Line #109 Main/BoardingSchool


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/MaloryTowers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/malorytowerscourtesywildbrain_403680.jpg]]]]
2
3	->''"Don't believe everything you hear about our boarding schools ({{Beat}}) Don't ''dis-''believe everything you hear either." ''
4	-->-- '''Creator/ChristopherHitchens''', on ''Series/RealTimeWithBillMaher''
5
6	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 The60s. Starting in the [[The90s late 1990s]], however, the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, a HeroicFantasy taking place in a {{wizarding\|school}} 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]]
7
8	While elite boarding schools such as Eton and Harrow get a lot of attention in RealLife, mostly, the boarding schools depicted in stories were for the aspiring middle classes, so did not have particularly elaborate facilities. The biggest educational difference from other schools was the syllabus, which led to a few jokes about Latin classes, but the classrooms and facilities were typically much like any other because that wasn't where the story was.
9
10	The story was in the fact that they were ''boarding'' schools; the children lived on the premises, sharing dorm rooms and eating all their meals together. The Boarding School genre revolves around the impact of this -- children, separated from their parents, growing up together and [[FreeRangeChildren without much supervision in their off-hours]]. All the advantages of having a story about orphans sans the tragedy of dead parents.
11
12	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, the ReasonableAuthorityFigure trope.
13
14	Quite often, the school buildings would be old and in fairly bad shape -- leaking roofs, faulty heating, and clanking pipes - leading to stories where the children attempted to raise enough money to [[HeyLetsPutOnAShow save their school]]. If the boarding school is in an old castle or manor house, the kids may explore and find hidden {{Bookcase Passage}}s, {{Secret Underground Passage}}s, and {{Secret Room}}s, in which they may find antiques and mysterious items. If it's a fantasy story, they may find magical items or portals.
15
16	While this article focuses on UK boarding schools, stories with boarding schools are also set elsewhere in Europe, in North America, and in Japan, among other locations.
17
18	!!Common elements in the Boarding School genre include the following:
19	* Children/teenagers as the main protagonists learning about ThePowerOfFriendship.
20	* The nice teacher, the CoolTeacher (often teaches drama, literature or poetry) and the [[SternTeacher nasty one]] (often teaches math, science or grammar rules).
21	* [[PuttingThePalInPrincipal A wise, kindly Headmaster/Headmistress]].
22	* Midnight feasts.
23	* Pranks, sneaking around after hours, and smuggling [[BlackMarket contraband items]] (comics, candy, drinks, etc), all done on tiptoes to avoid the FunHatingConfiscatingAdult teacher from taking the unauthorized items.
24	* Houses within the school, with fierce competition (note these can be found in TheGoodOldBritishComp too, although, in self-consciously modern schools, they're probably called "teams").
25	* School sports taken [[SeriousBusiness seriously]].
26	* Authority-approved school clubs (theatre, music, etc) and StudentsSecretSociety clubs.
27	* A spoilt student from a wealthy family.
28	* A [[MarySue perfect and kind student who excels in her studies while also being a good athlete, a mentor, and serving the community. Why, just last month she rescued a sick bird and figured out to cure it...]].
29	* [[TheBully A bully]] who may be [[TheBrute big and strong]]. After a few incidents of bullying, AnAesop is likely, where they realize they were just misunderstood and/or struggling with their DarkandTroubledPast and apologize to the victims.
30	* Hazing and ChildrensCovertCoterie (secret hangouts). Hazing is PlayedForLaughs in old stories but in modern shows, expect a VerySpecialEpisode about bullying and abuse.
31	* The class struggles between the clique of posh kids and the poorer [[ScholarshipStudent "scholarship" students.]]
32	* "Fagging", the (mostly obsolete) practice of younger students (the fag) acting as servants for the elder ones (the "fag-master")--in return, the elder student is supposed to mentor and protect the "fags" serving him. [[note]]Has nothing to do with either homosexuality or cigarettes (usually). The term derives from the fact that they used to have to chop and haul firewood (faggots) for the upperclassmen.[[/note]]
33	* SituationalSexuality, either PlayedForLaughs or PlayedForDrama.
34
35	Hell, with all these pranks and sneaking around, it's amazing they ever get any schoolwork done!
36
37	TheGoodOldBritishComp is the other UK school trope. Overlaps with ElaborateUniversityHigh, if the boarding school has many buildings and extensive facilities. Contrast with OffToBoardingSchool, which generally portrays the experience as negative, along with the BoardingSchoolOfHorrors, which is even worse.
38
39	----
40	!!Examples:
41	[[foldercontrol]]
42
43	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
44	* ''Manga/BlackButler'': The Weston College from the public school arc is quite a fancy example of this. Complete with pranks and hazing, school houses, [[SeriousBusiness school sports]], a spoilt student [[spoiler:who went too far]], Ciel posing as a perfect and kind student, fagging, and one minor antagonist abusing the SituationalSexuality.
45	* ''Manga/BlueExorcist'': True Cross Academy is one. In addition to being a magic school where some of the students secretly learn to fight demons.
