Boarding school clichés?

Becca C. · Jul 30, 2011

I'm going to be starting a new WIP soon, and it takes place at an English boarding school. I know this is a really common setting, especially in YA, and I know there are a bunch of clichés associated with boarding school stories. I really want to play with some of those clichés in this story and subvert them, basically do the opposite of them. I can think of a few:

-- MC was sent to the boarding school against his/her will by his/her parents

-- MC meets group of tight-knit friends and becomes one of the gang

-- MC complains about having to wear a school uniform

Can anyone else think of any boarding school clichés? Do you like boarding school stories? Any tips for me?

KateSmash · Jul 30, 2011

I actually wrote a boarding school story last year that plays with your first cliche (to where everyone was forced to the school - as medical experiments).

The only ones that comes to mind is the snooty, snobby classmates. Either the rich kids or the popular kids that try to foil (or at least exclude) the main character at every turn just for being different. Pair this with an uptight headmaster/teacher that's out of touch with the students and that about covers it.

alleycat · Jul 30, 2011

The headmaster is especially hard on the MC.

There is one teacher the MC adores, and the teacher adores him or her.

There is a mean girl or boy who hates the MC.

The MC gets into trouble for something he or she didn't do.

The MC and pals sneak out at night and discover something.

There is a particularly overweight girl or boy in the MC's group. This person is always hiding food.

There is a hidden tunnel that leads to . . . something.

Pillow fights!

Bracken · Jul 30, 2011

Homosexual experimentation is the "boarding school cliche" that immediately comes to my mind... but that probably wouldn't play too well in a YA novel.

Snobby rich kids, or excessive religiosity (if it's a Catholic or fundamentalist Christian boarding school); probably not both, because religious schools tend to take a lot of poor scholarship students, while secular boarding schools tend to be for-profit only.

Eating disorders.

I'm sure I can think of more; I've read lots of boarding school stories.
One good one is The New Girls, by Beth Gutcheon. You might want to read it.

Becca C. · Jul 30, 2011

KateSmash said:
The only ones that comes to mind is the snooty, snobby classmates. Either the rich kids or the popular kids that try to foil (or at least exclude) the main character at every turn just for being different. Pair this with an uptight headmaster/teacher that's out of touch with the students and that about covers it.

Ahhhh good call! *furiously jots down ideas*

Becca C. · Jul 30, 2011

Bracken said:
Homosexual experimentation is the "boarding school cliche" that immediately comes to my mind... but that probably wouldn't play too well in a YA novel.

Ha... my books are always LGBT. The MC is gay XD

alleycat · Jul 30, 2011

Oh, and the French teacher is fooling around on the side with the physical education coach.

KateSmash · Jul 30, 2011

Oh! Sneaking out of rooms after hours to the secret romantic make-out closet/classroom and getting caught. Or really, secret meetings and all sorts of after-hours hijinks as if the staff does everything but pay attention.

alleycat · Jul 30, 2011

The mean person steals something and hides it in the MC's locker. The MC is shocked when the locker is opened by the headmaster. The beloved teacher is at first disappointed, but soon comes to believe the MC when he says he didn't do it.

MadSquirrel · Jul 30, 2011

I've always considered lots of promiscuity to be a cliche when it comes to boarding schools, sneaking out of rooms at night to have sex in closets or outside or wherever.

Also, staff members that are completely clueless, especially with older women that apparently sleep through everything and leave keys to locked rooms laying around.

alleycat · Jul 30, 2011

Since it's an English boarding school, there will either be an Indian girl who is pretending to be a princess, or will be a princess and is pretending to be an ordinary girl.

Becca C. · Jul 30, 2011

alleycat said:
Since it's an English boarding school, there will either be an Indian girl who is pretending to be a princess, or will be a princess and is pretending to be an ordinary girl.

Yes!!! I'm pretty sure this comes from a Hercule Poirot novel with that plot, but I have seen it elsewhere.

Thanks guys, this thread is providing me with lots of writing fodder.

Shady Lane · Jul 30, 2011

YA authors are infamous for using boarding schools as a way to use plots that would work better for college students and still keep it YA. It's important to remember that boarding school is NOT college. Adults are all up in your business and you don't have nearly the freedom.

Bracken · Jul 30, 2011

Shady Lane said:
YA authors are infamous for using boarding schools as a way to use plots that would work better for college students and still keep it YA. It's important to remember that boarding school is NOT college. Adults are all up in your business and you don't have nearly the freedom.

Exactly.
Parents with the resources to do so send their kids to boarding school because they want them to have less freedom and distraction than the average kid living at home and attending public day school; not more.
A boarding school would probably go bankrupt pretty quick if students weren't heavily supervised and kept on a pretty short leash... especially in male-female situations.
A boarding school might be co-ed, but it can't easily afford even one pregnant student, and a rash of them would do its reputation immeasurable harm.
These ideas about "lots of promiscuity... sneaking out of rooms at night to have sex in closets or outside or wherever" can't possibly be the norm, imo.
Affluent parents would not shell out $40,000 per year to send their pampered princesses and princelings to such a brothel.

Becca C. · Jul 30, 2011

Shady Lane said:
YA authors are infamous for using boarding schools as a way to use plots that would work better for college students and still keep it YA. It's important to remember that boarding school is NOT college. Adults are all up in your business and you don't have nearly the freedom.

