Skip to content ↓

7-13 years

Boarding

We see time as the most important currency for our boarders who are given the time to enjoy being children within our beautiful 40-acre estate.

Welcome to

DALVRECK HOUSE

At Ardvreck, we aim to instil an ethos of kindness, friendship and respect along with pride, courage and resilience. Boarding at Ardvreck does not try to erode the love of family but quite the opposite as we believe that the education of an Ardvreck child is a partnership between the school and the parent. We are here to reinforce the sense of family all the while encouraging your children to be independent and learn to wear the mantle of responsibility as they develop.

We offer a variety of flexible boarding options to suit each family and child. Families can choose from full-boarding and flexi-boarding, while Ard Hoc boarding is available for Enid Blyton-esque sleepovers for when you need them.

All our boarders are together under one roof which enhances the Ardvreck Family atmosphere. The staffing in Dalvreck House mixes youth and experience, all our boarders benefit from having a plethora of well-trained safeguarding, attentive professionals to care for them.

Dalvreck House accommodates up to 70 boarders on any given night which creates a fun and buzzing atmosphere. We ensure that the boarding house and individual dormitories are homely and cosy, and are decorated with children’s personal effects.

With regular Exeat weekends, on average every two weeks, the children have an excellent balance between school and home life and are always able to communicate with family as often as they feel they need.

Boarding Life

Boarding at Ardvreck School has become even more exciting as we have recently refurbished and rebranded the main school boarding house as Dalvreck House. The 19th century building has been interior designed with a contemporary feel to create our fresh, fun, familial and modern, yet traditional, boarding house filled with home comforts, taking into account your children’s suggestions and needs.

We see time as the most important currency for our boarders who are given the time to enjoy being children within our beautiful 40-acre estate and beyond into our extended “garden”, the foothills of the highlands. The boarders at Dalvreck benefit from our sector leading outdoor provision, together with the weekend and evening activities brim with fun and inspiration. These include movie nights, games, talks, walks, and thrilling adventures up trees or hills or down rivers, gorges or caves as well as making time for chatting and playing and enjoying their downtime. Why waste time in a car or on a bus coming to school when staying at Dalvreck with friends is such fun?

ALL ROUND SUPPORT

Our pupils have the opportunity to benefit from a high standard of education, an all-round learning environment, and extra-curricular activities set in the stunning, rural Perthshire countryside.


We offer bespoke travel options to Glasgow and Edinburgh airports as well as chaperoned, direct trains from London to Gleneagles.


At Ardvreck, we aim to uncover the gem within each pupil. We provide the perfect environment in which pupils can thrive, becoming ‘can-do’ pupils who excel in future education.

The boarding experience promotes initiative and helps to develop leadership skills. We encourage all children to embrace and enjoy the benefits boarding can offer, with day pupils having the opportunity to make the transition to boarding if they desire.

Our holistic approach to boarding helps children to settle easily and quickly, and fully prepares them for their transition to senior school. Weekends are packed with activities and events to enhance their boarding experience.

Parents are an important part of the boarding experience and are encouraged to telephone and email as well as to visit the school regularly to watch matches and school plays and to take part in form workshops and parent/teacher meetings.

At Ardvreck we see communication as vitally important and the children will be encouraged to contact home regularly to update their families on all that they have achieved and enjoyed. All the housestaff are easily contactable by phone or by email and will be in touch regularly with parents.

The communication between the Dalvreck staff is also very important and weekly meetings, along with less formal more frequent meetings, will guarantee that each and every child in the boarding community is well cared for and nurtured. The soft skills of leadership, teamwork, empathy, cross cultural understanding, social ease and self-belief will blossom, and, of course, boarders will learn the all-important skill of where to hide their illegal tuck!

At Ardvreck we nurture and nourish our children. They are provided with a healthy balanced diet, freshly prepared in our school’s kitchen. We source as much of our produce as locally as possible and regularly change our menu to include seasonal recipes.

Meet Our Boarding Team

A quick Q&A with our core boarding team.

ARRANGE A VISIT

If you would like to learn more about boarding at Ardvreck, we can arrange for some of our current boarding families to share their experiences. We aim to ensure that you and your child are fully informed, confident and excited about the boarding experience before enrolment.

I love boarding at Ardvreck! It’s like a big sleepover and you get to be with your friends all the time. It feels really homely.

We chose Ardvreck because it was a full boarding school which offered an excellent education and good pastoral care. There were lots of children there at the weekend to enjoy the host of activities laid on by the exceptional house staff.

On the weekends we do so many fun activities like laser tag and weaseling. Most of these things I have seen on TV but never been able to do myself. I had never done Weaselling or laser tag before! If you don’t want to do an activity you have the choice to stay at school and can have a lot of fun there too.

The Boarders Club is great because we are all with our friends all the time. We get to do so many different activities in the evenings!

Ardvreck School provides the children with a culture of courage, teamwork, creativity, spontaneity and individualism. They go off to Public School down south or in Scotland and stand out for their life skills, sense of self-acceptance and their can-do attitude.