46	* ''Manga/CandyCandy'': Saint Paul's Private School, which is a mixed-gender academy with separate dormitories for boys and girls. There Candy meets up with her SecondLove Terry (whom she actually met during her journey to England), befriends Patty, is bullied by Eliza and her GirlPosse, [[spoiler:finds Annie and Albert again]], etc.; all of this has a HUGE influence in her CharacterDevelopment.
47	* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Ashford Academy is a fancy school for Britannian kids, and both Lelouch and Nunnally reside in its fancy dorms (with C.C [[PrettyFreeloaders hanging out in Lelouch's room]]). Kallen instead lives at her paternal family's BigFancyHouse [[spoiler: and at the end of ''R2'', in a small apartment that she shares with her mother.]]
48	* ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ'': One of the cases happens in a boarding school. Megu and Ryu are asked to pose as {{New Transfer Student}}s to find out the truth about a missing SchoolIdol, and have to deal with the overbearing StudentCouncilPresident and the well-intentioned but ''very'' nosy members of the Broadcasting Club. [[spoiler:The StudentCouncilPresident is messily murdered. And things go FromBadToWorse from then on.]]
49	* ''Manga/DevilsAndRealist'': the protagonist, Wiliam Twining, goes to an all-male boarding school in VictorianLondon which has a church on campus. Angels and demons regularly pose as students and faculty/staff.
50	* ''Manga/Eyeshield21'': Shinryuuji is revealed to be a boarding school.
51	* ''Manga/HauntedJunction'': Haruto and Kazumi are tasked with infiltrating an all-boys boarding school where the boys are attacked by the [[CuteGhostGirl sexy female ghost]] who haunts the bathrooms. [[spoiler:She is the Blue Spot Girl, Red Mantle's long-lost and antagonistic younger sister.]]
52	* ''Manga/HereIsGreenwood'': Set in the "boarding dorm" of a prestigious high school. Most of the students live at home, but none of those are in the central cast. Two of the central cast ''could'' live at home but choose not to.
53	* ''Toys/{{Jewelpet}}'':
54	** ''Anime/JewelpetSunshine'': Sunshine Academy. It's a co-ed high school with separate dormitories for boys and girls.
55	** ''Anime/JewelpetHappiness'': Jewel Academy. It's a very large and fancy ElevatorSchool with dorms for the students to commute to. It's also co-ed.
56	** ''Anime/LadyJewelpet'': the Jewel Palace and the Royal Palace are functionally schools so large that their students are expected to live there (they ARE palaces), and they're dedicated to teaching girls to be ladies and boys to be gentlemen. Though they're co-ed, girls and boys are usually separated since they learn very different things, coming together for exams that require them both (not that they don't hang out in their free time).
57	* Downplayed in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar''. Shuchi'in Academy has both boys' and girls' dorms, though most of the cast (including all the main characters) live off-campus with their families. Only two characters (Kazeno and Makkii-senhai) are actually confirmed to live in the dorms.
58	* ''Franchise/LittleWitchAcademia'' takes place in Luna Nova Magical Academy. A [[ElaborateUniversityHigh very large]] all-girls MagicSchool.
59	* Flora Girls' Academy for Witches in ''VideoGame/LapisReLights'' is this, alongside a WizardingSchool and an ElaborateUniversityHigh. It needs to be this, considering it hosts a number of international students from all over the world.
60	* Fuuka Academy in ''Anime/MyHime'' and Garderobe Academy in ''Anime/MyOtome''.
61	* Mahora Academy in ''Franchise/{{Negima}}'' (a [[ElaborateUniversityHigh big]] one, too).
62	* The setting for the anime adaptation of the ''Literature/StClares'' series, ''Anime/MischievousTwinsTheTalesOfStClares'', was adapted into German, Spanish, Italian, French, and Arabic, but never into English.
63	* ''VisualNovel/OtobokuMaidensAreFallingForMe'': The main characters attend an all-girls boarding school. In fact, Mizuho's dead grandfather states in his will that if Mizuho wants to properly become his heir, he must disguise himself as a girl and attend said school without being discovered. [[spoiler:Said boarding school also was the ''alma mater'' of Mizuho's MissingMom... and her dead roommate who had a massive crush on her returns as a ghost...]].
64	* ''Literature/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.
65	* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'': St. Rudolph is not just a Catholic school but also one of these. This is a huge plot point in the Saint Rudolph's arc since [[spoiler:Fuji's younger brother Yuuta, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter in his quest for his own identity]], chose SR as his school because among other things, it had a dorm and thus he could move out of home. He stays there even after his CharacterDevelopment in said arc.]]
66	* The school attended by the main characters of ''Manga/PrincessPrincess'' is similar to the above example in this regard. There's also the option of living in the dorms during summer vacation albeit the number of students who choose to do so aren't enough to justify keeping the air-conditioner on.
67	* ''Anime/PrincessTutu'': Kinkan Academy (translated as "Gold Crown Academy" for the dub).
68	* ''Manga/PrivateActress'': Ryoukou Academy is this and an incredibly prestigious ElaborateUniversityHigh, never mind the very odd demises of least five students and one teacher. And then Shiho is hired to infiltrate it and investigate the latest death, involving a girl who was literally [[StockShoujoBullyingtactics bullied to death]]...
