Boarding options
Flexible boarding options to suit every family
Flexible boarding choices
We offer a wide range of different boarding options to suit your family’s needs.
If full or weekly boarding is not for you, you can choose to stay on a regular night each week or on occasional nights throughout the year, subject to availability of places.
Extended day
Extended day at Kimbolton offers pupils the opportunity to experience the structure and community of boarding while returning home in the evening.
Running from 16:30 to 20:30, it provides a seamless extension to the school day, allowing pupils to take part in activities, socialise, or enjoy downtime in the boarding house. At 18:00, they join their fellow boarders for supper before completing supervised Prep from 19:00, ensuring a structured and focused end to the day.
With the flexibility to opt in with one week’s notice, extended day is a great way for pupils to balance academic study, enrichment activities, and social time within a warm and welcoming boarding environment. It also serves as an excellent introduction for those considering full or weekly boarding in the future.
Full boarding
Full boarders stay at school during the week and at weekends throughout the term. There is a week-long break in the middle of each term but there are no other fixed weekends out (other than the early May Bank Holiday) so parents or guardians are always very welcome to visit you or take you out during the weekends.
During term time, there is always plenty going on at weekends and in the evening so you’ll always have plenty to do.
Weekly boarding
Our weekly boarders come to school on either Sunday night or Monday morning, and stay four or five nights until Friday or Saturday morning.
Weekly boarding is great for those who live quite close to school – or perhaps as far away as London, thanks to our excellent road and rail links – and want to take full advantage of all of the co-curricular clubs and activities going on in school each evening. Those that live nearby can even travel to school on Monday and home on Friday using our bus service.
Some younger pupils struggle to get into a good homework routine or find that completing their prep is a source of stress at home. Weekly boarding is a good solution as help is on hand from staff and older pupils during the compulsory evening prep sessions.
It’s also ideal for families with working parents and especially where one or both travels or works long hours. The Monday to Friday routine becomes far less of a stressful juggle as you can depend on us to care for your child in our close-knit friendly community.
Less time spent travelling during the week means more time for homework, friends and hobbies – and means that you can all enjoy your weekends at home too.
Flexi-boarding
Our flexi-boarders opt at the start of the year (or term) to stay at school for the same night or nights each week. They choose to stay for up to three nights, but have to decide in advance which day(s) of the week to stay – for example, every Tuesday after a sailing lesson or equestrian session. Flexi-boarding can be combined with the use of our bus service.
You may choose flexi-boarding because you normally have a long journey into school and would like a to break up the travelling during the week, or because you want to see if your child likes boarding, or just because that’s how many nights away from home your child feels comfortable with.
Flexi-boarding is especially popular with pupils involved in after school clubs and activities, but please note that all flexi-boarding is subject to availability of beds on the night(s) of your choice.
Occasional boarding
Occasional boarding means your child stays the occasional night (or nights) on a one-off basis, perhaps because they have a late activity or trip, or because you need to be absent with work or for a short holiday and your child would rather stay in school with their friends.
Some of our full and weekly boarders start out as occasional boarders. If your child is wondering what boarding is like but doesn’t want to make a commitment yet, occasional boarding is an ideal way to try it out.
Please note that all occasional boarding is subject to availability of beds on the night(s) of your choice.
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We have had three children at both Kim and the White Houses in the last eight years. Our children have had exceptional pastoral care in a nurturing, caring environment. The weekend activities are excellent and they have developed strong friendships across all school years that will endure – in addition to the fabulous relationships we have with the team. Communication is superb from the experienced and intuitive house teams and we couldn’t have asked for more in terms of support as our children have grown into happy, grounded, inquisitive teenagers. In short, we think you are incredible.
Parent of a boarder
