Boarding Houses

Students start their boarding journey in the dormitory layout of Le Roy. These dorms are small (with two or three other girls) in their room areas and girls move throughout the year so that they get to know each other well and form wider friendship groups. In their first year at St Swithun’s boarders forge strong friendships with each other and day girls alike, forming a continuous and supportive network which endures throughout their time at school.

Many of the older students choose to spend their spare time in Le Roy helping with prep, bonding with the youngest boarders and checking on LeRoy’s ‘Zoo’. Currently, Anna and Elsa, two tortoises, Tabasco – a chameleon, and puppy, Ivory, and Bleu, the resident Husky.

Girls in Le Roy spend time in the senior boarding houses throughout their year including movie nights and culminating in a much-enjoyed picnic and sleepover in the house which they will be moving into in year 8. Sleepovers are key events in St Swithun’s boarding life and are a central part of our community culture.

After their first year, our boarders move onto senior boarding houses. All rooms in the senior boarding houses are single occupancy, achieving a perfect balance between the fun of communal living and the personal, private space which is increasingly important to teenagers as they mature. Great care is taken to ensure an even distribution of age groups and nationalities across each house and there are strong relationships both between year groups and between the four different senior houses. Each senior house has between 35 and 45 girls with roughly eight from each year.

Our four senior boarding houses are: Hillcroft, Earlsdown, Hyde Abbey and High House. ​

We have plentiful common rooms, kitchens, reading areas and music spaces dotted around our boarding houses, which create areas for relaxation and community. Areas to have dance parties – and areas to sit quietly in and relax.

Once in U6, for their A level year, students move to Finlay house and both the boarders, and the day girls are united in one house. In Finlay, house students can work in house during their study periods, go to town for lunch and after school, work in the library and study centre in the evenings, have free access to our fitness suite, swimming pool and music practice rooms.

Our boarding system is designed to foster independent, mature and capable students who are well-prepared for life outside of school.