69	* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': The deceptively gorgeous Ohtori Academy. No wonder there's so much SceneryPorn.
70	* ''Manga/SilverSpoon'' mixes things up a little and makes it a rural agricultural school.
71	* ''Manga/SweetBlueFlowers'': None of the main characters live in the dorms, but the fancier school is boarding-optional.
72	* The yuri manga ''Manga/TokimekiMononokeJogakkou'' takes place in one of these.
73	* ''Manga/VampireKnight'': Cross Academy.
74	* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Duel Academia.
75	* Two mangas by Creator/KeikoTakemiya (''Manga/KazeToKiNoUta'' and ''Manga/NatsuENoTobira'') and one by Creator/MotoHagio (''Manga/TheHeartOfThomas'') take place in boarding schools which were inspired by the French film ''Les amities particulieres''.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Comic Books]]
79	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, which is a separate place from, and should not be confused with Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. That's right, the X-men had TWO boarding schools (before they moved to San Francisco).
80	* The ''StTrinian's'' school for girls, as shown in Ronald Searle's wonderful comics.
81	* ''ComicBook/MorningGlories'': Morning Glory Academy.
82	* The Winker Watson strip in ''ComicBook/TheDandy'' was set in a boarding school named [[Literature/{{Greyfriars}} Grey Towers]].
83	* "The Four Marys" from ''ComicBook/{{Bunty}}'' was set in the fictional St. Elmo's boarding school.
84	* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
85	** When Tim first tracks down Dick and asks him to come back to Gotham to partner with Bruce again, he's in a boarding school for middle school and says he's gone to boarding school all his life. He'd evidently gotten really good at sneaking out. He manages to talk his mom into letting him go to public high school.
86	** ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tim's father loses patience with his supposedly bad record (despite his getting excellent grades) and after realizing Tim didn't try out for football he yanks him out of public school to send him back to boarding school, at Brentwood Academy, in the middle of his freshman year of high school. Tim adjusts to the school but compares it to a prison and is almost happy when his dad makes a financial blunder that bankrupts him and causes him to stop paying Tim's tuition.
87	** ''ComicBook/GothamAcademy'' takes place at the titular school, where most students live on campus and some special cases live there even during summer break because they have no other housing and the school is their guardian due to their parents being incarcerated or deceased.
88	* ''ComicBook/AllGhoulsSchool'' is set in a [[OneGenderSchool girls]] boarding school that is also an AllGhoulsSchool.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Fan Works]]
92	* For a while it was generally [[{{Fanon}} assumed]] by the ''Series/{{Glee}}'' fandom that Dalton Academy was a boarding school, for a few different reasons: because Dalton fit the image of a boarding school, because it's far enough between Lima (where Kurt lives) and Westerville (where Dalton is) that a daily commute seemed improbable, and because the idea of an all-boys' boarding school existing within canon greatly appealed to many fans. It was {{Jossed}} eventually when Kurt mentioned in passing that he still lived at home, but many fanfic writers still hold onto the idea, either by [[{{Handwave}} explaining away]] or outright ignoring Kurt's comment, or by having Dalton be a boarding school that also has day students.
93	* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' continuum, author [[Creator/AAPessimal A.A. Pessimal]] has taken Terry Pratchett's concept of the boarding school - [[WordOfGod Pratchett famously said]] he ''took a typical British boarding school and turned all the knobs up - especially the one labelled "violence"'' - and elaborated on it still further, adding more detail and new ideas, especially about the new tensions caused by the A.G. school going co-educational. Pessimal has written a few stories revolving round events at this singular school. A typical one might be [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8774066/1/There-s-nothing-like-a-fresh-pair-of-eyes-is-there Fresh Pair of Eyes]], or [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5055274/1/The-Graduation-Class The Graduation Class]], or [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5423228/1/Murder-Most-Orrible Murder Most 'Orrible]].
94	* Alongside the aforementioned case of the Saint Rudolph School, a pretty persistent fanon in ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' dictates that Hyotei Gakuen might be a boarding school for rich kids, based on how one of their top players is from outside Tokyo (more exactly, from the Kansai area). It has neither been confirmed nor {{Jossed}} in canon.
95	* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has a slightly meta example in that the author periodically makes reference to attending/having attended a British Boarding School, with the odd, slightly dark comment about what it's like, and the occasional confirmation that Hogwarts is very true to life... except that in real life, there is ''much'' more sex and violence. Particularly violence. Doesn't, however, often come across since most of the action is set outside of Hogwarts.
96	* [[Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook Skyhold Academy]] is a boarding school, with the series being a modern HighSchoolAU type of setting for ''Franchise/DragonAge''. It subverts a lot of the tropes, however, not least because of its [[SaveOurStudents true mission]], and the plots focus much more on the TeachersOutOfSchool than on the students.
97	* The ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/{{Outcast}}'', being a HighschoolAU, takes place at the exclusive St. Hetalia Academy for Boys. The St. Hetalia campus is dominated by a towering lakefront castle/ mansion with dorms, classrooms, school library, and even a subterranean hot spring and spa all located in the same building. A sister school, the St. Hetalia Girl's Conservatoire, is also mentioned.
