The best days of their lives?

Boarders represent less than 1 per cent of the overall school population in Scotland (a mere 2,848 pupils), but though small in number, it’s a sector that’s becoming increasingly vocal, perhaps due to the nature the "new breed" of parents now involved.

Interestingly, year on year, more Scottish parents from a non-boarding background opt to invest an average 20,000 a year in a boarding education for their child.

So, what is tempting these "first-time buyers" into Scotland’s 21 boarding schools? And why are they often prepared to endure severe financial hardship to put their children through a system that many feel is outdated at best, and positively cruel at worst?

Brian and Dorothy Stewart from Skelmorlie, Ayrshire, who board their 14-year-old son, Chris, at Loretto School in Musselburgh, are among this new breed. Their son is part of the 30 per cent of today’s public school pupils whose parents did not board themselves.

"We had a positive experience with our daughters at the local state school; both went on to university and did well academically, but the lack of sport and non-academic opportunities was an issue. When we looked round at what the private sector had to offer it was night and day. Chris took to it like a duck to water and loves the camaraderie and non-stop sports on offer. We’ve no regrets."

Jane McCaul, from Kingussie, feels similarly. She has boarded three children, two from prep school onwards, and hasn’t had a holiday with her family for three years. Nor will she be changing her car for five years. "Treats like theatre outings are out of the question, and I regularly shop in charity shops. But I wouldn’t change it. My boys are so happy and stimulated by being in such an active and busy environment."

David and Jan Hill, with a son at Merchiston Castle and daughter at Glenalmond College agree. "We haven’t been able to implement home improvements, boost pensions, or buy a flat for our children to use at university, but our expectations of the boarding schools are more than 100 per cent fulfilled."

Headmasters from Scotland’s public schools are well aware that parental sacrifice is at an all-time high. An average fee increase of 9 per cent a year hits hard, especially at the 28 per cent of Scottish parents who earn less than 50,000 a year, yet still opt for boarding. This is education as expensive as it gets. Everything from exam fees (free to state school candidates) to text books and internet access are chargeable extras.

Astonishing as it may seem at a time when more than ever is being spent on state education in Scotland, boarding is buoyant. Girls boarding is 1.6 per cent up in the last year in Scotland, while the figure for boys is pretty static, but after a fall-off during the early 1990s it seems that, for a variety of reasons, boarding schools are well and truly back in fashion.

So why the reverse of fortunes? How can the market be sufficiently buoyant to justify the building of new boarding houses at schools like Glenalmond College and Merchiston Castle in the near future?

Adrian Underwood, the national director of the Boarding Schools Association, puts these changes, and the rise in boarding figures in recent years, down to the positive changes in contemporary boarding schools.

Citing a survey of 3,000 boarding sixth-formers, he claims that seven out of 10 rated their experience as "very good". Some 61.5 per cent of those surveyed said that the decision to board had been theirs. A total of 74.9 per cent believed boarding had enhanced their education, and 47.1 per cent said they would consider boarding for any children they might have in the future.

The increase in parental involvement is a key issue according to headmasters. Robert Tims, head of St Leonard’s School in Fife, says most of his parents are dual-income professionals who choose boarding as the way to give the best to their young, and stresses how much they want to be involved at weekends. To this end his school, and most others, now offer "flexi-board" - essentially a weekly boarding option that allows for family time after sports on a Saturday through to Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Unlike in previous decades, when boarding children regularly went a month or even a term without seeing their families, 80 per cent of today’s parents see their boarding children once a week, and 69 per cent of them now choose a boarding school within 50 miles of their home.

Higher divorce rates, long working days for both parents, and teenagers being increasingly mature and independent at a younger age also all play their part. But the over-riding reason is the huge increase in parental involvement.

As Michael Mavor, headmaster of Loretto, says: "Parents want to be in touch with their children and not just on mobile phones. They want to attend concerts and sports events and see their children regularly."

At Gordonstoun it’s a different scenario, reflecting the unique mix and location of this school. With only one third of the 450 pupils coming from Scotland, full-time boarding, with less parental involvement, is still very much the norm.

Glenalmond College, near Perth, also follows the 24/7 boarding ideology. The warden, Gordon Woods, believes that full-time boarding is best "as it’s at the weekends that the depth of friendships develop, and that’s where the time and space exists for so much that cannot be achieved during the week". With a roll now touching 400, this school dubbed "the Eton of the North" is about to begin a major programme of investment in their boarding houses "to ensure they reflect all the comforts of home".

