b'the boarding house along with several other adults such as gappies (young people, often from Australia or South Africa), matrons and/or tutors. The nomenclature and precise arrangement will depend on the school and the number/age of boarders, but theres generally at least one resident adult per corridor/oor. Most schools have vertical (mixed age) boarding from 13-18 although in some cases sixth formers are accommodated separately. Any year 7 and 8 boarders may also be in a separate house. A few smaller schools have horizontal (year group) boarding houses. In either case, there will be separate bedtimes, rules and other arrangements that are appropriate to the age of the children. House or home? While people are always more important to the ethos of a school than buildings, architecture can have an inuence. Pupils at Westonbirt School sleep under the high ceilings of grade 1 listed staterooms and our reviewer found priceless silk wallpaper, preserved under Perspex, rubbing shoulders with One Direction posters. Boarders at Cheltenham College live in elegant House parents will be most closelytown housesone advantage of involved in your childs day-to- this is that it puts a little distance day life at school between school and home. Modern, purpose-built boarding houses, while less characterful, are likely to have better plumbing. All in all, boarding accommodation seems to be improving year on year, no doubt keeping local building trades very busy over the summer holidays. In most schools pupils sleep in dormitories (usually about three to ve beds in a room) until years 10 or 11 when they move into single or double study bedrooms. Sixth formers almost always have individual 46'