What is an exeat weekend?

In the boarding school world, you will hear the term ‘exeat weekend’ used regularly. Exeat weekends are also known as ‘leave weekends’,  ‘leave-outs’ or ‘rec leave’.  There are lots of different terms, but they all mean the same thing.

An exeat is when there is a holiday at the weekend. Some UK boarding schools remain open over these weekends, whilst other schools shut completely. When a school does close over a weekend, students will usually have to leave the premises.  In this case, as a guardian, Academic Families will organise a welcoming host family for students to stay with until the school reopens.

Even though these breaks from school are short, they provide students with the perfect time for students to recharge before returning to school. We like to pair students with the same host family so that they have a familiar place to call home whilst they are out of school. On their breaks, many students enjoy cooking, going to the cinema or doing some local sightseeing with their hosts.

Find out more about how you we can enroll your child in a UK boarding school and support them while they’re here.

This article appears in the following categories  Boarding School Life, FAQs & Resources, Host Families, Students