch-up calls and face-time with family and friends are built into the weekday evenings and of course at weekends.

Meet Our Boarding Housemaster – Mr Pete Thornett

From my very first day in teaching I have been involved in boarding. For the first twelve years of my career I was involved as a Resident Tutor and later, Assistant Housemaster and now in tandem with my wonderful wife, Fliss, and two children, Harry and Flora, I have the immense privilege of being Houseparent to the boarding community at OPS.

I am a firm believer that boarding is something that all children of prep school age should sample at one time or another. The breadth of experience it offers young people is amazing. Some of my fondest memories in teaching have been hot chocolate and bedtime stories before lights out or adventures out on a Sunday somewhere or another. A boarding house environment allows for the forging of strong relationships all round.

We are particularly blessed at OPS to have an amazing site that really does rather give off a ‘Swallows and Amazon’ feel. I would be very keen to meet with you, online or in person, and give you a tour of the boarding house and school at a time convenient to you so you are able to see our wonderful facilities and get a feel for what we are about.