Boarding as an International Student at Alma Mater International School
We offer boarding for ages 13 to 18 year old. Our international students enjoy the benefits of a boutique sized boarding house with home like atmospheric facilities and caring staff.
Why choose boarding?
Leisure activities
One of the key features of boarding school life is the wide range of activities and experiences, which gives boarders opportunities to develop skills and interests beyond the academic curriculum. These skills and interests often contribute to career development. Living and studying in one place provides much more time for you to get on with whatever you enjoy in the company of your friends. Sports and hobbies, dance and drama, music, public speaking, gym activities and many more are activities that are included in the school fees.
At boarding school you will enjoy the luxury of waking up in the morning and being in the middle of the campus. The best aspects of boarding school life are playing sports and enjoying outdoor activities in a climate ideal for sport participation. The school is laid out on an 8.5 hectare property, which overlooks a dam nestled under the foot of a hill. Alma Mater’s old buildings and unconventional layout provide a home like feel for the students and teachers.
Many old trees beautify the property and regularly invite our students to read, rest and enjoy their lunch underneath their branches. Our grounds offer many open spaces and green fields for the students to play during break time.
Community life
You will form part of a dense and diverse cultured community and build on the experience of navigating an international environment. At boarding school, you are living in a community, so if you are used to a more solitary life you will need to adapt. Until the sixth form, you will be sharing a bedroom and the bathrooms. However, what you lose in privacy you gain in companionship.
As part of a close and supportive community you can make friends for life, whatever part of the world they come from. Among your new friends it’s still very easy to stay in touch with your old ones. You will be given your own e-mail address and have Wi-Fi access. Mobile phones are allowed, although with some restriction on when you can use them.
Food
Our dining hall provides three cooked meals to the boarders. Enjoy the viewpoint of the dam while enjoying a meal with friends, or you can snack on some of the options at The Snack Box.
Preparing for life after school
Life in a boarding school is an excellent preparation for university and employment as it provides many of the non-academic skills that selectors are looking for. Boarders have to be tolerant, able to live with other people and yet think for themselves. Boarding schools encourage you to care for others and get involved, but also to have your own opinion and not to follow others blindly.
The experience of boarding teaches you to be independent. Most pupils feel homesick now and then while at boarding school, but this will probably happen whenever you have to leave home, at whatever age. The boarding school experience puts you in touch with a network of like-minded people from across the globe and gives you a great foundation on which to build at university and in later life.
We offer termly style boarding to international students. These fees will allow a pupil to board for 7 nights a week and return home during school breaks. Constructive and activity rich programmes are offered on selected weekends.
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