History Main / BoardingSchool

* ''Film/JaneEyre'' The titular in her childhood is sent to a horrible one in all film versions of this ever classic 1847 Charlotte Bronte novel.

* C.S Lewis' first autobiography goes into great detail about his rather traumatic experiences at two different boarding schools in his childhood.

* ''Myth/TheScholomance'', from Romanian mythology, is an Main/AcademyOfEvil Main/WizardingSchool where students are forced to stay in its underground halls for the full seven years of their education. [[Main/DownerEnding And then one has to stay forever]], because the Main/{{Devil}} who runs the place keeps one of their souls as the class's tuition.

* Ursula Nordstrom's classic ''The Secret Language'' is set at Coburn Home School, which has both boys and girls; mostly middle-class children of single parents who have to work a lot. The education, food, and accommodations are all right but newcomer Victoria North, aged eight, is severely homesick and a bossy, military-style housemother doesn't help (she's replaced by a gentler one, so there's that one). DeadpanSnarker and [[GoodWithNumbers math whiz]] Martha Sherman connects with Victoria and teaches her the three words of a "secret language", a kind of doubletalk made up by a close friend. They both learn from each other and face life in their own styles. Interestingly, the girls lampshade the "midnight feast," inadvertently proving it's impossible because everyone falls asleep first.

* ''Literature/ASeparatePeace''

* Paul Murray's ''Skippy Dies'' (set in Dublin).
* Creator/EvelynWaugh's first novel, ''Decline and Fall'', is largely set at one of these, though it concerns one of the tutors rather than the students themselves.

* The ''Dimsie'' books and the ''Springdale'' books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce.
* Garnet goes off to a boarding school towards the end of Jacqueline Wilson's ''Double Act''; when she writes home, she says it's nothing like what Creator/EnidBlyton portrayed.
** The majority of ''My Sister Jodie'' takes place in a boarding school called Melchester College, after sisters Jodie and Pearl's parents take jobs there, though it is also a day school. Interestingly enough, one of Pearl's classmates mentions being friends with a girl called Garnet at her old school but whether it's the same Garnet in ''Double Act'' isn't specified.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':- The other British author who has re-written the boarding school novel is Sir Terry Pratchett. In ''Pyramids'', he introduces the Assassins' Guild School as a parody of the boarding school novel - [[WordOfGod Pratchett has said]] that to visualise the School for Assassins, he ''took a typical British boarding school and turned all the knobs up - especially the one labelled "violence"''.
* Elsewhere in the Literature/{{Discworld}} there are other examples, including the Quirm College for Young Ladies, Hugglestones, the Fools' Guild school, and the ''Assassins' Guild School''. In particular, the opening section of the novel ''Soul Music'' covers most of the stereotypes of the genre at the Quirm College for Young Ladies.
** Don't go to the [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors Fools' Guild school]], by the way. It's a crying shame.
* Brazilian realism novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Ateneu O Ateneu]] by Raul Pompéia. On the very first page of the book Sérgio narrates his arrival at the boarding school: "Thou shalt meet the world, told me my father, at the doorsteps of the Ateneu. Have courage for the fight! I later experienced the truth of that warning, which undressed me, in one gesture, of the illusions of a child educated exotically in the greenhouse of tenderness which is the regime of domestic love, different from what is found outside, so different, that it makes the poem of the maternal love seem to be a sentimental artifice, with the only advantage of making the creature more sensitive to the rude impression of the first teaching, burning search for vitality under the influence of a harsh new weather."

* ''Literature/StalkyAndCo'' by Creator/RudyardKipling, and assorted little sequels including "A Deal in Cotton" (in ''Actions and Reactions'') and "The Honours of War" (in ''A Diversity of Creatures''). Only both the school and protagonist are... rather unusual.
** At one point the protagonists are reading ''Eric, or Little By Little'' and mocking it roundly.

** Neither is George Orwell's essay 'Such, Such Were The Days'.
*** Though contemporaries recalled Orwell as being quite happy in school, and something of a teacher's pet. Literary standards at the time demanded a miserable boarding school background, so...

* Ursula Nordstrom's classic ''The Secret Language'' is set at Coburn Home School, which has both boys and girls; mostly middle-class children of single parents who have to work a lot. The education, food, and accommodations are all right but newcomer Victoria North, aged eight, is severely homesick and a bossy, military-style housemother doesn't help (she's replaced by a gentler one, so there's that one). {{Snarker}} and [[GoodWithNumbers math whiz]] Martha Sherman connects with Victoria and teaches her the three words of a "secret language", a kind of doubletalk made up by a close friend. They both learn from each other and face life in their own styles. Interestingly, the girls lampshade the "midnight feast," inadvertently proving it's impossible because everyone falls asleep first.

