Boarding Principles and Practices

Underwood Hall is a small Year 5 and Year 6 only mixed gender boarding house. This statement of principles and practices should be read in conjunction with the handbooks for boarders and for their parents and also with whole school policies, all of which can be found on the school website.

Our fundamental aim is for all boarders to try hard and to be happy, kind and helpful young people. Therefore, we aim to provide an environment in which such values are found easy to flourish.

The Principles of Underwood Hall are:

• Children are happy and enjoy their boarding experience and enthuse about it.
• Children grow, make progress and realise their potential in every element of their life, both in and out of the classroom
• Children are kind, helpful, accepting of others and make strong and long-lasting friendships
• Boarders are gaining independence, responsibility for their actions and self-sufficiency. Therefore, are well prepared for the next steps of their boarding education
• Boarding in Underwood Hall is a unique and enriching experience that is more than just attending Wymondham College Prep School from a distance, and we recognise that this may look different for different individuals

The fundamental practices of Underwood Hall are:

• Create and foster a relaxed yet purposeful, structured and safe family environment
• Create an atmosphere in which it is very easy for kindness, acceptance and friendship to develop, and which is free from abuse, intimidation, harassment, teasing and bullying
• Ensure that Underwood Hall is a listening environment and that children feel heard
• Create and foster an open and trusting ethos in which each boarder feels able to approach any other member of the boarding community (staff or pupil) confident that they will be treated and respected as an individual
• Give opportunity through breadth of experience
• Provide all round support and guidance to the children in Underwood Hall to ensure that needs are met
• Take full advantage from a caring staff, fine facilities and a countryside setting.
• To promote links and communication between the boarding and day elements of a boarder’s school life, particularly with their tutor, and to support their academic progress in boarding time as appropriate
• To care for and nurture each boarder as an individual, based upon knowledge of his or her needs and circumstances at any given time, informed and supported by communication with home. Individual boarders will enjoy absolute equality of care and treatment as informed by the Equality Act, 2010 and the ‘protected characteristics’ covered therein
• Promote, foster, recognise and celebrate traditional values such as courtesy, honesty, kindness, fairness, mutual respect and thinking of others
• The adults working in Underwood Hall uphold these values and challenge behaviour that is not upholding of such values
• Provide opportunity to help and serve others
• Provide challenge and choice
• Encourage each child, kindly, to make their own decisions and learn by their mistakes so they gain greater knowledge of, and confidence in, themselves