Guidance

Boarding schools: national minimum standards

The national minimum standards that boarding schools must meet to safeguard and protect the children in their care.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This guidance is for:

  • school leaders
  • school staff

It applies to:

  • boarding schools maintained by the local authority
  • independent boarding schools

It contains a statement of national minimum standards for boarding schools that provide accommodation for children.

National minimum standards for residential special schools are also available.

Updates to this page

Published 1 November 2012
Last updated 5 September 2022 + show all updates
  1. Removed 'National minimum standards for boarding schools: in force until 5 September 2022' and replaced with current 'National minimum standards for boarding schools'.

  2. Updated 'National minimum standards for boarding schools: in force from 5 September 2022' to add footnote 44 explaining that standard 20.10 (regarding boarders accessing staff residential accommodation) does not apply to public or shared use spaces. If such a space does exist within staff accommodation, the school should clearly communicate this in relevant policies and have a clear policy on safely managing the use of such spaces. New hyperlinks for QEG and AEGIS also added.

  3. Added 'National minimum standards for boarding schools: in force from 5 September 2022'.

  4. Updated document as a result of Ofsted inspections against the standards, and revisions to the independent school standards.

  5. First published.

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