A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME
Travel restrictions kept a small number of international boarders in the UK for the whole academic year . Valerie Tam recounts her experience .
I joined Sevenoaks as a boarder in Year 10 and have experienced a lot through being an international boarder during the pandemic . I stayed in school for an entire year and faced so much with many different people – and not just revising for our exams !
The first in-school stay , outside of term time , was during October half term , when at least 60 boys and girls stayed in Aisher and Park Grange respectively . Two good friends from my year stayed in with me and we had a great time : inevitably most of the time it rained , so we were indoors painting pairs of jeans and doing minimal amounts of revision . The boarding house staff members hosted events , such as laser tag , a long walk in Knole – with some hot chocolate along the way from the National Trust café , and a trip to the Stag theatre , where we watched the film Tenet , directed by Christopher Nolan .
6 A FUNNY OLD YEAR