The Benefits of a Boarding School Education
The world is rapidly changing and schools around the globe are working to keep up with advancements in technology, pedagogies, programmes, and extracurricular opportunities for the learners in their care. To help young adults access a full repertoire of skills, attitudes, and aptitudes needed for this new paradigm many parents are choosing a private boarding school education, such as Unisus. Here, I have outlined the reasons why parents are choosing to give their children the unique experience of a boarding school and why it’s worth the financial investment.
The ‘Big Picture’
The decision to attend boarding school does not come lightly. It is an investment of time and money and is the first step in what many consider a big picture decision: by attending boarding school, the advantages that come with it will pay off in the long term. Boarding schools offer opportunities for students to embrace their learning journey a bit differently. Learners in boarding schools have access to activities, programmes and learning engagements that typical schools are unable to offer. The Unisus boarding student is one who wants to fully embrace the opportunity they’ve been afforded. These are learners who want to offer their highest level of academic contribution, and to live in a community full of other learners where learning, personal growth and exploration are top priority; where programs and activities are abundant; where making lifelong friends is the norm.
Rigorous academic opportunities
Private schools go beyond offering the mandatory subjects required by provincial curriculum. One of the accepted benefits of Unisus is that as a candidate school we provide exceptional and challenging educational experiences through The International Baccalaureate (IB). The IB was first established as a two-year advanced secondary school curriculum, the successful completion of which earned students the IB diploma. The curriculum requires that students complete a course of study in six core subject areas (language and literature, language acquisition, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, and the arts) write an essay of up to 4000 words, and sit standard, externally assessed exams.
However, the IB programme focuses on whole child learning through theory of knowledge, creativity, action, and service opportunities. This develops well-rounded graduates that have high percent rates of attending their university of choice.
Individualized attention
In 2002, Biddle and Berliner showed that the smaller the class size the better student’s academic achievement. The smaller class sizes offered at Unisus provide:
· Individualized and Personalized learning
· Closer relationship with teachers
· Closer relationship with peers
· Higher levels of access to technology, resources, and engagements
Private schools vary greatly in size, but here at Unisus our focus is on the importance of small class sizes to individually help students achieve their learning goals.
Highly gifted teachers
Unisus carefully chose it’s teaching faculty to be in line with our vision, mission and values. Instructors are both qualified and passionate about not only their subjects, but the transdisciplinary application of their subjects. They hold advanced degrees, training, and professional development in their field. Within the tight-knit school community, students have close relationships with their teachers who commonly act as role models. Unisus teachers have taught around the world, have insights into international educational models and the cultural norms that students bring with them.
A safe community
The mission statement, “Unisus fosters confident, creative, and globally minded thinkers in an environment of collaboration and goodness” underpins the importance at our school for the embodiment of the IB Learner Profile. The IB Learner Profile are the attitudes and attributes that help develop the types of people we expect learners to be. As we build a strong community lower staff-to-student ratios allow for more effective negotiations for behaviour and individualized learning to help students be happy and healthy. The environment of goodness helps students create lasting connected relationships within the community, thus making the community safe.
Life-Long Learning (3Ls)
While academics remain the priority for Unisus, we also place a strong focus on a well-rounded education and encourage participation in lifelong learning experiences. These can be found in the workshop model we offer. Some of the workshops we will offer will be for sport, music, arts, entrepreneurship, design thinking, robotics, or various academies. This involvement in life-long learning helps ground academic content into authentic experiences and helps stimulate students in their studies.
Boarding schools such as Unisus ready students for today’s and tomorrow’s world through the building of strong community, offering opportunities to pursue passions, and by maintaining a high level of academic integrity. To learn more about our Senior School programme please visit Unisus.ca, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Our hashtag is #UnisusEDU.
Further Reading and Citation
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234608484_Small_Class_Size_and_Its_Effects
