James worked as a House Parent in the boys boarding house at Lord Wandsworth College. In this blog, he reflects on his experience working with English Study Camps in Hampshire.

James - House Parent at Lord Wandsworth College

After graduating in 2017, I joined the WSE Summer school in 2018 at Lord Wandsworth College as their boys House Parent for their boarding accommodation, after some time in a boarding school as an RA. Though not totally inexperienced when I joined, I was still young.

It was my first time managing a team within a boarding house and many of the responsibilities were new to me, having few international students in my state school position.

My time working with Paul that Summer cemented my passion for the role that I had been unsure about for the past year and led me to pursue a career in boarding. Being in a state boarding school the previous year, and having recently moved to an independent boarding school for the months leading up to camp, I was still relatively fresh into safeguarding and education and it was my experience leading the boarding house for the first time independently, combined with the invaluable guidance from Paul, his trust he displayed in me, and his willingness to share his experience, that made my decision to continue in International Boarding after camp that year.

Having the freedom to run the house my way, but always knowing I was trusted and supported, made camp a wonderful place to be as a young boarding staff member and, though I never did return for camp in the Summer, I would spend the following five years as a House Parent in a prestigious international boarding school before being promoted to Deputy Head of House for the end of the last academic year, and beginning this one. Whilst I’ve learned much these past years, it was the tricks and tips of boarding behaviour management and successful safeguarding that I picked up at WSE that have made me the successful pastoral practitioner that I am today!

The top three things about camp that year for me were:

The facilities! Having use of the squash courts, badminton courts, and astro turf were fantastic!
The comradery! Though a friend from home was present at the camp, I made many new friends from across the boarding, teaching, management, and the activity leaders of the camp that year, some of whom I stay regularly in contact with!
The freedom of creativity. The systems by which I ran that boarding house and the positive effects and changes we saw in those young people that year stay with me and I often recall them as some of my great successes in boarding, and this would not have been possible without the empathetic leadership and their enthusiasm to nurture the ability of their employees.