Our British boarding schools’ international communities

To ensure we are up to date with the boarding schools we recommend, we subscribe to their newsletters. A link from Merchiston Castle School’s latest led us to a great resource for seeing where some of its international students come from and reading their stories. No matter where you are in the world, you’re likely to find the view of a child like yours, which might ease any concerns about whether they’d fit into a boarding school community here in the UK. We encourage you to take a look!

Merchiston is a truly great school; academically strong and offering up to 20 sports including a golf academy and a tennis academy, as well as excellent provision for the arts. However, as a Scottish all-boys’ boarding school, it won’t be right for everyone. With our knowledge of around 200 boarding schools in England, Scotland and Wales – boys’ schools, girls’ schools, co-educational schools and those, like New Hall School, which employ the “diamond model” of a co-educational environment in Sixth Form, while girls and boys are taught separately in Years 7-11 – we match the profile of each individual student to a shortlist of schools we know would suit them, then support the whole family in deciding which will be the right one. Our strong relationships with the schools and families from around the world – around 40 nationalities from America to Zimbabwe so far – have resulted in a good deal of success.

We believe diversity within a school’s community is good for everyone, British and international students alike, as it contributes to a global outlook and commitment. Brighton College has just provided a good demonstration of this by winning the TES international award for its incredible work benefitting over 5,000 children in Ghana. Meanwhile back in Brighton, one pupil wrote: “Lots of things at school make me think. But this course has really made me think about what I’m thinking. I have learned not to look at Africa through the lens of someone who has grown up in England, but to take time to understand it from the perspective of those who live there.”

If you would like your child to grow into a citizen of the world, please contact us to find out which British boarding might be right for them.

Photos by kind permission of Merchiston Castle School.