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
101	* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'' is about Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy getting jobs as gym teachers at an all-girls boarding school for female monsters--they signed a contract to stay on at least for at least one school year, though Shaggy and Scooby initially tried backing out after discovering the true nature (as they had initially assumed that it was a school for female humans).
102	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrysMovie'' has Nigel's mother convince him and his wife, Marianne, to send their youngest daughter, Eliza, to an all-girls boarding school in London, England to be more "civilized" and have a calmer lifestyle. Darwin manages to sneak along with her by hiding in her luggage.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
106	* ''Film/AuRevoirLesEnfants'' happens in a French boarding school during WWII.
107	* ''Film/AlmostAngels'' takes place (and was filmed) in the RealLife [[BigFancyHouse Palais Augarten]], a former Imperial palace used by the Vienna Boys Choir as a boarding school.
108	* ''Film/CryWolf'' is set in one of these, but does not really use its tropes.
109	* ''Film/{{Class\|1983}}'', starring Creator/RobLowe & Creator/AndrewMcCarthy, in which [=McCarthy=]'s character is a working-class type straining upwards and Lowe's character is a super-rich blue blood...and [=McCarthy=] has sex with Lowe's mom.
110	* ''Film/{{Cracks}}'' is set in a British boarding school for girls.
111	* ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'' takes place at an American boarding school for boys in Vermont during the autumn of 1959.
112	* Auradon Prep from ''Film/{{Descendants}}''.
113	* ''Film/TheEmperorsClub'' is about an American private school. This one's from the point of view of a teacher, the school is a good place, and it's all thoroughly in the tradition of molding boys into men, etc. There's still some of the "overbearing rich parent damages adolescent son" plot, but that's treated as more of a sad fact of life than an indictment of the whole system.
114	* The heroine of ''Film/FireWithFire1986'' attends an all-girls Catholic boarding school.
115	* John Dugian's ''Film/{{Flirting}}'' is set in an Australian one of these, or rather a pair of them (one for each gender) set across a lake from each other.
116	* In ''Film/FreshMeat'', Hemi believes that he needs to drink the blood of his virgin daughter in order to gain immortality. This is why he sent her to an [[OneGenderSchool all-girls]] boarding school. Too bad he hadn't factored on lesbians.
117	* In ''Film/TheHairyBird'', a.k.a ''All I Wanna Do'' or ''Strike!'', the teenage protagonists attend an all-girls boarding school set in Connecticut during the 1960s.
118	* ''Film/HandsomeDevil'': A teenage boy moves to an Irish boarding school and is put in a dorm with someone completely different. While Ned is into the alternative music scene and playing guitar, Connor is passionate about soccer. They bond over their interest in the guitar, but people start to suspect Ned is gay and bully him for it.
119	* Much of ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' takes place at Hogwarts, a boarding school for wizards.
120	* The cult British film ''Film/If1968'' deconstructs this viciously. Most famous for launching Creator/MalcolmMcDowell's career.
121	* ''Film/LovingAnnabelle'': Annabelle is sent to a Catholic boarding school by her mother, as she's been expelled from her past two schools. We're told that if she's expelled from this as well, she'll go to military school. [[spoiler:It doesn't work, and she will likely be sent there in the wake of the film's events.]]
122	* ''Film/MommieDearest'', Like in daughter Christina Crawford's autobio, first sent to Chadwick, then Flintridge Sacred Heart under total isolation from the outside world.
123	* ''Film/PrivateSchool'', starring Creator/PhoebeCates and Creator/MatthewModine.
124	* The ''Film/StTrinians'' series. This series is most notable for popularising the "[[SexySchoolwoman sexy female school uniform]]" trope.
125	* ''Film/ScentOfAWoman'' is about a poor boy who has a scholarship at an expensive American boarding school that prides itself on producing good future Officers for the Army, as he takes an extra-curricular job looking after a blind ex-officer who teaches him to stop being so driven and to enjoy the finer, simpler things in life (i.e. ''the scent of a woman'').
126	** His school only becomes a main part of the film towards the climax.
127	* In ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'' the Baroness jokes about sending the children off to boarding school when Max laughs at the idea of her being a mother to seven children. At least we think she was joking...
128	* ''Film/SchoolTies'' is set at an American boarding school in Massachusetts during the 1950s.
129	* ''Film/{{Taps}}'' is set at Bunker Hill Academy, a military school whose cadets stay in barracks on campus.
130	* ''Film/ToySoldiers'' takes place in a boarding school full of kids who've been kicked out of other boarding schools. A ragtag group of misfits, if you will. And then the terrorists come...
131	* ''Film/UpsideDownMagic'' has the Sage Academy for Magical Studies.
132	* ''Film/WildChild'' has this boarding school in England.
133	* The ''Film/YoungSherlockHolmes'' movie.
134	* In ''Film/Mandy1952'', the residential Bishop David School for the Deaf is supposed to be one, but Mandy adjusts so badly to campus life that the headmaster makes an exception for her and lets her live in an apartment with her mother.
135	* ''Film/TheGettingOfWisdom'' is set in an all-girls' school located near UsefulNotes/{{Melbourne}} in the [[TheGay90s 1890s]].
