Life in Sennocke House

The summer before I started Middle School boarding I was full of fears and expectations.

Expectations, because I was going to meet new people, but fears too – what if we have nothing in common, what if I don’t like them or make a bad first impression? How will we bear with each other for the next five years of our lives? The concept of seeing my family once a week or even more rarely was even more petrifying. And as it turned out, when 11 total strangers sat together for an introduction, I wasn’t the only one having those doubtful expectations.

However, within seconds conversations started to form, within minutes we felt like friends and within days, like a real big family. We share everything; tears of laughter, tears of fear, tears of sadness and despair. I have their back and they have mine. Religion, colour or nationalities don’t matter. The environment of international school, and especially in such a diverse boarding house as Sennocke, really gives us all the sense of a global community. There are around 60 girls in my house, five different age groups, countless ethnicities and we all manage to live together throughout the year, avoiding quarrels, as very happy teenagers.

It’s not only the brotherhood we have with the other boarders – it’s the great admiration we have for our Housemistress and Assistant Housemistress. They are always there for us. They can give advice in pretty much anything concerning your academic, co-curricular and pastoral life and when times are tough they are the best counsellors – whether you want to talk to them about your ambition or your personal worries.

The proximity to school facilities that boarding creates gives us lots of opportunities to try something new – sport, art, drama, music... Some of the facilities we could only dream about in my old school are available to us at all times. In spite of being a very academic person, boarding has allowed me to test the limits in different directions and see what other things I can enjoy.

The food in the Dining Hall gets better and better over the years; we have different cuisines represented and many different options. As a person with dietary difficulties, I always manage to find something to eat from the wide variety. I really think that boarding was a big stepping stone for me – away from my family, for the first time, making myself a new life. And I intend to live it well and enjoy it!

Sofia Melamed