Public or private school? And if private, is it in the country or perhaps abroad? Many parents face these dilemmas every year. We asked Barbara Salamon, who professionally advises, searches and guides families through the process of applying to boarding schools around the world, for her opinion on the subject.
Boarding schools, the private ones, the most prestigious ones, are still a niche and a few hundred people leave Poland every year. comments the expert. In contrast, according to the Independent School Council, an organization of private boarding schools, last year the number of Polish students in the UK, the country with the largest number of such schools, increased by 37%, where the increase for other nationalities is about 1-1.5%.
School abroad – something good for everyone
At the beginning of my business, most of the students leaving Poland were high school students – after the second grade. So we were talking about leaving for the last two years of schooling, which is really enough to get the British A-levels or the International Baccalaureate -.explains Barbara Salamon, then adds:However, since there is no middle school in Poland, Roughly 40% of students leave after elementary school. What may be interesting is that about 20% of my charges are even younger children – the youngest were 11 years old when I left. In Swiss schools there are already 7-year-olds from Poland, but here we are talking about families that already have a multi-generational tradition of such learning.
Swiss schools are the most expensive, that’s a fact, but they also offer the highest quality. They employ the best educators from around the world. The contacts that young people will make during their school years in Switzerland are unmatched by virtually any other country. In addition, these schools are characterized by above-average attention to student safety. The very fact that Switzerland has been neutral for decades and has not been involved in international conflicts shows that it is safe there, but it is more than that. In the schools there, you can feel like you’re in a fortress – you’re not restrained by anything, and yet you’re provided with maximum security, including in terms of all kinds of insurance.assures the educational consultant.
Networking in Swiss boarding schools is one of the key advantages, which attract families from all over the world. These schools are known not only for their demanding academic programs and world-class infrastructure, but also for their exceptional opportunities to build lasting relationships among students -. emphasizes educational consultant Barbara Salamon, then adds: This is not limited to acquaintances with classmates. Students also have access to a network of alumni and families with similar aspirations, which fosters relationships that can lead to professional collaborations, internships or joint business ventures.
Boarding school a solution to many daily problems
The motivations for choosing this particular study option for a child are varied. Ms. Barbara divides parents into three categories – parents of students who are often very capable, very ambitious, who want their child to study at the best universities in the world, i.e. Oxford, Cambridge, Ivy League in the United States. The second group is parents of children who have a lot of extracurricular activities – you can do practically anything on boarding school campuses.These are the kind of small villages that somewhat resemble university campuses in the United States. Of course, each school has its own profile and has its own strengths, strong sports, strong arts activities. And that helps logistically -.Barbara Salamon notes.
The third group are parents of students with evaluations from psychological-educational counseling centers.We have more and more such students in Poland, in the world in general, for the reason that there is a growing awareness and diagnosis of these diversities. And Polish schools are not always able to take care of, properly take care of this student, mainly because of the lack of staff. Boarding schools, on the other hand, have great staff, they have a lot of assistants, a lot of support for such students, and being in the right school, this student can develop his talents and not be as frustrated as he often is, being in a Polish school -.emphasizes the educational consultant.
Superiority of global education over domestic education
In addition, Swiss schools place a strong emphasis on personal and professional development through extracurricular activities, leadership programs and events that connect students with prominent personalities from various industries. Such contacts prepare students to function in a globalized world, where relationships can play a key role in personal and professional development -.notes Barbara Salamon.
American boarding schools, on the other hand, are always on the lookout for cultural diversity among students, while Polish families traditionally develop focused, open-minded, motivated and creative young adults. In general, these character traits combined with an adventurous spirit propel students to achieve unexpected results. U.S. boarding schools that offer challenging but also very extensive and interesting academic programs. Experiential learning, a variety of cultural exchanges within the boarding program and value individual creativity, allowing students to create their own pathway – describes the educational consultant.
Going to school abroad – cause for concern?
Parents are most often concerned about the loss of ties with their child, in second place is the fear of safety, because, however, a young person, a teenager will function in another country several hundred or several thousand kilometers from home– Barbara Salamon notes.These concerns are often allayed after just a few months of the child’s stay. This bond with the family is a little different than before the trip, but parents often tell me after just a few weeks that they talk to their child several times a week on the phone, and these conversations are qualitatively much better than the ones they had somewhere on the run, passing each other in the kitchen or in the hallway at home, where the only questions asked were whether you washed your clothes for the ball or what you have to do. They just talk about more serious matters –he adds.
Students, on the other hand, are most often concerned about losing friends.Peers are the whole world to teenagers, and teenagers are afraid that they will simply lose these contacts, that they will lose friends, lose colleagues. Indeed, these ties with teenagers from the city where the student is from are loosening, for the reason that they simply don’t see each other every day, but establishing contacts with peers on campus is very easy and pleasant, for the reason that there the tutors and the whole school program are also structured in such a way that they is in the building, children get to know each other, integrate. Well, and they make great friends, which opens their minds to different cultures, different world views. And the second, such a bigger concern is also about relationships, but establishing new relationships in a new country, in a new school. Let me reassure you – establishing relationships with peers on campus goes very easily and pleasantly, that’s because team-building is used, children get to know each other and integrate. As a result, they make great friends, which open their minds to different cultures, different world views and often last for many years -.Barbara Salamon explains.
