The Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA) is committed to supporting everyone involved in boarding – adults and children – offering high quality guidance and training that benefits schools, their staff and, perhaps most importantly, the children and young people who board. Our primary objective is to raise professional standards and we have an extensive and diverse continuing professional development (CPD) and training programme for all staff working in boarding environments throughout the UK and beyond.
Core skills for all practitioners, especially those who are new to boarding, are central to our programme. through ‘Essentials for Boarding’ for teachers, matrons, nurses, gap and graduate assistants and secretaries, as well as ‘a range of programmes for boarding leaders. In addition, we offer more specialised seminars on a wide range of specific issues, particularly relating to safeguarding, both through BSA and our sister organisations, the Safeguarding and Child Protection Association (Sacpa), the Health in Education Association (Hieda) and the Inclusion and Equity Leadership Association (IELA). A number of day conferences are also run throughout the year for heads and for other boarding practitioners, focusing on issues such as mental health, immigration and safeguarding. Specific training content is also designed to meet the needs of prep schools, senior schools, state schools, sixth-form boarding and international colleges. The majority of our programme is online, but we also have face-to-face forums and conferences for boarding practitioners across the UK.
Alongside our webinars, seminars and conferences, we run our Advanced Certificate courses, linked to our Accredited Boarding Practitioner scheme to offer the very best in training for boarding staff across the world, including specialised courses for school nurses and other specialist roles The courses are led by the BSA team, supported by very experienced tutors from member schools and expert presenters who cover every aspect of boarding practice. The courses have been running for over 25 years, and are seen as the gold standard in training for pastoral staff in boarding schools. We also run the BSA Diploma Course twice a year for boarding leaders, offering further steps towards senior leadership, and the very popular Certificate in International Boarding. There is also a Masters in Residential Education in conjunction with the University of Buckingham.
Our work is centred on the requirements of the relevant National Minimum Standards in England and Wales, and the equivalent quality frameworks in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but these are only a starting point, with member schools aiming for excellence across a range of key areas relating to the day-to-day experiences of the boarders, and also including important considerations such as policies, procedures and premises. By working together with colleagues from a wide range of schools we are better able to help them benchmark their boarding against the expectations across the wider boarding sector, both in the UK and internationally.
We also run a guidance helpline, receiving calls and emails on a wide variety of topics from member schools, and helping them deal with compliance issues and move towards best practice. A Member Services team focuses on ensuring that we are best placed to support the whole range of members, from schools which are exclusively boarding to schools with just a few boarders. This is true to the group aim of promoting excellence in boarding, safeguarding, inclusion and health education.
Dale Wilkins became a boarding tutor at Norwich School in 1987, shortly after taking up a post there as a language teacher. From 1990 to 1992, he and his wife ran a junior girls’ boarding house at Tettenhall College, before moving to Old Swinford Hospital, a state boarding school where Dale was Housemaster of both senior and junior boys’ houses, Director of Boarding, Deputy Head and Designated Safeguarding Lead. From 1998 he was also involved with BSA as a course tutor and in 2002 he was among the first group of boarding inspectors trained to inspect against the then new NMS. Since 2017 he has worked full-time for BSA in a variety of roles relating to training, safeguarding and compliance. Dale lives in Stourbridge in the West Midlands, close to his former school. Dale is also a involved with the Scout Association, is Chair of Youth Services for the Rotary Club of Stourbridge, and Chair of the Friends of Dudley Performing Arts, the music, art and drama service for schools in Dudley Borough. He enjoys travel and is a former sports coach and referee, who still plays cricket occasionally
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