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Folklore]]
139	* ''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 [[{{Satan}} Devil]] who runs the place keeps one of their souls as the class's tuition.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Literature]]
143	* ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'', by Thomas Hughes, is the [[TropeMaker genre-founder]], published in 1858. It is set at the real Rugby School, which Hughes attended.
144	* The other TropeMaker is ''Literature/EricOrLittleByLittle'', by Frederic W Farrar, also first published in 1858. Farrar was a master at Marlborough College, although the novel is set at the fictional Roslyn School. Its reputation compared to Hughes' novel has suffered from its extremely melodramatic tone, overt religious fervour, and DownerEnding.
145	* The TropeCodifier of the British boys' boarding school story, however, is the Literature/{{Greyfriars}} stories by Frank Richards (real name Charles Hamilton), known for their BreakoutCharacter, Billy Bunter.
146	* The TropeCodifier for the girls' boarding school story is the work (over fifty novels) of Angela Brazil. They were the original source of most of the tropes that came to be regarded as boarding school cliches in later years and suffered badly from OnceOriginalNowCommon as a result.
147	* ''Literature/{{Madeline}}'' takes place in a French one. (It's an orphanage in some of the adaptations, but in the original books it's a boarding school; in one of the books we see Madeline's parents.)
148	%%* Spence in the ''Literature/GemmaDoyle'' trilogy.
149	* Creator/CSLewis' first autobiography goes into great detail about his rather traumatic experiences at two different boarding schools in his childhood.
150	** Creator/RoaldDahl's autobiographical 'Boy' isn't full of happy moments either.
151	** 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...
152	* ''[[Literature/TheGreatBrain The Great Brain at the Academy]]'' by John Dennis Fitzgerald. It's mentioned in every book that anyone wanting more than a sixth grade education has to go boarding school in Provo or Salt Lake City until some parents get together and build a seventh and eighth grade "academy".
153	* The YA series ''Literature/PenPals'' by Sharon Denis Wyeth features students at a girls' boarding school in New Hampshire who seek pen pals from the local boys' boarding school.
154	* ''Literature/IsThatYouMissBlue'' by M.E. Kerr.
155	* ''Literature/{{Prep}}'' by Curtis Sittenfeld.
156	* ''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.
157	* Most of the first decade's worth of Creator/PGWodehouse's books, including ''Mike'', which introduces the character ''Literature/{{Psmith}}''. He had a couple different ones, of which at least St. Austin's and Wrykyn are the setting of more than one story. Neither is [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors horrible]], but do have a strong focus on sports (cricket and football, of the [[RugbyIsSlaughter rugby]] flavour, being the main ones) and house-pride. Even when the school itself is out of focus, friendships maintained from it can still be relevant to the plot -- for example, Literature/{{Ukridge}} (who was expelled from Wrykin) spends most of his time sponging off old school friends.
158	* ''Literature/{{Jennings}}'' is the TropeCodifier for the comedy boarding school subgenre, concentrating on pranking and {{Zany Scheme}}s.
159	* Creator/EnidBlyton's had three series centred around this, all of them pretty similar - ''Literature/StClares'', ''Literature/MaloryTowers'' and ''Literature/TheNaughtiestGirl in the School'' (although the ''Naughtiest Girl'' novels were unusually not set in a OneGenderSchool). Most of her other series' protagonists - e.g. those of ''Literature/TheFamousFive'' books - are mentioned as attending these as well.
160	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is set in one of these. Creator/JKRowling's great achievement is not so much the fantasy fiction element of the ''Potter'' novels, but that she reinvented and breathed new life into what was by the start of the 21st Century a moribund clichéd genre - the boarding school novel. Rowling confirmed in July 2015 in answer to a fan dispute that Hogwarts is not a fee-charging school, however; all tuition is paid for by the Ministry of Magic.
161	* ''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.
162	* Brazilian realism novel ''Literature/TheAthenaeum'' 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."
163	* The beginning of ''Literature/JaneEyre'', though this predates the genre proper. Subverted in that Lowood is not a comfortable or even reasonably accommodating place for middle-class students, but a charity institution for orphan girls; it is a textbook BoardingSchoolOfHorrors and the girls there are horribly mistreated by orders of the HolierThanThou owner, despite the opposition of a more reasonable governess. [[spoiler: Until an epidemic exacerbated by the insufficient food and heating breaks out and several students die.]] It's based on the real Clergy Daughters School and its typhus scandal, so closely that when the book came out everybody knew who she was talking about. She lost her two older sisters there.
164	* The ''Literature/ChaletSchool'' books by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer.
165	* The ''Literature/{{Dimsie}}'' books and the ''Literature/{{Springdale}}'' books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce.
166	* Garnet goes off to a boarding school towards the end of Jacqueline Wilson's ''Literature/DoubleAct''; when she writes home, she says it's nothing like what Creator/EnidBlyton portrayed.
167	* The majority of ''Literature/MySisterJodie'' 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.
168	* The Creator/AgathaChristie novel ''Literature/CatAmongThePigeons''.