Foreign boarding school – a solution for the elite
In the case of going to a private boarding school out of the country, we are talking about a long-term and resource-intensive investment. However, there are methods to see if this solution is right for our child.
I, for those families who still have time to do this, that is, come to me a few years before they plan to start studying abroad, so at least a year and a half before, suggest that the child go to summer school, that is, a summer course on the campus of a foreign school. During such a course, the student lives on campus, sees what it’s like to live in such a larger community, have rules and regulations to abide by, and see if it’s really for him or her, if he or she will feel comfortable, and if he or she wants to go to such a place for the long term -.Barbara Salamon explains and adds: The second option is to attend the Boarding School Expo event -. conference and trade fair, which will be held on September 28 in Warsaw at the Belotto Hotel.
During the event, there will be a conference where boarding school graduates will speak, some who graduated this year, but also some who are now mature people, and they will talk about the motivations that led them to choose a school, their beginnings at these schools and how staying at a boarding school has affected their lives. There will also be an interview with a family that has a child in a boarding school, as well as talks about what types of schools there are, how to choose a school and how education differs from one country to another.
There is no doubt that boarding school education is a sizable investment, unattainable for most Polish families. For example, for a graduate of the eighth grade of elementary school, that is, for a student who goes to high school, the average amount is about 250-300 thousand zlotys for a year of education. The lowest cost will be in Spain and Portugal, for example, where good schools can be had for as little as 40 some thousand euros.. These most popular boarding schools in the UK usually cost so from 200-300 thousand zlotys, depending on location, campus, etc. Similar prices, a little higher are in North America. On the other hand, the most expensive schools, those of the highest end, are located in Switzerland, where you need to invest from 0.5 million to even 800 thousand zlotys for a child’s annual stay.– Barbara Salamon describes.
These amounts may seem large, but the eskpert emphasizes:It is worth remembering that the tuition fee includes tuition, housing with food, access to full sports facilities, i.e. swimming pools, sometimes a stud farm, playing fields, gyms, everything a particular school has to offer. An additional cost besides tuition is visas and possible insurance, if one is required for a particular visa and the one offered by the school is not accepted. Another addition is pocket money, but these are symbolic sums, as they are amounts of tens of euros or pounds per week. And this pocket money is only needed for the children to go out to Starbucks or McDonald’s and that sort of thing – everything is provided for them on campus.
Even between meals there is always fruit, some snacks and drinks. The last additional cost is airline tickets. If your child attends a boarding school in Europe or the UK, he or she will be flown home for the holidays several times a year – schools divide the year into 3 trimesters. If, on the other hand, the child will be in North America and for all the holidays it does not make sense for him or her to fly in, firstly because of ticket prices, and secondly because of the fatigue of intercontinental travel, then if the child stays on campus for the holidays, you have to pay extra for each such time around $700-800.
Schools in the U.S. – individual approach key to success
I have an example of a 14-year-old who, after Summer School, left for school in the US earlier than his parents had originally planned, and to a different place – the first assumption was Canada. This student went through a 4-stage recruitment process and got into the school of our choice in the States, allowing him to develop on all fronts of his interests -.describes Barbara Salamon, then explains:In his case, a boy who is very capable and very eager to explore, individualized attention is even essential for effective and comfortable learning. Polish private schools were “too tight” for him. In the States, he is the one who creates his own lesson program. He can choose classes that are his forte and combine them freely – for example, science with history or geopolitics, which is not available in Poland at all. In the country, he would not have such an opportunity. The second important thing – the aforementioned subjects at the same time he can choose at his educational level – he can choose the subjects he wants.Barbara Salamon explains.
The aforementioned student is taking math at the level of our third year of high school. At the same time, he also takes American Literature classes right away, rather than English classes for foreigners, because he has strong English. He also has a Western Civilization class. It’s not typical history, but selected areas of history that interest him. There is no math there just like that either, there is algebra I and II, geometry and so on. The level is matched to the child’s abilities and the student develops at the level he is actually at. He has a variety of classes with students from different grades. He is not assigned to a class of 30, but the program is tailored to the educational level and roams between classes. This way, on the one hand, he learns what he wants, at the level he is currently at, which overall gives the best results.
Above all, all these classes, it’s not theory, it’s not just lectures. There are a lot of practical classes, biology and physics is very practical, they work in a laboratory. They also have robotics, where they just create robots, which is a lot of these classes that in Poland he either simply wouldn’t be able to experience or would have very limited access to -.concludes the educational consultant.
