Boarding schools have often suffered from negative stereotypes like: “Kids are at boarding school because they have troubled home lives”, “boarding school students live a strict life and do nothing but study”, and “going to a boarding school means kids will never see their families”. But the truth is, studying at a boarding school can be an excellent option for many teenagers, offering a life of friendships and extracurricular activities.
A part of The International School of Macau (TIS), the TIS Boarding School is Macau’s first secondary co-educational boarding facility for local and international students. The unit is located in a purpose built facility on the campus of the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). Established last year in August with just nine students, it has now expanded to accommodate 18 students from countries as diverse as Estonia, China, Indonesia and Australia.
“We expect that by September we will have 25 to 30 students, but there will be very limited spaces available after that until we complete the 300 room boarding school in August 2014”, notes Howard Stribbell, TIS’s Head of Schools.
And forget any images of overcrowded, sparse rooms that you might have from the movies. While the rooms can accommodate four students, most have been arranged with just two students.
The rooms are about 34 square metres and each has a private bathroom with shower, wardrobes and storage areas, and beds with integrated desks and study spaces. All rooms have Internet access and the common room has couches, a TV, a ping pong table, games and the boarding office.
To keep pace with Macau’s educational demands, TIS felt the need to expand. It was clear that the school’s model based on a Canadian curriculum from Alberta, and the makeup of students – half local and half international – was a success.
At the same time, TIS faced the situation of having a bigger primary school population and a smaller secondary school, because many parents moved their children abroad for secondary education thinking it would help them prepare better for university.
“So the boarding school idea came about as a way of opening it up, allowing more kids to come to the school and to experience the programme here”, says Stribbell. The school was also seeing greater interest from families who weren’t residing in Macau.
“That resulted in children either living with relatives or friends, or older students living on their own, or not being able to attend at all,” Stribbell explains. “This spawned the idea of a boarding school, and literally we really saw it as an opportunity, not just to offer a small solution to a small number of kids, but ultimately to offer a very big opportunity for Macau and for our school”, he says.
Such an ambitious project has of course not been without its challenges.
“There have been many “first times” for all of us. For most of our students this is their first time in boarding and there have been a lot of things to learn and adjust to”, comments Suzanne Coulter, the Director of Boarding at the school. “However, living in residence is a great place to make new friends and learn to become independent while living in a supportive and encouraging environment,” she adds.
For Stribbell, Macau’s location is also an important factor for the school’s success.
“I really see Macau becoming a key destination. And TIS will be a destination school. People from different countries will choose to come here because of the experience they’re going to have. And Macau lends itself so well to a boarding school because it’s so safe that parents are not worried”, he enthuses.
TIS offers an “open” boarding model which permits boarders to take leave on any weekend, with parental approval, allowing them to spend quality time with family and friends in a home environment. “Transportation to and from Macau is very flexible so we’re an attractive option for both Guangzhou and Hong Kong families. Children can board Monday to Friday, and on weekends still be able to go home and enjoy family life”, Stribbell explains.
This has added benefits, as even though the boarders spend a lot of time away from home, parents are still an important part of the educational process.
“When parents send their children to boarding at TIS we want to establish and maintain a strong relationship with them. We place a high priority on communication with parents and view ourselves as partners in caring for their children,” adds Suzanne Coulter.
Boarding schools like TIS offer a unique opportunity for students to meet other students from different cultures, exposing them to people from different religious, geographic, and linguistic backgrounds. Stribbell agrees that the international atmosphere is indeed beneficial.
Dispelling the myth that boarding school students only study, those at TIS actually find that they participate in more extracurricular activities than they expected, including playing sports and engaging in creative endeavors like music.
“As a school we’re very strategic in creating a positive experience so our emphasis is on sport and fine arts. We like to pride ourselves on the fact that students can come here and do their thing even if they don’t know what it is yet!” Stribbell comments.
Speaking to some of the students about their experiences, 16-year-old Hendrik Urm, from Estonia and Australia typifies this trend.
“I like the school especially for the sports. They have a whole variety”, he says. “This year I’ve been in the volleyball team, the basketball, and golf team. For volleyball we flew all the way to Beiijng and had a tournament there. For basketball, just last weekend we went to Hangzhou for our tournament. I love doing team sports because you go away with your team and meet new people”. From just across the border in Zhuhai, 15-year-old David Gao particularly enjoys the school’s music facilities. “Everyone’s friendly here, and the boarding house is very beautiful and clean compared to the one in China!” he laughs. “I like music here because in China we didn’t have any instruments. Here we can try trombones or trumpets, and they even have a piano”.
Hope Deng, 14, joined two months ago and shares a room with David. “The food is good and people are friendly”, he says.
May Zhang, 12, from Hainan, is in Grade 7. She likes music and drama, and plays the flute. “It’s different from my old school because before we studied for about 10 hours a day and we didn’t have drama”, she explains. Boarding school is also a place where strong friendships can form.
17-year-old Anita Siu from mainland China shares her experiences: “This is my first time in a boarding school. I really love it here because people are friendly and we have lots of clubs and many other kinds of experiences. It’s a fun place to stay because we live together and we are good friends. We can talk about anything every day”. So despite their unique living arrangements, the boarding students at TIS do the same sorts of things as regular teenagers, and it seems, may even have more fun than most!
TIS started in 2002 with just 58 students. Ten years later there are over 900 students. The current building is very close to capacity with an expected 1000 students enrolled next year. The school has plans to build a Phase 2 to be completed in mid-2014, which will allow them to expand to 1600 to 1800 students including 300 boarding students.