169	* ''Les Disparus de Saint-Agil''
170	* Aglionby Academy in ''Literature/TheRavenCycle''. None of the main characters actually live on campus, but they do still attend classes and have plenty of the boarding school tropes.
171	* The ''Literature/BrunoAndBoots'' book series by Creator/GordonKorman, set at Macdonald Hall, which is near the fictional town of Chutney, Ontario, a relatively short distance from Toronto. Also featured in the series is Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School for Young Ladies.
172	* The story of Rachel Klein's novel ''Literature/TheMothDiaries'' unfolds in a boarding school.
173	* ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' begins at a boarding school...as Holden is expelled. The rest of the novel is him bumming around New York for a few days before Christmas break, at which point he'll have to go home and tell his parents.
174	* The Literature/CiaphasCain novel ''Cain's Last Stand'' features the titular now-retired commissar as a teacher at a Schola Progenium, a sort of state-run boarding school for orphans specifically devoted to educating future members of the Ecclesiarchy and the Commissariat. This being the TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} universe and Cain being a '''Hero of the Imperium''', not much time is devoted to actually developing much beyond Cain's class and work associates before the action starts. However, from the innumerable references to Cain's own experiences in a similar body, it's clear that the Scholae Progenia are essentially British boarding schools InSPACE!
175	* Coates Academy in the ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series is a boarding school specifically for "difficult" kids.
176	* Mordantly documented by [[Literature/{{Molesworth}} Nigel Molesworth]] (with [[Film/StTrinians Ronald Searle]] doing the illustrations) in ''Down with Skool!'' and its sequels.
177	* Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women in ''[[Literature/TheGallagherGirls I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You]]''.
178	* Alabaster Prep in ''TheDisreputableHistoryOfFrankieLandauBanks''.
179	* Literature/ASeparatePeace is a rare American example.
180	* Miss Minchin's boarding school in ''Literature/ALittlePrincess''.
181	* Easton Academy in ''Literature/{{Private}}'', as well as Atherton-Pryce in the SpinOff ''Privilege''.
182	* Ariadnio in ''Literature/GreekNinja'' is a school in Greece, with students coming from all over Europe to study.
183	* In Creator/{{Edgar Allan Poe}}'s short story ''William Wilson'', [[FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator the narrator]] attended one of these in his youth.
184	* Mercedes Lackey's [[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Valdemar]] novels have elements of this, particularly those set at the Collegia in Haven.
185	* Bethel Woods Orphanage from ''Literature/Hours2012'' is actually more of a boarding school for gifted geniuses. Who also happen to be orphans.
186	* Paul Murray's ''Literature/SkippyDies'' (set in Dublin).
187	* Creator/EvelynWaugh's first novel, ''Literature/DeclineAndFall'', is largely set at one of these, though it concerns one of the tutors rather than the students themselves.
188	* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/BetweenPlanets'' begins with Don Harvey attending one for several years on Earth while his parents are busy with archaeological digs on Mars. Aside from academics, it is also a dude ranch with each boy being assigned a horse to care for.
189	* ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight''.
190	* The children of ''Literature/EndersGame'' attend a futuristic one.
191	* ''Literature/TheLiarNovel'', which has SituationalSexuality all through it -- unsurprisingly.
192	* In ''Literature/TheMigaxCycle'', Aksel is a boarding school that the main characters attend.
193	* Ursula Nordstrom's classic ''Literature/TheSecretLanguage'' 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.
194	* The first half of ''Literature/ACollegeOfMagics'' covers the protagonist's time at Greenlaw College, the boarding school of the title, and hits many of the tropes for the girl's boarding school subgenre.
195	* In ''Literature/TheIslandOfSheep'', Haraldsen enrolls his daughter in an English boarding school under an assumed name to keep her out of the sights of the criminals who are pursuing him. When Lombard goes to retrieve her, one step ahead of the villains, the school is like something out of an Angela Brazil book, and so is she. She becomes less like a school-story character the more time she spends away from the school.
196	* Book five of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', The Austere Academy, is set in Prufrock Prep, an [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors abominable boarding school]]. Although instead of the usual boarding school tropes there's trademark Snicket weirdness, like a teacher who only teaches how to measure things, a GiftedlyBad violinist vice-principal who makes students attend his recitals, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick a new PE instructor who's really Count Olaf]]...
197	* The Tower of ''Literature/TheGirlWhoDrankTheMoon'' trains the Sisters of the Star with both combat practice and classic scientific education, but all students are expected to leave their families and live at the Tower for the duration of their service.
198	* 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."
199	* ''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.
200	* Vanessa from ''Literature/MyDarkVanessa'' is sexually abused by her English teacher while attending a boarding school in Maine.
201	* ''Literature/Olivia1949'' is about a teenage girl who is sent to finishing school and falls for her female teacher.
202	* 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]].
203	* In ''Literature/NavigatingEarly'', Jack is sent from Kansas to a boys' academy in Maine because his mother died and his father is fighting in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. He befriends Early, an orphan who attends school there for free because his father was on the board of trustees.
204	* ''Literature/StrawberryPanic'': Astrea Hill's three schools, in which the series is entirely set in, are all prestigious girls-only boarding schools. Makes it easy to isolate all the {{yuri\|Genre}} melodrama from the outside world.
