Boarding schools are said to offer stability in disrupted young lives

Research from the Royal Wanstead Children's Foundation involved tracking the progress of a group of such "assisted boarders" over five years.

It found that many of this study group of 97 pupils had been successful in their social and academic achievements.

The charity, which helps to fund such pupils, says that more children could benefit from boarding school.

The report from the foundation examined the experiences of children from deprived or disrupted backgrounds who were given funding for a boarding school place.

'Erratic parenting'

Looking at 97 pupils in six schools, the report presents a picture of children from difficult and dangerous home lives who have prospered in the stability of a boarding school.

It says that 39% of this sample were ranked among the top performers in their schools.

Many of the children had had "serious emotional problems" before being taken from their home environment.

The report describes children whose lives had been blighted by violence, disruption and mental health problems in their family.

In comparison, boarding school offered a more secure and nurturing escape route.

And the charity argues that with "fractured families and erratic parenting" that more children could benefit from spending their term time in boarding schools.

The foundation's chairman, Colin Morrison, calls for means-tested grants for funding for boarding schools for children who are not in local authority care.

Mr Morrison, chief executive of the National Magazines publishing group, had been an assisted boarder himself.

"I have personal experience of the benefits that the boarding school environment can have on children from distressing home and family backgrounds," he said.

The foundation supported 240 beneficiaries in 2006-07 with grants of �546,000.

Boarding decline

The call for a wider role for boarding schools in providing social care for children comes against a background of a substantial long-term decline in the number of boarders.

The latest independent school survey found 67,000 boarders - with the largest number at sixth-form age - with average fees �6,700 per term. Two decades ago there were 109,000 boarders.

However there is also a small state boarding school sector, with 34 state schools providing places, which has been expanding.

This cause has been promoted by the Schools Minister, Lord Adonis, who was himself an assisted boarder, funded at boarding school by his local authority.

Lord Adonis has spoken of how the experience had "transformed" his life.

"We ought to be looking to a progressive expansion of boarding places within the state sector, and to be learning the lessons from boarding schools more widely in state day schools," said Lord Adonis, in a speech last year.