Totally agree, I dont see why the mother who didnt work had to move with thier husbands and leave the children. Surely stay with your kids give them stability and let your partner move around. If that is the choice he has made for a job.

I think when you bring kids into this world it is your job and no body else to raise them. You cant raise your child seeing them for a few hours a week.

And i dont buy I only get the nice bits parts. Thats what being a grandparent is for not a mother. Do you bloody job, no child asked to be brought into the world. You have to be there for them and they have to come first

Ok - I watched and as a previous boarder (Years 7, 8 and 9 so aged 11-14) I was intrigued by how C4 would portray the school environments etc as they can be a bit sweeping in their statements but I was impressed by how balanaced the whole thing was. It showed the positive influence as well asthe negative. There is no doubt in my mind that they chose the new year4's in an attempt to be controversial as 8 is very young to be sent away.

I personally agree with a lot of what the previous posters are saying. The girls parents in my opinion did not Have to send their children away. The parents of Lottie, who just sent her because Daddy enjoyed it just seems like the daftest reason ever, but it really agreed with their little girl and Lottie reminded me a lot of myself - with her 'just get on with it' attitude. I think to some extent the parents need to justify themselves to themselves so the parent that said 'I only get the good bits' - my Mum said that to me on occasions, to justify the fact that she was sending her little girl away.....my response to her I remember very clearly was that I got the best bits too, and had a lot of fun in between! I do agree however that sadly a lot of parents do send their children away to be parented by someone else, which is sad for the children as much as for the parents that they feel it necessary to do this.

The parents of the twins and of April, were army parents and I went to school with a lot of forces children and the stability argument was used a lot. If stationed abroad I can totally see why you would do this and most children I knew were stationed in the ME or Germany, so possibly couldn't get a standard of education which the parents wanted. There was also high bursaries involved which made the school attractive financially too.

I went to a Licenced Victuallers school as my parents were publicans. I had been to 11 different primary schools and my parents wanted me to be safe and secure for my senior years as the moves just didn't look close to stopping (as it happens M&D moved another 5 times in the 3 years I was there). The school closed down when I went up to year 10 so I had to move to the local Secondary and it was a huge shock to the system.

When I was at my school, there were boys and girls as young as 7 boarding for up to 4 weeks at a time with Exeats and Half Terms in between. I was very similar to the boy, Alex, in my attitudes and chose to stay in school or go to a friends house for Exeat weekends in particular as it was easier and less stressful to stay. While everyone, even the older girls in my house, would get homesick occasionally, it's only natural after all, everything possible was done to help, including I know of one girl who went to stay in the headmaster's house for a couple of nights in an attempt to get her to settle.

When I was watching I was commenting to hubby on a couple of things with poor little April. Her parents just kept on coming to see her. Yes, she missed them, and they missed her equaly but it was NOT helping her transition at all. Look at how well she was doing after they limited contact!! Equally, at the end the interviewer asked her what she thought about people who didn't miss their parents and she made it quite clear that she had accepted being there but she didn't know why her parents had sent her. Not explaining the reasons, even to an 8 year old, is what causes the problems, not boarding school in itself.

If my hands were tied and we had no choice, I would be happy to send Earl to BS as I know that he would be well cared for and would be happy. I probably wouldn't send from 8 as I, even when I was at school, thought that was too young, and would wait until senior school like my parents did as senior education is important. However, I think that people should see that the majority of those children as happy, healthy children, well fed, well educated and provided with everything that a child could want. I know that this is no substitute and it will never be to everyone's taste, but my experiences have shown me that children as resilient as given the correct situation and an explanation of your reasons, can cope with most anything that is thrown at them, including periods away from home.

Sorry for the essay

I agree with Aimee-Lou. I went to boarding school at 12 for good and valid family reasons. My school had boarders from age 9 and the vast majority loved it. There were a few who didn't get along with it but that is obviously something for the individual family to look at. I certainly don't think that it is selfish to send a child to boarding school at that age if the alternative is a very unstable school-life. There were two young sisters at my school who tragically lost their parents a short time after leaving the school to go to a day school nearer home. They actually chose to return to boarding school a very short time afterwards because they wanted the stability and familiarity.