205	* ''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.
206	* ''Literature/VoidDomain'' has Brakket Magical Academy, one of five boarding schools for magic around the United States.
207	* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'':
208	** The stories mostly take place at Whateley Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire.
209	** 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.
210	* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' has Jade Mountain Academy, a boarding school for dragonets of all tribes founded by the protagonists of the first arc.
211	* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Both Knightcharm, the 'good' school where the protagonist starts out, and Myth/TheScholomance, 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.
212	* ''Literature/JaneEyre'': During her childhood, Jane is sent to a horrible one. Also applicable to all film versions .
213	* The Jeremiah School Of Young Prophets in ''Literature/TheJeremiahSchool'' is an American boarding school, where young children who are called to be prophets of God go to.
214	[[/folder]]
215
216	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
217	* ''Series/DanceAcademy'' is an entire show about an Australian boarding school for dancers.
218	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]] is set in a boys' boarding school and the town near it in 1913, when it gets attacked by aliens because the [[HumanityEnsues temporarily-human]] and [[FakeMemories amnesiac]] Doctor is hiding out there as a teacher.
219	%%* ''Series/TheFactsOfLife''
220	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Chandler reveals he attended boarding school. The details aren't revealed (apart from being all boys), but he doesn't make it sound like fun and it's hinted he was bullied.
221	* Medenham Hall in ''Series/{{Hex}}''. That is, until [[spoiler:Malachi burns it down...]]
222	* ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'', where all the action takes place in a British Boarding School that was built originally as a real house for a famous archaeologist. Despite its appearance and charm, it's more of a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors.
223	* ''Series/MadMen'': Teenage Sally Draper gets sent to Miss Porter's School, an old (for the U.S.) and exclusive all-girls boarding school in Connecticut, for high school. She doesn't like it much, and at first gets up to antics there, including sneaking in boys and beer (getting suspended for the latter), but later matures, especially after [[spoiler:her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer]].
224	* ''Series/MaggieAndBiancaFashionFriends'' is set in the Fashion Academy of Milan, an international boarding school, and Maggie herself is a ScholarshipStudent.
225	* The short-lived ''Series/MakeItPop'' revolves around three female students at a boarding school who form a band.
226	* The Argentinian SoapOpera ''[[http://www.delboca.net/spanish/tele_files/perla.html Perla Negra]]'' starts in a boarding school for rich girls located in the Argentinian countryside. Two former students, Eva and the titular Perla, get in a car accident: Eva dies, Perla survives but is mistaken as Eva, and she [[DeadPersonImpersonation decides to maintain the masquerade]] to protect Eva's baby son Charlie, [[ParentalSubstitute whom she loves as if he were her own child]], from Eva's BigScrewedUpFamily. [[spoiler:What Perla doesn't know is that she was dropped off at the school when she was a baby, with 22 authentic black pearls to pay for her education, and that she'll eventually learn ''who'' did this to her and ''why''...]]
227	* Parodied and subverted to hell and back in ''Tompkinson's Schooldays'', the first episode of ''Series/RippingYarns''. Actually, Greybridge itself (the school in the story) probably counts as more of a Boarding School Of Horrors, but it's intended as a parody of this trope.
228	* The forgotten teen sitcom ''Series/RunningTheHalls'' was ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' [-[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN A BOARDING SCHOOL!]]-]
229	* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' put [[AlphaBitch Libby]] [[PutOnABus on a bus]] in season 4 and explained that her parents had sent her away to boarding school.
230	* ''Series/TowerPrep'' is set in a boarding school, which none of the students know where it is, or why they're there.
231	* ''Series/USAHigh'', a '90s series from the same people who brought you ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' and ''Running the Halls'', was basically [-[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace SAVED BY THE BELL IN PARIS!]]-]
232	* ''Series/StrangeDaysAtBlakeHolseyHigh'' is about a group of teens discovering a wormhole in the science classroom of their Canadian boarding school.
233	* The third episode of ''Series/{{Threshold}}'' is set at a MilitarySchool-type boarding school.
234	* The premise of ''Series/{{Wednesday}}'' is Wednesday Addams being transferred to Nevermore Academy, the boarding school that her parents met at, because none of the local schools are willing to take her anymore.
235	* ''Series/TheWorstWitch'' is set in a boarding school for young witches.
236	* The entire point of ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'', in perfect combination with ElaborateUniversityHigh.
237	* Season 3 of ''Series/ANTFarm'', where the students move to a technologically advanced boarding school.
238	[[/folder]]
239
240	[[folder:Music]]
241	* Bob Geldof, lead singer of TheBoomtownRats, describes his experiences at a Catholic boarding school in Ireland during The70s in his memoirs. It was [[BoardingSchoolOfHorrors not a pleasant experience]] to put it mildly, and contributed greatly to his disenchantment with the Catholic Church.
242	* Music/PetShopBoys' "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave" is a more restrained but still negative depiction.
243	[[/folder]]
244
245	[[folder:Video Games]]
246	* ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' plays with a lot of these tropes, though the game is set in New England. Some of the Preppies even affect upper-class English accents to suit -- which they tend to drop when angered.
