Sending Children To Boarding School Aged Eight Is Not A Cure For The Childcare Crisis

There was a time when shipping your child off to boarding school before they had so much as hit puberty was a fact of life for certain types of families. Not just very monied ones, either. Families who were in the military services and therefore travelled a lot could, for instance, expect to have the school fees for their children taken care of.

The rights and wrongs of boarding school are a highly fraught emotional topic (take a quick look at Mumsnet if you want proof). Suffice to say there are arguments for both sides. But whether you're a total believer, or you regard boarding schools as an anachronism, we can probably agree that sending children to school when they are very little (in the UK some children used to be sent as young as five, but eight was standard), is not good.

So, news of a brand new state boarding school where children can start as young as eight is frightening. Haven’t we learned anything from the generations of little girls and boys who were sent off so young? Didn't the pictures of kids with knee socks and oversized blazers, smiling at the camera while trying not to cry, teach us anything?

In defence of the system, Jonathan Taylor, chief executive of the Sapienta Education Trust, says the new school offers a solution to middle-class families unable to afford such fees and 'supports their working patterns', with many parents having to otherwise employ after-school care to look after their children.

State boarding schools cost around £11K a year rather than the £40,000-ish it costs to attend a secondary private boarding school. In the cases of older children, state boarding schools are often heralded as great levellers. The issue here isn't the concept of boarding, it's the fact that childcare provisions are so woefully poor in the UK that state boarding schools are being held up as a viable solution.

Perhaps the most depressing aspect of the suggestion that you should place your child in a boarding school to sort out your childcare issues is that - at least on paper - it would probably work. A nanny costs around £25,000 per year, meaning that if you had two children it would be three grand cheaper to use a boarding school for childcare. Using a childminder costs around £8,300, so not far off the cost of a boarding school - when you factor in food, transport and other household costs they’re probably around the same.

Boarding school can be a magical experience - I went to one, I know. But it is only right for those children who crave freedom, adventure and independence. It is not suitable for all children whose parents aren’t able to balance working full-time with the school run.

Lots of children aren’t cut out for boarding school. Ask anyone who has suffered from chronic homesickness what that felt like and they’ll tell you that it’s the most painful, miserable feeling imaginable. The most cursory google will show you personal essay after personal essay from people who feel that attending a boarding school that was wrong for them has left them with a lifetime of emotional trauma.

The current working week was not designed for couples who have children, rather for one professional partner and one who stays at home with the children. Socially that’s no longer the expectation, and even for couples who would like to have one parent at home full-time, it’s an expensive luxury that few can afford.

Raising a child born in 2016 to the age of 18 in the UK will cost an average of £230,000. Given how few of us can afford to put money into our pensions or to save for a house deposit, is it really any surprise that we’re struggling to give up work and raise a child on a single income?

There is nothing wrong with boarding schools for the right child, at the right time. But they are not - and must not - be held up as a ‘cure all’ for the childcare crisis; and make no mistake, childcare in this country is a crisis. Shared parental leave throughout childhood, compulsory on-site childcare, subsidised childcare and better flexible working should all be offered alongside state boarding.

Rather than building brand new boarding schools, we should be working to create a low-stress, affordable situation where children can be looked after by their working parents.

Artists who started their careers at the BRIT school