Sixty four students board from Sunday morning to Thursday afternoon, in two blocks with a warden and two assistant wardens living on site.
The week. Boats bring students in on Sunday morning and take them home on Thursday after school. Roll is taken at seven, at one thirty, at six and at nine. The gate is closed at eight in the evening and a student leaving the compound in the evening goes with an adult or does not go.
Meals are three a day, cooked on site, with the menu on the board and a fortnightly cycle. A student who is not eating is reported to the warden by the kitchen staff, which sounds like surveillance and has twice found a homesick thirteen year old in the first fortnight of a year.
Study is compulsory and supervised: four until six and half past seven until nine, in the study hall, with a teacher on duty every session.
Illness. A student who is unwell is taken to the health centre and their family is telephoned before anything else, including before the school telephones anybody else. In anything serious the school arranges the boat at any hour and does not wait to be asked.
What it costs: nine hundred rufiyaa a month, which covers the bed, the three meals and the laundry arrangement. Fourteen places are held each year at a reduced rate for families who ask, and the conversation stays between the family and the principal.
What we ask of parents: come for one Saturday visit in each term if you possibly can. A student whose family has seen where they sleep settles differently.