247	* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' is set at Blackwell Academy, an elite co-ed boarding school in Oregon.
248	* Main setting of ''VideoGame/LuminousArc3'', although the students are only shown in class twice and even then they're barely learning.
249	* Main setting of ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlrevis'' and [[VideoGame/ManaKhemia2FallOfAlchemy its sequel]].
250	* In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', Gekkoukan High seems to have both day students and student dorms. However, the main characters live in a boarding house some distance away from the actual campus.
251	* ''[[VideoGame/NancyDrew Warnings at Waverly Academy]]''.
252	* St. Frost Academy in ''VideoGame/WastedYouth''.
253	* The Gardens in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''.
254	* The Officer's Academy of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' is a boarding school and MilitaryAcademy. The titular three houses refer to the Black Eagles, the Blue Lions, and the Golden Dear, the houses for students from the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance (respectively).
255	* ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': [[AcademyOfAdventure Naranja/Uva Academy]] is a huge school which includes dorm rooms, since it attracts people from all ages from all over Paldea. It's not completely a boarding school, since students who live in Mesagoza, the town where the academy is located, aren't allowed to have dorm rooms (not that they would ''need'' them anyway). Also, the majority of students from the neighboring town of Los Platos don't bother with the dorms either and preffer commuting each day.
256	[[/folder]]
257
258	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
259	* ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'' takes place in a co-ed boarding school.
260	* Kanenone Gakuen ("Sound of the Bell Academy"), the school in ''VisualNovel/GreenGreen'', which is an isolated all-boys school at the start, but is invaded by girls, making it co-ed.
261	* ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' takes place in one for the disabled.
262	* ''VisualNovel/MagicalDiary'' takes place in a boarding WizardingSchool but subverts the British trope expectations. While there are Halls, it's purely a social grouping, there's no competition between them. The only sports games involve students from all Halls taking part just for fun. There ''is'' a (brief) equivalent of fagging, in the American hazing tradition of Freshman Initiation.
263	* ''VisualNovel/MissingStars'' takes place in a Vienna boarding school that helps students with mental health issues.
264	* ''VisualNovel/PrincessEvangile'' takes place in an exclusive [[OneGenderSchool all-girls]] school that seeks to subvert its status as such due to financial troubles.
265	[[/folder]]
266
267	[[folder:Webcomics]]
268	* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt''. Except so far the Houses seem to exist not to compete with each other, but give a measure of separation keeping some minimal sanity and safety for everyone involved, given that the students evidently include borderline {{Mad Scientist}}s, reincarnated [[TheFairFolk Fairies]] and ''really unusual'' cases.
269	* ''Webcomic/IFellInLoveSoITriedLivestreaming'': The main characters live in a co-ed dorm in Seishin Academy. Due to the dorm being co-ed, most of the rooms also have security cameras.
270	* Early chapters of ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}''.
271	* The Sokolov Academy, a boarding school for the children of wealthy and influential werewolves, is where most of the main cast of ''Webcomic/BadMoonRising'' first met. They return there for a school reunion of sorts in the second arc.
272	[[/folder]]
273
274	[[folder:Web Original]]
275	* ''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.
276	* Shows up a few times in ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest''. Version one had students abducted from schools all over the world, a few of which were boarding schools, while version three's Dorian Sanders briefly spent time at one that may have been a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors.
277	[[/folder]]
278
279	[[folder:Western Animation]]
280	* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko''. Interestingly, the school the children go to is heavily visually based on real locations in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It isn't a boarding school in real life though; the writers consciously changed that to keep the characters together (even though one does live off-campus).
281	* ''WesternAnimation/JamesBondJr'', the AnimatedAdaptation of ''Franchise/JamesBond''.
282	* ''WesternAnimation/UltimateBookOfSpells'': The WizardingSchool is just one of the many reasons the cartoon is considered a copy of ''Literature/HarryPotter''.
283	* ''Toys/PollyPocket'': Polly Pocket's would-be [[WickedStepmother stepmother]] tried to convince Polly's father to send her to one.
284	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' called [[Recap/AmericanDadS15E19TopOfTheSteve "Top of the Steve"]], Steve and Roger run away to a boarding school called "Pendlingtonton Academy" after getting fed up with Stan's attitude. But shortly after arriving, they discover it's an [[OneGenderSchool all-girls school]] (Steve was let in due to some kind of technicality in the school's charter). After noticing how so much about their situation at PA is just very ''off'', Roger's GenreSavvy enough to figure out that the whole thing is a PoorlyDisguisedPilot for a spin-off with Steve as the lead character.
285	[[/folder]]
286
287	[[folder:Real Life]]
288	* The USA has a few schools like this, generally old and expensive and in the 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.
289	* In Japan, the boarding school idea shows up a few times, though not in the more realistic anime, because boarding schools are a foreign idea in Japan and its only real boarding schools are exclusively for international students. High schools are not region based but more like American colleges; as such, some students' parents [[MinorLivingAlone rent their kids small apartments or rooms]] so they can go to the school they attend without waking up really early or the whole family having to move to another city.
290	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BoardingSchool