Inspiring location meets dynamic education at these leading boarding schools

22 Oct 2018

As the saying goes: ‘It’s not where you come from, it’s where you’re going.” Sending your child to boarding school is encouraging them to live in a new environment with an international community, opening important doors from a very early age.

Boarding school allows your child to experience the world beyond the confines of their home – an experience that pays off throughout later life.

International schools provide a hub for children whose parents want the best for them, but these institutions also present a thriving global community where different perspectives and cross-cultural collaboration is the norm.

This allows your child to foster a broad perspective that incorporates diversity, teaching students how to navigate these differences as they become adults and grow from strength to strength.

The unique boarding school culture allows your child to be fully integrated into this globalised environment, where academics, socialising, personal development and all-round growth are infused together through an incredibly nurturing programme.

Source: Idyllwild Arts Academy

This holistic approach to education goes beyond what a traditional school can offer. These institutions too often view education as daytime academic endeavours, failing to incorporate every aspect of child development.

Not only do boarding schools offer a focused academic programme, they also teach your child to nurture passions beyond the classroom, instilling an innate confidence that helps them overcome life challenges.

After all, taking your child out of their comfort zone and pushing them to succeed independently from a young age will teach them lessons academia never can. Being away from home in a new location will inspire your child to find solutions to challenges they encounter, developing the resilience needed to succeed in life.

When away from home, your child will have to find solutions to problems, understand their emotions and develop a strong support network of students and teachers to help them navigate the world.

These experiences, combined with the opportunity to live in some of the world’s most beautiful locations, will carve your child into an ambitious go-getter who knows the sky’s the limit if they try hard enough.

Source: Wasatch Academy

Lessons like these can only be learnt through experience, which is why boarding schools emphasis the curricular, extracurricular and personal growth of every student. Education is about a lot more than passing exams – it’s about becoming a good person, a member of a community, a friend and a leader.

It’s about your child understanding their place in the world, their ability to change things for the better, as well as how to develop resilience in life. Boarding schools expertly do this by showing children life beyond their homes and families, allowing them to build ambition for a better future that is within their grasp.

If you want your child to see the world beyond their beginnings, consider these four leading boarding schools in inspirational locations…

MILO ADVENTIST ACADEMY

Nestled within the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, US, Milo Adventist Academy offers an education removed from the hustle and bustle of today’s fast-paced life. This allows students to focus on their personal growth and holistic development, encouraging them to focus on becoming independent thinkers and leaders rather than mere reflectors of thought.

Source: Milo Adventist Academy

The school offers students a Christian education that integrates spiritual growth with hands-on experiential learning in horsemanship, agriculture, culinary arts, practical life management skills, and a rigorous academic curriculum in order to maximize the preparation process for life beyond school walls.

These unique courses matched with the institution’s safe and secluded location enables students to gain a heightened experience in such niche fields. Students learn about everything from planting, harvesting and selling farm crops and caring for horses, and more. Students are even able to bring their own horse to live with them on campus!

Learners here gain maturity and resilience thanks to the school’s progressive culture and the opportunity to experience different lifestyles. This prepares them to succeed in their SAT and ACT testing and in higher education after high school.

IDYLLWILD ARTS ACADEMY

Idyllwild Arts Academy prepares a young generation eager to confront the planet’s most urgent challenges. Future artists are encouraged to direct their art toward social change, while other young people not destined to become artists learn to bring creativity to any profession and to any path in life.

Source: Idyllwild Arts Academy

The school’s forested 205-acre campus in the mountains of Southern California provides a hub for students to learn from leaders in the arts and technology while experiencing one of the world’s most beautiful settings. Students enjoy day trips to Los Angeles and San Diego, seeing the best of the US beyond classroom walls.

An integrated arts-and-academics curriculum helps your child be the best they can be. The Idyllwild Arts commitment to holistic education draws on historical and cultural connections from around the world, as well as from the Native American tribes who remain cherished neighbours. The widening chasm between human beings and nature is at the root of many global issues the school is working to address, and the relationship with local Native American peoples helps empower that work.

WASATCH ACADEMY

Wasatch Academy boasts over 40 nationalities on its beautiful campus in Mount Pleasant, Utah. This means that your child could be sharing a room with a child from England, be running a student committee with children from America and be part of a sports team with students from Asia and the Middle East.

Source: Wasatch Academy

This globalised perspective prepares your child to tackle the integrated society they’ll grow up in, and with 100 percent of Wasatch Academy students being accepted into college, this is the ideal school for academic success.

The academy also owns a private ski hill and indoor equestrian area to ensure free time is spent developing new passions, teaching children about decision making, problem solving and empathy.

Students receive an individually tailored academic programme at Wasatch, helping them realise their strengths and weaknesses. This helps them achieve at school and beyond, instilling in them an awareness of their unique talents and capabilities.

SHAWNIGAN LAKE SCHOOL

Located on the idyllic Canadian West Coast, Shawnigan Lake School refines students with a hunger for knowledge and a healthy passion for arts and athletics – all against a stunning natural backdrop.

Source: Shawnigan Lake School

Students at the school experience a close-knit community surrounded by nature and excitement, as here, holistic learning takes centre stage.

“Shawnigan Lake School’s mission and values are inseparable from the fact that we are first and foremost a co-educational boarding school; a welcoming community whose aim it is to prepare our young men and women equally for independent and inspiring futures through the means of a well-balanced, holistic education,” says headmaster Richard D A Lamont.

A sense of community is central to the school’s philosophy which prides itself on inspiring life-long friendships, creating a progressive network and giving students the best start in life.

Experiential learning combined with a comprehensive athletics programme expertly prepares students for higher education and lifelong success.

*Some of the institutions featured in this article are commercial partners of Study International