Prep Boarding at Taunton School

We find 45-55 full-time boarders to be an ideal number.  They live together as one extended happy family. Siblings that are together within the boarding house enjoy living together whilst those with siblings in our Senior School boarding houses find they have plenty of time to spend together.

Cultural diversity is important to us.  Whilst the majority of our boarders are British, we have a careful blend of other nationalities from all over the world.  Approximately two-thirds of the boarders are aged between 11-13 and one third between 7-10 years.  There is a fairly even split between boys and girls.

Taunton Prep School offers flexible boarding options to best suit your family’s needs. The options of weekly and flexi-boarding are popular with some parents and children, although the large majority of our full-time boarders stay in school during weekends.  Flexi-boarding can also provide a great opportunity for our boarders to spend more social time with our day pupils; strengthening bonds and friendship groups.

Our house parents are supported by numerous other team members including; assistant house parents, matrons and resident house tutors. They all provide excellent pastoral care and educational support to our boarding community.  Our 24 hour Health Centre has qualified nurses on-site, with doctors on-call if required.  We know the importance of ensuring our pupils have the support they need, both mentally as well as physically, and therefore also have professional school counsellors available.

Our boarding house has exceptional facilities, providing our pupils with a modern boarding experience.  This includes spacious dormitories, relaxing lounges and recreational areas (including a large cinema screen), a dedicated ICT suite, study areas and music practice facilities. Mealtimes take place in our main dining hall, The Densham Suite.

Homework for our boarders is supervised and supported by teachers every evening. Boarders with a keen interest in music benefit from dedicated sessions from one of our full-time music teachers, whilst there are also opportunities for them to get involved in dance and drama groups.

The large majority of our full-time boarders stay in school during weekends. On Saturday mornings, all pupils in Years 7 and 8 (including day pupils) have compulsory Saturday morning lessons, whilst over half of our day pupils in Years 3 to 6 choose to come into school for exciting enrichment activities.

Saturday mornings are therefore busy and sociable for all of our boarders. For the rest of the weekend, boarders enjoy matches against other schools, ‘down time’, trips into town, a varied range of organised activities, and, on Sundays, there is always a fun trip out of school to a local attraction.

We have an excellent reputation amongst the British military communities and always have a good number of boarders from military families.

Please click here for our dedicated page on our Military Family offering.

Mrs Wells, our Head of Boarding and Thone House Parent, lives in family accommodation forming an integral part of the boarding house with her husband and three children.  Mr Wells is a full-time teacher in the school and both of them have many years of experience in various other UK boarding schools. Mrs Wells boarded as a girl in a Prep School as her father was in the Navy.

Keeping in touch is vital for all members of the family.  Most pupils communicate without prompting on a daily basis with their families. House parents maintain communication with parents to ensure that they feel part of the community.