Claver Morris House, our Prep Boarding House, is a home away from home for our Prep School boarders (Years 4 to 6 / aged 8-11) and Senior School boarders in Years 7-8. Its beautiful house and grounds create a warm, caring family-style boarding school for this age range. The children are very well looked after and community living lies at the heart of their daily lives. They all eat breakfast and most evening meals together, the House is spacious and includes excellent facilities, including areas for games, music and relaxing. The House capacity is small enough to ensure a lovely family feel and yet is large enough for the children to form lots of strong friendships.
Each House consists of around 20 to 30 boarding pupils, which is large enough to ensure everyone has a good balance of friends but small enough that everyone knows everyone well. We find this balance helps strengthen our family feeling.
Each Boarding House has a resident Houseparent and Assistant (both are often joined by their families and pets!), along with a non-resident Matron and a number of staff. The House teams are vital to running the Houses smoothly, but more importantly, they give a continuity to the boarders’ lives. We find boarders form strong relationships with our House teams, which enables them to have an adult they trust on hand to help with anything and everything!
The boarding family is complemented and strengthened by day pupil members who are all assigned to Houses, making them vibrant and exciting communities.
Find out more about our Senior School and Sixth Form.
Our Specialists and Choristers have a very busy schedule that often starts early morning, goes into the evenings and is part of their weekends as well! As such, boarding tends to be a particularly good option as boarding reduces travel time, provides a natural support network of fellow boarders and friends and makes it easier for them to access the many musical and non-musical activities we have on offer! Click here to find out more…
Our eight boarding Houses are a mix of medieval and 18th century buildings. Whilst each of the Houses is gifted with quirky and unique qualities befitting historic houses, they all have the expected modern conveniences.
Each House has comfortable dorms, providing boarders with their own space (including a locking cupboard) that they can personalise to feel like home. We provide Wi-Fi throughout each house as well IT equipment in designated quiet areas. Our common room areas come equipped with a TV and games console as well as activities such as table tennis and pool. Our boarders also enjoy our spacious gardens for barbecues, games and socialising with their friends throughout the day.
The boarding school Houses are set within our extensive school grounds with access to tennis courts, an indoor heated swimming pool, gym, library and sixth form centre.
Each of our Somerset Boarding Houses is the focal point for group identity, friendship and relaxation, with healthy rivalries between houses in sport, drama, public speaking and other academic achievement.
We organise weekend trips ranging from cinema, theatre and concert visits to adventure activities, ten-pin bowling and shopping in Bath and Bristol. From Year 7, small groups of pupils may go into Wells, Somerset unaccompanied. The city centre is just a few minutes’ walk from the boarding school houses, with numerous shops, banks, cafes and a twice-weekly market.
During Exeat Weekends, boarders have the option of attending our Schools’ Activity Weekend excursions (rather than spending the weekend at home or with a Guardian/host family). Recent locations have included Mill on the Brue, Manor and Ashbury Hotels and Okehampton where boarders enjoyed a wide range of activities including arts and crafts, bowling, golf, abseiling, climbing, canoeing, high ropes, swimming, archery, shooting, football, badminton and more!
Many pupils and parents find boarding useful as it allows pupils the opportunity to participate in after-school clubs, keep up with homework, strengthen friendships and avoid a late journey home. Boarding also helps them gain a sense of personal responsibility, as they are given freedom within sensible constraints.