The boarding experience at Marymount International School: Thriving through community, confidence and care
If as a parent you’re considering boarding for your daughter or you are an employer or relocation professional wanting to support mobile international parents with making school choices in London, then you’ll benefit from plenty of practical advice from my fascinating conversation with Paula Horton, Head of Boarding, Marymount International School, London, says Fiona Murchie. This reassuring interview was part of our online International Education & Schools’ Fair held in November.
9 December 2025
Having been to an all-girls’ day and boarding school myself, I am always fascinated by the wealth of activities available to boarders today. In my time, boredom was a major part of the boarding house experience, with very little to do outside school work, particularly at the weekends.Not an issue at Marymount International School, where they pride themselves on creating a home away from home for globally mobile students – nurturing independence, friendships, and confidence as Paula Horton, Head of Boarding explained in a recent interview. The school is situated only 12 miles from Central London, in garden and grounds near the market town of Kingston Upon Thames and offers a carefully tailored blend of academic excellence, through the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) for students 11 to 16 (Grades 6–10) and IB Diploma Programme (IBDP). The school’s ethos and curriculum combine to encourage collaboration between the various disciplines and subject specialists and this leads to students seeing and appreciating the skills and knowledge behind multiple disciplines. This gives an extra relevance to the world around them. The students grow to see the purpose and understand the reason, behind the learning. Hopefully, creating the curious and independent thinkers the world needs and becoming lifelong learners.Boarding family
The boarding experience is designed to add an extra dimension where the girls share amazing moments together and motivate each other in work and across the breadth of extra curricula activities. There are plenty of sports and cultural events to also explore and enjoy.Boarding is very much a family community, like having older sisters and younger sisters and there is a great deal of fun to be had. Marymount offers a vibrant community of over 30 nationalities and being boarders only adds to developing independence, confidence and a global perspective. Paula explains, “we find with boarding it gives the child an opportunity to step away from their comfort zone. They're standing up on their own, but still within this very careful, supportive environment. And mostly they have a lot of fun”.Building resilience and coping with exams
Paula appreciates the importance of keeping the stress under wraps when it's exam time. She explains how they emphasize the value of collaborative study to enable the girls to feel supported by each other, to mentor each other, as well having access to mentoring by the staff.Nobody is locked away in their rooms getting anxious she emphasises, instead they are encouraged to “work collectively and collaboratively”. If a girl notices somebody's working too hard, they would, likely respond saying, “Come on, we're going to go for a walk now”.Wellbeing in action, is being able to appreciate that a little bit of anxiety is natural and to embrace it and not to be afraid of it. “The girls sit together in the dining hall, they study in the lounges together and they spur each other along. And of course, with being on the campus boarders enjoy all the amenities, the libraries, the art room and sports hall and fantastic fitness centre, everything is right there at their fingertips” she reassures. Another bonus for boarders.Catholic values and kindness
Paula talks about the Catholic values which she describes as, “really good values for life, replicated in any faith system, and in ordinary good British traditional values, or American traditional values, or Chinese traditional values. You know, we just believe in ‘do as you would be done by’. You bring your best self to the show, and let's always just try to do the right thing. We have a focus, as I say, always on kindness and compassion. Service and reflection is one of our key points. We work a lot on reflecting. It's a deep part of the IB syllabus, and the curriculum. We encourage everyone to be as kind as possible”.Parents with curious, aspirational daughters will find a warm welcome at Marymount International. As Paula explains, “We are a Catholic school, but we welcome all faiths, and those of none”. There are Marymount Schools in Rome and in Paris, in New York, Colombia and Brazil. This community and network of schools offers additional international exposure through participation in sport, cultural and learning events. For Marymount International students access to London and Europe is a small step away for these future-fit, world citizens to explore.
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