But no matter how "homey" the boarding house is, whether you’re five or five hundred miles down the road is not the point, according to Nick Duffell, a psychotherapist and vehement anti-boarding campaigner, who attended an English public school in the 1960s. He doesn’t agree with "home away from home". Only real home will do, as far as he’s concerned.

He claims the damage boarding does to a child, especially before puberty, "stores up emotional problems for the rest of their lives".

In his book The Making of Them (Lone Arrow Press) he discusses how institutionalizing children and putting them into an environment where they have to develop a "performance attitude" to cope, greatly harms their emotional development. He calls boarding "an anachronism due to parental desire for status" and feels strongly about the political implications of giving charity status to these "privately owned companies".

He also argues that the glowing results of a recent VIth Form survey stems from the fact that the youngsters interviewed feel they "mustn’t fail their parents" when they know are sacrificing financially to give them this privilege.

The pro-lobby have little time for Duffell’s theories, saying they are outdated and extremist, though some, even "from within", would agree that at the time Duffell was at school, things were far from perfect.

Andrew Hunter, headmaster of Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, candidly says: "I myself hated my first two years at prep school and boarding school, but today, I would simply not tolerate the boarding atmosphere of yore. Today our parents play a crucial role, and also the pupils are part of the local community. It’s all much more "natural" than it used to be."

The fact that so many of his day pupils, who account for a quarter of the school roll, convert to boarding at senior level says positive things about this "contemporary" style of boarding.

"We offer activities every day of the week, including Sundays. I genuinely wish there were day schools that opened at 7am and had a new batch of staff coming in at 3pm, carrying on to supervise prep, and working hard to provide the best in academics, sport, music, drama and social development, but in the absence of that Utopian ideal, what boarding schools offer today is excellent. Yes, boarding schools have changed dramatically, and in many ways, it was right they changed."

So, forget Tom Brown’s Schooldays. These days individual study bedrooms have replaced draughty dorms; there are weekend activities such as supervised restaurant outings, and Sixth Formers (who generally sit A levels and are therefore often still at school beyond 18 years) have an alcohol allowance and are treated with a degree of independence their forefathers would have thought impossible.

At St Leonard’s Sixth Form College students have no school uniform, and they’re allowed to frequent "approved licensed premises". They can also pop into Dundee or Edinburgh at weekends, visiting the theatre, sporting events and art galleries.

Throughout Scotland co-ed is the norm, and although the prefect system is still very much a part of boarding life, "fagging" and beatings are decidedly things of the past.

If boarding teenagers is contentious, boarding primary age children can be dinner party arsenic. The concept of sending away a small child, according to Duffell and his followers, is "totally barbaric". Yet Loretto Junior School has doubled its intake in the past six years, while Belhaven Hill Preparatory School in East Lothian, who board children from 8 to 13 years, has increased its roll by 12 per cent in the past year.

Duffell finds this appalling, and claims that these young children will develop a "strategic survival personality", which will reveal itself in adulthood and cause "difficulties in forming intimate relationships". He now runs workshops for those who are "damaged" in this way.

Amanda and Jeff Swanson are about to start boarding their nine-year-old son Alexander at Belhaven. "We’ve been totally worn down by him. Having been a day boy since September at a school with mainly boarders, he now desperately wants to board. One of the most persuasive factors is that all the children there seem to love it, and if we pop in unexpectedly, they are all having such a great time. It’s younger than we would have chosen to let him go, but they come home every fortnight for the weekend and have all the comforts of home. His eldest brother didn’t board until senior school and feels positively deprived!" So, does Nick Duffell think there is any case for boarding schools in the 21st century?

"I would support one that took teenagers from 15 or 16, and gave them a shot at community living, while allowing them home for weekends - but entrance should not be dependant on parental income."

Sadly, I suspect, this is a scenario that would only be possible in the world of Harry Potter.

The Making of Them by Nick Duffell (20, Lone Arrow Press). Boarding School Survivors: 0207-267 7098; (www.boardingschoolsurvivors.co.uk). For further information on boarding schools see www.boarding-association.org.uk or www.iscis.uk.net