I thought boarding school was all about fagging, compulsory rugby on cold winter mornings, military drill on the playground, freezing cold classrooms, latin and classics homework for 4 hours a night, vile school dinners and being bullied by the Head Boy or Matron and being caned for any trivial offence.
That's because thinking outside of stereotypes is just too difficult for your prejudiced, petty minded, biassed attitude. Rather like most of us
By dint of having both parents working as teachers at the school, I had a free place at a co-ed boarding school, as a day boy. The school was a "progressive" school - teachers called by their first name, no prefects, no head boy, no fagging, classrooms warm, no prize day, no latin, no classics, though the humanities and arts were promoted over sport or science, no corporal punishment, no uniform, kids encouraged to think independently (so long as independent meant bleeding heart wishy washy liberal).
On the plus side, there was very little bullying, small class sizes, and fairly competent teachers. Still, it was rather claustrophobic, and I was glad to do my A-levels at the local 6th form college, where I could drink beer without fear of expulsion.
If you want to know which one it was, Nick Mason went there and also, apparently, had a great time.
Certainly not for spelling skills.
