Articles

The successful adult men who are still frightened little boys inside because of the reign of terror inflicted by sadistic teachers at their elite public school

Visceral responses developed at boarding school are maintained in adult life.

Daily Mail 30 March 2024 – Read the article (needs subscription)

Many boys educated privately hand their trauma to the next generation – and, dangerously, to those who are raised to govern.

The Guardian 19 March 2024 – Read the article

See here for letters in response to this aticle.

The brother of Diana, princess of Wales, talks about his difficult decision to write about being physically and sexually abused and the resistance he faced from members of his own class.

The Observer 17 March 2024 – Read the article

In his new book A Very Private School, Princess Diana’s brother reveals how being trapped in a cruel and abusive school from the age of eight had a devastating effect on his life as an adult. It’s a story psychotherapist Joy Schaverien is all too familiar with and calls it Boarding School Syndrome.

The Independent 14 March 2024 – Read the article (needs subscription)

For as long as boarding school survivors govern Britain, they will inflict their own pain on the nation.

The New Statesman 12 March 2024 – Read the article

…it’s an urgent message for parents and all who care about children today.

Daily Mail 11 March 2024 – Read the article (needs subscription)

• Boarding school is seen as a privilege but Amelia came to view it as a punishment
• Amelia attended Christ’s Hospital, a boarding school in Horsham

The Daily Mail 24 August 2023 – Read the article

A new book, The Psychological Impact of Boarding School – the Trunk in the Hall, takes a new look at ‘boarding school syndrome’.

Early boarding in school can have a profound effect on psychological development, which lasts well beyond childhood and can have an impact on relationships in adult life.

The Times 8 January 2023 – Read the article (needs subscription)

Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy 23(2): 41-49

Journalist Charlotte Beale uses her own experience of boarding to question the validity of boarding schools.

Mad in the UK 19 December 2022 – Read the article

Amelia White examines what it’s like for girls growing up in a co-ed boarding school.

BACP Children, Young People & Families December 2022, 13-14.

This article first appeared in the December 2022 issue of BACP Children, Young People & Families, published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. © BACP 2022

Christine Jack links Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre to the author’s own traumatic experiences of boarding school, and analyses them in the light of contemporary research.

History of Education Review 51(2): 200-213

…that’s why I’m determined to expose the sex abuse rife in Britain’s finest schools

Alex Renton continues to assemble a devastating dossier of abuse.

• I’ve been trying to unravel the story of my time at my old school, Ashdown House
• Last week, Nicky Campbell spoke about the abuse he witnessed at school  
• I’ve been inundated with reports from former pupils of the most hideous abuse

The Daily Mail 5 August 2022 – Read the article

‘Boarding school does huge damage’

Bafta-winner Joanna Scanlan opens up on depression, drama and reinventing herself

“… my parents dropped me off and said goodbye in the car park, and I actively remember the moment of saying ‘I will not cry, and I will never cry’… And I decided I was never going to be homesick.”
Her mother wrote letters, but she never replied. “I just refused. Not consciously, of course. I was just so angry at some level, but couldn’t feel the anger because I couldn’t make the tears.” Instead, Scanlan “totally shut down”. 

The Daily Telegraph 15 June 2022 – Read the article

Gordon Knott and Thurstine Basset attended boarding schools before embarking on careers in mental health. In the first of a four-part series, they set the scene around surviving boarding school.

BACP Children, Young People and Families March 2022, 14-17.

This article first appeared in the March 2022 issue of BACP Children, Young People and Families published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. BACP 2022©.

His doting mother did it for love and to toughen him up… but the BBC radio host says it was a ‘crime’ to send him away

The Mail on Sunday 30 January 2022 – Read the article

The dominance of privately schooled pupils in public life presents as even more skewed if those figures are disaggregated by day private school and boarding private school.

Private Education Policy Forum 30 June 2021 – Read the article

An update, ten years on, from the therapist who coined the term Boarding School Syndrome.

British Journal of Psychotherapy 37(4): 606-622 – Read the abstract

A nice summary (not long at all) of Joy’s development of the notion of Boarding School Syndrome.

Private Education Policy Forum 9 December 2020 – Read the article

“A gripping study of the mental wounds inflicted by classic British institutions” – a review of Joy Schaverien’s seminal book on Boarding School Syndome in the year it was published.

The Guardian 8 June 2015 – Read the article

Discussion of working therapeutically with former boarders.

Journal of Analytical Psychology 49: 683-705 – Read the abstract

Personal experience and reflections on a workshop for boarding school survivors.

