More girls are going to Oxfordshire's boarding schools but the number of boys has fallen.

Full-time girl boarders rose by 5.3 per cent to 993 and weekly boarding went up by 4.5 per cent to 162, according to figures published by the Independent Schools Information Service.

Boys are less keen on boarding. The county's population of full boarders went down by 2.2 per cent to 2,467 and weekly boarders fell by 5.2 per cent to 235.

Boarding schools have seen their populations decline steadily over the past 20 years.

The image of boarding school has changed in the last few years.

It is not all cabbage wafting down the corridor and lino on the floor these days, says Sue Hawkins, junior house mistress at Headington Girls School, Oxford.

She said that the type of families who send their daughters to boarding schools had changed in recent years.

Now that more and more families have both parents working and many commute a long way or even work abroad, it has become more popular.

There had been more girls from London who wanted to get away from the increasingly competitive day schools in the city.

Mrs Hawkins added: "I think people are coming down to the idea simply because boarding has changed.

"I don't think that parents these days would put up with sending their children away for months at a time. It is more flexible now."

Reesa Berry, 15, whose family home is near Burford, has been a weekly boarder at Headington for five years.

She said: "I really enjoy being with my friends and being so close to school.

"It has definitely made me more independent."

Fellow pupil Rachel Halpin, 12, lives in High Wycombe and has been a weekly boarder for two terms.

She said: "It is quite handy being a boarder because you might have trouble with your homework."