Bracken said:
Exactly.
Parents with the resources to do so send their kids to boarding school because they want them to have less freedom and distraction than the average kid living at home and attending public day school; not more.
A boarding school would probably go bankrupt pretty quick if students weren't heavily supervised and kept on a pretty short leash... especially in male-female situations.
A boarding school might be co-ed, but it can't easily afford even one pregnant student, and a rash of them would do its reputation immeasurable harm.
These ideas about "lots of promiscuity... sneaking out of rooms at night to have sex in closets or outside or wherever" can't possibly be the norm, imo.
Affluent parents would not shell out $40,000 per year to send their pampered princesses and princelings to such a brothel.

Agreed with all of the above.

But since my MC is a gay male, it wouldn't have to be co-ed. I'm toying with the idea of just making it a boys school.

frimble3 · Jul 30, 2011

Don't forget the apparently overwhelming importance of sport, from competing for a place on the team, the Big Match, the rivals, or even the jocks bullying the others.
Depending on the story you want to tell, making it an all-boy school might give you a clearer focus. If it's teenage boys and girls, readers will expect relationships, just because it's YA.
And, if you need sneaking around in the dark, well, if it's all boys, they may not be as closely watched.
Truly, for boarding school cliches, JKR hit most of them, note perfect, in the Harry Potter books. Except, of course, for the magic

HollyannDodd · Jul 31, 2011

Shady Lane said:
YA authors are infamous for using boarding schools as a way to use plots that would work better for college students and still keep it YA. It's important to remember that boarding school is NOT college. Adults are all up in your business and you don't have nearly the freedom.

I never even thought of that trope like that. Wow! Thank you for the light-bulb moment.

71writer · Jul 31, 2011

This is not a cliche but have you thought of a plot that involves students either coming up missing or being found dead? Then maybe have your mc be the one to solve the mystery behind it? Perhaps the mcs archnemisis is either the one doing it or comes up dead or missing too? Then the blame would be shifted to the mc.

Mandiloo322 · Jul 31, 2011

The importance of a sporting/team event is a cliche I've seen a lot. Usually the MC is talented in that area, but refuses to participate until he/she realizes it really IS the most important thing in the school's long, illustrious history. Then there's pretend nervousness about losing, when you know they have to win so that the MC will find acceptance and learn the value of being a part of "something bigger."

I think lack of faculty knowledge and school security is a huge one too.

The_Ink_Goddess · Jul 31, 2011

- Complete lack of supervision. It's always ridiculously easy to get anywhere, especially after hours. Total freedom.
- Cigarette smoking.
- Poor but sweet, honest, helpful scholarship students, who are alienated for being poor.
- Parents who ignore their kids -- might be true, but can they really all be emotionally abusive child-abandoners?
- Everyone does very rich things, e.g. they go to the best restaurants, wear really label-y clothes and meet celebrities.
- Everyone is hyperintelligent. Sure, your scholarship students would be, but even the ones with rich parents?
- Very tight (often money-orientated) cliques.

It must be said that I still LOVE boarding school novels. And several of these may be *true* of most boarding schools. I don't know, I don't go.

flarue · Jul 31, 2011

alleycat said:
There is a hidden tunnel that leads to . . . something.

So true! I never really thought about that. And why does it always seem to be only the MC or someone close to the MC who knows about it?

BethMac · Jul 31, 2011

I went to a private day school in New England and I dated some boarding school guys. If you want to read a decent portrayal of boarding school, at least back in the 80's and 90's--read Prep. Its very realistic as far as the rules and cliques at an elite school. We were very snobby and stuck up about townies at my prep school and I think boarding schools are even worse. I'm sure things have changed with the internet though and cell phones so can't be totally sure how it is now.

Good luck!

poetinahat · Jul 31, 2011

I can only speak from the New England experience, but here are some of them:

Boarding schools have curfews too. I went to one in New England, and we had study hours 7:30-9:30 every night, and lights out by 10pm (11 on weekends). Strict rules about visitors, especially females (viz. the 30/60/90 rule). Sit-down dinners were mandatory, with assigned tables, and assigned table waiting duties. Friday morning all-school assembly, Sunday evening convocation were mandatory; Wednesday evening Vespers was optional.

Missing a class meant Saturday morning work detail - helping the grounds crew, starting at 7:30AM. Missing three classes meant being suspended and sent home for a week.

Town trips, or excursions to things like concerts (or dances at the girls' schools) were always hugely popular. Two hours' bus ride each way to a girls' school, for a three-hour function. No pressure...

Also, many prep schools have archrivalries: Exeter/Andover, St. George/Middlesex, Deerfield/Choate, Groton/St. Marks, etc.

LadyA · Aug 1, 2011

71writer said:
This is not a cliche but have you thought of a plot that involves students either coming up missing or being found dead? Then maybe have your mc be the one to solve the mystery behind it? Perhaps the mcs archnemisis is either the one doing it or comes up dead or missing too? Then the blame would be shifted to the mc.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DEATH by K.M. Peyton has all of these I think. set in an english boarding school in the '70s, mc solving the mystery, etc. Sequel to one of my favourite ever books, PROVE YOURSELF A HERO. Mainly because I LOVE the MC, Jonathan *swoon*. xx

timewaster · Aug 1, 2011

Becca C. said:
I'm going to be starting a new WIP soon, and it takes place at an English boarding school. I know this is a really common setting, especially in YA, and I know there are a bunch of clichés associated with boarding school stories. I really want to play with some of those clichés in this story and subvert them, basically do the opposite of them. I can think of a few:

-- MC was sent to the boarding school against his/her will by his/her parents

-- MC meets group of tight-knit friends and becomes one of the gang

-- MC complains about having to wear a school uniform

Can anyone else think of any boarding school clichés? Do you like boarding school stories? Any tips for me?

Read Amanda Craig's book 'Private Place' - she went to Bedales and loathed it.

Boarding school clichés?

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