In Australia, both government and non-government schools operate day and boarding schools. , of the 10,584 registered schools operating in Australia, approximately 250 schools (or less than 2.5 percent) were boarding schools. Boarding schools can provide a valuable platform for students to achieve their potential academically along with providing support and guidance with their psychological, social, emotional and spiritual development. Some Australian schools offer gender specific (boys' 21 percent or girls' 28 percent) and co-educational boarding schools (51 percent); with multi-modal options, such as full-time boarding and part-time boarding (for example, going home on the weekends) offered by some schools. Some specialist education schools, such as The Australian Ballet School, offer boarding facilities. The largest peak body for boarding schools in Australia, the Australian Boarding Schools Association, claimed that, in 2017, there were 22,815 students in boarding schools covered by the association, an increase from 19,870 in 2014.