Boarding Life at Wells Cathedral School

Boarding Life

Our Philosophy Our houses provide family and community life in a beautiful setting. We realise that Wells is a home away from home for our boarders and recognise how important it is to make them feel comfortable and secure.

Birthday parties and chats with the matron over a cup of tea - among many other things - help our boarders feel right at home.

Boarders learn to live with others, which helps them to develop personal characteristics such as kindness and honesty. We encourage our boarders to take advantage of our many opportunities because through getting involved in our activities and events, our pupils develop a ‘can do’ attitude that helps them grow as people and as part of a team.

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Boarding Facilities Our ten boarding houses are a mix of medieval and 18th century buildings. Whilst each of the houses is gifted with quirky and unique qualities befitting historic houses, they all have the expected modern conveniences.

Each house has comfortable dorms, providing boarders with their own space (including a lockable cupboard) that they can personalise to feel like home. We provide Wi-Fi throughout each house as well IT equipment in designated quiet areas.

Our common room areas come equipped with a TV and games console as well as activities such as table tennis and pool. Our boarders also enjoy our spacious gardens for barbecues, games and socialising with their friends throughout the day.

The houses are set within our extensive school grounds with access to tennis courts, an indoor heated swimming pool, gym, library and sixth form centre.

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Prep School Boarding We offer boarding for our youngest pupils (from Year 4) in the stunning Claver Morris House, situated in the heart of the School.

Our priority is to create a “home from home” within a warm, caring, family environment, where the children are very well looked after by a Houseparent, Assistant Houseparent and Matrons.

Boarders remain in Claver Morris when they start Senior School before eventually moving on to our Senior Houses; this bridges the gap wonderfully between our Prep School and Senior School and provides valuable continuity.

Claver Morris is spacious and has excellent facilities, including comfortable dorms on the upper floors, as well as communal rooms for socialising, working, playing and relaxing. Its large walled garden is a safe place for children to play, enjoy games and relax outdoors. We can accommodate up to 28 of our youngest boarders in our co-educational prep boarding house, making Claver Morris small enough to maintain a family feel and yet large enough for the children to form diverse friendships.

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Pupil’s Perspective

Elspeth I enjoy every moment of boarding because it means that I always have a friend. I get to play games with my dorm mates, and we can work together on school projects and prep. At weekends we go rambling in the countryside, swimming or to the park with our houseparent, and I enjoyed joining in with ‘Claver’s Got Talent’ last term! The houseparents help me to remember things like brushing my teeth and taking my vitamins. The best thing about boarding is that I don’t have to say goodbye to my friends at the end of the day!

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Senior School Boarding Each of our six single-sex Senior

each house is unique with varying

School houses is a large familytype unit that integrates 25-45 boarding pupils with designated day pupils. Each house has a resident houseparent and assistant, along with non-resident matrons and a number of regular staff. During the school day, the matrons help with anything pupils might need. As the staff differ in their approach and involve pupils in some decisions,

activities. However, key areas such as bedtimes, daily routines, prep times, and in-house times are the same.

Pupils elect House Captains who join the pupil leadership team and act as their representatives.

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Boarders and day pupils participate in house events and competitions together, which helps foster a sense of house identity and spirit.

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Pupil’s Perspective

Harry I enjoy having so many facilities on hand; I use the gym, swimming pool, music school recording studio and photography studio regularly, and I’ve tried sports that I would never have otherwise had a go at.

In House, support is always there if you need it, and I like having a routine provided for me. Our garden is a great place to socialise and play football with people from other Houses. There is a good sense of community and family, and I enjoy my time there. The time spent with my mates has helped me to build strong relationships.

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Sixth Form Boarding Ritchie House is our bespoke, sixth form co-educational house designed to provide a stepping stone from school life to university. There are three distinct areas: the main house, a modern wing (Ritchie Gardens) and a satellite house (Brock House).

Ritchie has a modern design with a beautiful university campus feel and a large walled garden. Our resident houseparent, assistants and tutor,

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along with our non-resident matrons and regular staff, support the pupils and ensure the house runs smoothly.

House life is purposeful and fun.

Sixth form committees help lead the house to encourage greater independence. Boarders mix with our day sixth formers who are also assigned to the house and take part in our friendly house competitions.

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Pupil’s Perspective

Demi Boarding at Wells is by far my favourite thing to do. The staff in the houses are so welcome and approachable, making it easy to talk to them whenever I need to. The co-ed system in Ritchie Boarding house has prepared me for university halls, and I have learnt how to share communal spaces with many people. Saturday nights are the best as we all come together for a house meal or bbq in the garden. The biggest rewards have been earning the most amazing friendships and I have found a home away from home!

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Activities Each of our boarding houses is the focal point for group identity, friendship and relaxation, with healthy rivalries between houses in sport, drama, public speaking and other academic achievements.

We organise a variety of activities, from cinemas, theatres and concerts to outdoor activity centres, ten-pin bowling and city shopping. We also plan termly trips to places like theme

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parks, safari parks and city breaks.

From Year 7, small groups of pupils may go into Wells unaccompanied for its shops, banks, cafés and market.

House staff organise weekly events based on the boarders’ requests, such as pizza and TV nights, barbecues, quizzes and cooking evenings.

Boarders can also make the most of our many sports clubs, pool, gym and countless musical opportunities.

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Pupil’s Perspective

Dawid My biggest passion is playing violin so I am doing all I can to achieve my goals and dreams as a musician.

Boarding at Wells helps me with that 100% with the opportunities to perform and a lot of time to practice from early morning to 9.00pm. My Houseparents are really supportive, and everybody is extremely friendly so the whole boarding house feels like a big family. It has a great atmosphere where I can study and have a rest among my friends and teachers.

Wells is definitely the best place to develop my music career!

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Find Out More If you would like to find out more about Wells Cathedral School, please contact our admissions team on 01749 834441 / admissions@wells.cathedral.school or visit our website https://wells.cathedral.school