Boarding Life

Here we explain how boarding at Bootham works, including the excellent range of weekend activities, boarding options, how we encourage healthy eating, the facilities available to students, and our commitment to maintaining the health and well-being of our students and staff.

Bootham as a boarding school

Boarding is all about fun and companionship. Routines such as bedtimes and leave are all worked out on sensible lines with normal family disciplines applied.

The school has three boarding houses, each of which provides homely and comfortable accommodation in elegant Georgian buildings. Your child's house will depend on his or her age or gender.

The girls are all together in Rowntree, which in fact covers three Georgian houses with the sixth form girls in their own town house style flats. The boys board in similar Georgian houses, Fox for 11 – 18 year olds, and additional sixth form places in Evelyn House.

Weekend Activities

Boarders are offered a wide choice of activities and younger pupils particularly are encouraged to make good use of all the opportunities on offer.

On Saturdays there is a normal school timetable in the morning and often games fixtures in the afternoon. Those not involved in fixtures may go into York (with permission from house staff) and then in the evenings there are activities run by the boarding house teams.

Sunday mornings are relaxed and informal with ‘Sunday Brunch’ and a full programme of organised events.

Throughout the weekend boarders make good use of school facilities. There are always plenty of staff around, both in the boarding houses and in the school itself.  Please see list below of activities for boarders for the Spring term 2012:

Sunday 15th January - York Dungeon

Sunday 22nd January - Sherlock Holmes cinema trip

Sunday 5th February - Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Saturday 25th February - The Diary of Anne Frank, Theatre Royal

Sunday 4th March - Aerial Extreme (pictured right)

Sunday 11th March - York Minster tour

Sunday 18th March - Skiing

Sunday 25th March - Media Museum 

Boarding Options for all Students

The school is run very much as a boarding school and every student will have a chance to board at Bootham.

Our full and weekly boarders, who stay for seven or six nights per week, make the houses their home.

Friends who are day students may stay over and every day student may have two nights free sleep-over per term at a time agreed with the house staff (this is always popular and so advanced booking is essential!).