Attachment 1(3): 310-312.

Mary Stack writes about her experience of boarding school, responding to Nick Duffell’s book on the British attitude to children and the boarding school system entitled The Making of Them.

Attachment 2(3), 321-327 – Available here

A discussion of Simon Partridge’s 2007 article examining issues of attachment in young children.

Attachment 1(3): 310-312 – Available here

Identification of a cluster of symptoms relating to trauma from early boarding and proposal for a syndrome.

British Journal of Psychotherapy 27(2): 138-155 – Read the abstract

A paper is based on a talk given to the Inner City Centre Psychotherapy Charity on 26 January 2013. It was possibly the first time a boarding school survivor had addressed a group of therapists, counsellors and trainees as a survivor.

Attachment 7(2): 202-213.

Review of Joy Schaverien’s ground-breaking book on Boarding School Syndrome.

Attachment 10(3): 269-274.

The ex-boarder may never develop emotional intelligence.

The Guardian 10 May 2014 – Read the article

Boarding school education has been found to have a major impact on people’s long-term mental health and personal relationships. But, what exactly are these effects? Abigail spoke to Nick Duffell, an expert on the topic, as well as Chantal who experienced boarding school and its long-term impacts first-hand.

WellNews August 2021 – Read the article

We’ve all read of boys horribly abused, now meet the women who say emotional cruelty left them traumatised

It was supposed to be a luxury afforded only by privileged families, but the adverse effects of boarding schools are now being revealed. Experts say it can have severe effects on the mental health of children. Judith Okely, late 60s, and Margaret Laughton, 78, share their experiences.

The Daily Mail 23 July 2015 – Read the article

Violence, cruelty and sexual confusion are as much a part of boarding school literature as japes and cricket. Alex Renton surveys a troubled genre from Kipling to Rowling.

The Guardian 8 April 2017 – Read the article

Earlier in 2014, Alex Renton wrote about the abuse he suffered at boarding school. Among the hundreds of emails he received from men wanting to share their experiences, there were others from women – wives, mothers, sisters – who have watched in horror as the men they love struggle with their demons. Here, he tells some of their stories.

The Guardian 20 July 2014 – Read the article

For generations of boys, sexual abuse was part of the everyday cruelty of boarding school. In this painfully honest report, writer Alex Renton confronts the demons of his past at Ashdown House, where some of Britain’s most powerful men were also educated – and reveals the scale of the outrage about to engulf the private education system.

The Observer 4 May 2014 – Read the article

Nick Duffell reflects on the impact of identifying and elaborating the concept of ‘Boarding School Survivors’.

Self & Society 23(3): 20-23 – Read the abstract

In this article, Nick Duffell offers some notes on the difference in effects of boarding on men and women.

Self & Society 28(3): 29-33 – Read the abstract

Despite having been described by George Monbiot as ‘Britain’s most overt form of child abuse’, Nick Duffell wonders why we are resistant to acknowledging the problems associated with sending children to boarding school.

Therapy Today 22(3): 11-15 – Read the article

Nick Duffell argues that the emotional damage caused by the British boarding school system can be clearly seen in the attitudes and decisions  of its political elite.

Therapy Today 25(6): July 2014 – Read the article

The elite tradition is to send children away at a young age to be educated. But future politicians who suffer this ‘privileged abandonment’ often turn out as bullies or bumblers. A psychotherapist explains why.

The Guardian 9 June 2014 – Read the article

Boarding school, a peculiarly British form of abuse, has devastating impacts not only on the boarders, but on those they grow up to dominate.

The Guardian 7 November 2019; and now on his website.

Our elite schools foster emotional austerity and fierce clique loyalty. Here a privately educated writer of the prime minister’s generation reveals the lasting damage public schools do.

The Observer 8 Aug 2021 – Read the article

An examination of the less often explored impact on women of being sent away to boarding school at an early age.

Therapy Today 27(9): 20-23.

Brutalisation and “hardening” in Australian “ruling-class” boarding schools preparing boys for leadesrhip.

Men and Masculinities 7(4): 325-346 – Read abstract

Explores the troubled man behind the upper-class exterior. Looks to Rycroft’s early familial and boarding school environment to help explain his lack of fulfilment – despite his therapeutic and literary achievements.

Attachment 5(2): 154-153

This article explores the emotional and psychological effects of boarding in the context of (a) how authority operates in boarding schools; and (b) the implications for the boarder of the parental sanctioning of the experience.

