What is "boarding school"

School \School\, n. [OE. scole, AS. sc?lu, L. schola, Gr. ? leisure, that in which leisure is employed, disputation, lecture, a school, probably from the same root as ?, the original sense being perhaps, a stopping, a resting. See Scheme.]

1. A place for learned intercourse and instruction; an institution for learning; an educational establishment; a place for acquiring knowledge and mental training; as, the school of the prophets.

   Disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
   --Acts xix. 9.

2. A place of primary instruction; an establishment for the instruction of children; as, a primary school; a common school; a grammar school.

   As he sat in the school at his primer.
   --Chaucer.

3. A session of an institution of instruction.

   How now, Sir Hugh! No school to-day?
   --Shak.

4. One of the seminaries for teaching logic, metaphysics, and theology, which were formed in the Middle Ages, and which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of reasoning.

   At Cambridge the philosophy of Descartes was still dominant in the schools.
   --Macaulay.

5. The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honors are held.

6. An assemblage of scholars; those who attend upon instruction in a school of any kind; a body of pupils.

   What is the great community of Christians, but one of the innumerable schools in the vast plan which God has instituted for the education of various intelligences?
   --Buckminster.

7. The disciples or followers of a teacher; those who hold a common doctrine, or accept the same teachings; a sect or denomination in philosophy, theology, science, medicine, politics, etc.

   Let no man be less confident in his faith . . . by reason of any difference in the several schools of Christians.
   --Jer. Taylor.

8. The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age; as, he was a gentleman of the old school.

   His face pale but striking, though not handsome after the schools.
   --A. S. Hardy.

9. Figuratively, any means of knowledge or discipline; as, the school of experience.

   Boarding school, Common school, District school, Normal school, etc. See under Boarding, Common, District, etc.

   High school, a free public school nearest the rank of a college. [U. S.]

   School board, a corporation established by law in every borough or parish in England, and elected by the burgesses or ratepayers, with the duty of providing public school accommodation for all children in their district.

   School committee, School board, an elected committee of citizens having charge and care of the public schools in any district, town, or city, and responsible for control of the money appropriated for school purposes. [U. S.]

   School days, the period in which youth are sent to school.

   School district, a division of a town or city for establishing and conducting schools. [U.S.]

   Sunday school, or Sabbath school, a school held on Sunday for study of the Bible and for religious instruction; the pupils, or the teachers and pupils, of such a school, collectively.

Boarding \Board"ing\, n.

1. (Naut.) The act of entering a ship, whether with a hostile or a friendly purpose.

   Both slain at one time, as they attempted the boarding of a frigate.
   --Sir F. Drake.

2. The act of covering with boards; also, boards, collectively; or a covering made of boards.

3. The act of supplying, or the state of being supplied, with regular or specified meals, or with meals and lodgings, for pay.

   Boarding house, a house in which boarders are kept.

   Boarding nettings (Naut.), a strong network of cords or ropes erected at the side of a ship to prevent an enemy from boarding it.

   Boarding pike (Naut.), a pike used by sailors in boarding a vessel, or in repelling an attempt to board it.
   --Totten.

   Boarding school, a school in which pupils receive board and lodging as well as instruction.

n. A school which provides board and lodging as well as tuition, students going home at weekends or between terms

n. a private school where students are lodged and fed as well as taught [ant: day school]

A boarding school is a school at which most or all of the students live during the part of the year that they go to lessons. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals. Some boarding schools also have day students who attend the institution by day and return to their families in the evenings.

Many independent (private) schools are boarding schools. Boarding school pupils (a.k.a. "boarders") normally return home during the school holidays and often weekends, but in some cultures may spend most of their childhood and adolescent life away from their families. In the United States, boarding schools comprise various grades, most commonly grades seven or nine through grade twelve—the high school years. Other schools are for younger children, grades two through eight. A military school, or military academy, also features military education and training. Some American boarding schools offer a post-graduate year of study to help students prepare for college entrance, most commonly to assimilate foreign students to American culture and academics before college.

In the former Soviet Union schools were introduced; these sometimes are known as Internat-schools (Russian: Школа-интернат) (from Latin: internus). They varied in their organization. Some schools were a type of specialized school with a specific focus in a particular field or fields such as mathematics, physics, language, science, sports, etc. Other schools were associated with orphanages after which all children enrolled in Internat-school automatically. Also, separate boarding schools were established for children with special needs (schools for blind, for deaf and other). General schools offered "extended stay" programs (Russian: Группа продленного дня) featuring cheap meals for children and preventing them from coming home too early before parents were back from work (education in the Soviet Union was free). In post-soviet countries, the concept of boarding school differs from country to country.