My New Life At a Boarding School

20 September 2013Emma H, Photos by Blair W, Joe L & Frank Z.

You drive through the brick gates of Brentwood and are flooded with emotions; you don’t know what to expect, who you’ll meet or who you will be living with. You realize that there are a lot of things to think about when living at a boarding school. At a regular school, you start your school day at 8:30 a.m. You go through your morning classes, have lunch, and then afternoon classes. It is all very standard. At 3:30 p.m., you are free to leave and do whatever you want (within reason). Brentwood, however, is a little bit different. You wake up, get ready for school, and have breakfast with your friends. The morning classes are probably pretty similar, but then after lunch everything changes again. At Brentwood, the Tripartite Program makes all the difference. You don’t have to do more school work in the afternoon. You have the freedom to do whatever arts or sports you are interested in. The evenings at Brentwood are fairly relaxed until prep. You can hang out with your friends, go into Mill Bay for coffee, or catch up on some much-needed sleep. It feels a little more like home, except for the fact that none of your friends are more than 100m away. Especially during prep, it is very nice to have many of your teachers close by. There really is no excuse for not understanding something because there is always a teacher around to ask. Sure you may not like prep at first, but eventually you begin to take advantage of the quiet and value the allotted time to get all of your assignments done. This allows you to have time to be with your friends earlier and still get your homework done. We all had times at home where we sat in class wishing that we had done the homework the night before. Prep reduces stress the next day! At home you probably had quite a bit of freedom about what time you went to bed – which also probably led to some very late nights of texting and watching Netflix. We all had a few too many days where we were falling asleep in class. At Brentwood there is a “lights out” time. This makes it more appealing to go to bed at a reasonable hour because everyone else is also going to bed. All in all, boarding school is definitely not the same as being at home. Your parents are not here, and you have to be more independent, but the 70 other girls (or guys) in your residence become your family and your houseparents act in loco parentis. Make your dorm your own and it will begin to feel more like home in no time! A few other tips to future Brentonians: Bring a mattress pad; it will save your back!Bring a comfortable office chair because you will be doing prep 5 days a week.Try to introduce yourself to many people. It makes getting to know everyone that much easier. Emma H, Mackenzie ‘15

Where Students Choose To Be