Self & Society 33(5): 27-36 – Read the abstract

Why is it still acceptable to send young children to boarding school?

Published in The Guardian and now on his website.

While condemning global injustices against children, we fail to examine the ethics of removing seven-year-olds from their families. The sudden and repeated loss of parents can cause children to shut themselves off from the need for intimacy.

The Guardian 16 January 2012 – Read the article

An exploration of the psychological damage of being sent away to board at a young age.

Therapy Today 16(7): 7-9 – Reproduced here

Shock and trauma in connection with boarding school.

Self & Society 42(1-2): 42-43

A psychotherapist reflects on running workshops for those gay men who struggled to come to terms with their boarding school experience. Examines the negative impact boarding had on their lives.

Self & Society 33(3): 16-23 – Read the abstract

50 years on – the impact of a boarding school experience

The author prepares to revisit his prep school 50 years after he first boarded and reflects on its impact on his life.

The Independent Practitioner Winter 2006: 10-13

This article is a personal reflection on being able to tell a story through writing a book about surviving boarding school. It pays tribute to the journal Self and Society in its role of publishing innovative work. The author makes a plea for ‘home sickness’ to be renamed as ‘school sickness’ and for boarding issues to be incorporated into the training of therapists and counsellors.

Self & Society 46(1): 75-77

Describes the authors’ experience of attending a Boarding School Survivors workshop.

Openmind 131(Jan/Feb): 16-17

An article from psychotherapist and Boarding School Survivors founder Nick Duffell, based on an article which appeared in The Journal of the Mental Health Association, Queensland, Australia in 2005.

The Change Triangle® tool for emotional health is a guide to carry you from a place of disconnection back to your true Self. It’s a step-by-step process for simply feeling better. It works by getting you reacquainted with core emotions like joy, anger, sadness, fear, and excitement. To my own joy and satisfaction, it has helped me and many people I have worked with recover a vital, more engaged, more authentic Self.

Read the article on the author’s website.

See here for the book.

A new bibliography about the psychological issues associated with boarding schools. Prepared by Thurstine Basset.

Christine Jack and others talk about the long-lasting effects on them of boarding.

Follow-up to the radio interview of Christine Jack on Australia’s ABC News.

ABC News (Australia) 3 September 2020 – Read the article

NATIONAL BOARDING WEEK (22 – 28 June 2020)

We, a growing group of healthcare professionals, can see no reason to celebrate National Boarding Week, but instead we would like to highlight the damage to the health and well-being of young children that can be caused by sending them to boarding school.

The adverse psychological and social effects of this practice are well documented. This evidence should be acknowledged and the time is surely right to ‘follow the science’.

During the current worldwide pandemic, all parents are now weighing up the benefits and risks of sending their children back to school. For most parents this relates to a 6-hour day but parents of children at boarding schools have to consider that their children are at school for 24 hours a day.

In the UK we can see the impact of a culture that is fostered in boarding schools and is very apparent in social and political contexts. This culture is one that values the social status of a privileged education above the emotional security and healthy development of young children.

Sam Barber, Director BSS-Support
Frances Basset, Psychotherapist
Thurstine Basset, Author
Nick Duffell, Psychotherapist and Author
Pippa Foster, Psychotherapist
Marcus Gottlieb, Psychotherapist
Darrel Hunneybell, Psychotherapist
Gordon Knott, Director Youth Counselling Service
Margaret Laughton, Director BSS-Support
Sam Milford, Psychotherapist
Nicola Miller, Psychotherapist
Alex Renton, Journalist and Author
Joy Schaverien, Psychoanalyst and Author
Allison Ujejski, Director BSS-Support
Sara Warner, Psychotherapist

As background to his novel English Monsters, the article covers the work of Joy Schaverien, Nick Duffell and Alex Renton.

The Telegraph 22 February 2020 – Read the article

A Clique of ‘Pseudo-Adults’

Boris Johnson is the 20th prime minister to come out of Eton College. The school represents a system in which the elite stay among themselves and fail to see the problems of others. And it is becoming a serious problem for the country.

Spiegel International 9 August 2019 – Read the article

In William Wilson, the most autobiographical of his tales, Poe may have been portraying his own unspeakable boarding school experience.

The Millions 22 May 2019 – Read the article

Jane Barclay describes her experience of therapy as a boarding school survivor – as both client and therapist.

Self & Society 38(3): 27-34 – Read the abstract

Follow-on article in BSS-S newsletter – PDF download