The misadventures of students at boarding schools were once a staple of children's literature, starting in the Victorian era, but they fell out of fashion in the sixties. Starting in the late 1990s, however, the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, a HeroicFantasy taking place in a [[WizardingSchool wizarding]] boarding school, revived many of its tropes (although significantly breaking from the tradition by making the school mixed instead of single-sex; and also free to attend). [[note]]They are called "public schools" in the UK, the British term for most private schools, which are commonly boarding schools. Boarding schools may be "public" schools where the pupils are not charged a tuition fee and/or the pupils are selected on their talents or meritocratic basis, or "private", where the pupils (or rather their parents) are charged a tuition fee (which may or may not be outrageous). In Britain, public schools are private and do charge fees, unless you're a scholarship student, and both terms are used more or less interchangeably. See Useful Notes or the Other Wiki for explanation.[[/note]]

* A [[MarySue perfect and kind student who excels in her studies while also being a good athlete, and a mentor. Just last month she rescued a sick kitten and figured out to cure it...]].

* The nice teacher, the CoolTeacher (often teaches drama, literature or poetry) and the [[Stern Teacher nasty one]] (often teaches math, science or grammar rules).

* The nice teacher, the CoolTeacher (often teaches drama, literature or poetry) and the [[SadistTeacher nasty one]] (often teaches math or science).

* The nice teacher and the [[SadistTeacher nasty one]].

The cliché plot in the genre is having the protagonists decide to break school rules so that they can "do the right thing" or help someone. When they are caught, the wise Headmaster or Headmistress punishes them, but in a measured way which takes into account their honorable motives.

* [[TheBully A bully]] who may be [[TheBrute big snd strong]]. AnAesop is likely, where they realize they were just misunderstood and apologize to the victims.
* Hazing and ChildrensCovertCoterie (secret hangouts).

Hell, it's amazing they ever get any work done.

TheGoodOldBritishComp is the other UK school trope. Overlaps with ElaborateUniversityHigh, if the boarding school has many buildings. Contrast with OffToBoardingSchool, which generally portrays the experience as negative, along with the BoardingSchoolOfHorrors, which is even worse.

* Children/teenagers as the main protagonists learning about friendship.

* Pranks, sneaking around after hours, and smuggling contraband items (candy, drinks, etc), all done on tiptoes to avoid the FunHatingConfiscatingAdult teacher from taking the unauthorized items.

* A [[MarySue perfect and kind student who excels in her studies]].
* A bully.

* Hazing and secret clubs.

* Authority-approved school clubs (theatre, music, etc) and [[ChildrensCovertCoterie secret societies]]

* School clubs (theatre, music, etc)

* A wise, kindly Headmaster/Headmistress.

* Pranks, sneaking around after hours, and smuggling contraband items (candy, drinks, etc)

* ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'': The Suimei University of the Arts High School, and one that is not elaborate at all. The story happens in Sakura Hall, a dormitory for troubled students kicked out of the school's normal dorms.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Both Knightcharm, the 'good' school where the protagonist starts out, and the Scholomance, the evil school which the protagonist infiltrates and then is trapped in, are boarding schools. Taken to an extreme in the case of the Scholomance, where students are stuck there for years except for brief 'missions' to the surface world.

* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' has Jade Mountain Academy, a boarding school for dragonets of all tribes founded by the protagonists of the first arc.

* ''Literature/ThisIsNotAWerewolfStory'' is set at One of Our Kind Boarding School, which is for kids who have various problems at home. There's one SadistTeacher, though the others are all rather nice, if prone to keeping supernatural secrets. Also, the school borders a magic forest, though the protagonist is one of the few who learns this.
* ''Literature/Olivia1949'' is about a teenage girl who is sent to finishing school and falls for her female teacher.
* The three main characters of ''Literature/ThePoisonApples'' meet at a fancy private boarding school in Massachusetts, complete with one of them being a ScholarshipStudent. For bonus points, they are there [[OffToBoardingSchool (voluntarily or involuntarily)]] because of their [[WickedStepmother Wicked Stepmothers]].
* Vanessa from ''Literature/MyDarkVanessa'' is sexually abused by her English teacher while attending a boarding school in Maine.

* In ''Literature/ImpracticalMagic'' The banner of the website says, "Welcome to Istima, the Six Court Academy, where reality is a suggestion, magic is king, and knowledge is currency. Study, survive, and hold your secrets close."
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'':
** The stories mostly take place at Whateley Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire.
** And the classic British boarding school is the backstory for Beltane. When she manifested as a mutant and got her powers over ectoplasm, she pranked the entire school, creating what appeared to be the worst haunting in British history.

* ''Literature/LovelaceOneTwo'' takes place at Brooks-Carillon Academy, a fictional New England boarding school; the protagonist, Andi Gannett-Moore, has been going to boarding schools since first grade.
* ''Literature/VoidDomain'' has Brakket Magical Academy, one of five boarding schools for magic around the United States.
* ''Toys/EverAfterHigh'' takes place in a boarding school for the children of fairy-tale characters, who are in turn meant to inherit their parents’ roles.

* The USA has a few schools like this, generally old and expensive and in the USA's 'New England' region. Historically, the USA had several public (in the US sense, meaning state-run) boarding schools in rural areas, although they are extremely rare today. Boarding schools for families of all (above-average) incomes abound in The Commonwealth. They make occasional appearances in non-British movies and TV and use pretty much the same tropes as in the British model. Modern-day and non-American boarding school settings tend to place more emphasis on getting into good universities; outside the USA, one can no longer get into a good university without good grades.

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