Blog

What a year! As we wind down to our seasonal closure, we wanted to reflect on how our British boarding schools have dealt with everything 2020 has thrown at them, and to pay tribute to their staff and students.

The coronavirus pandemic has overshadowed most of this year, at best restricting what we can do and where we can go, at worst closing everything down. Everyone has had to adapt. While we know that people are drawn to British schools’ rich history and tradition, what this year has shown is just how up-to-the-minute they are too.

The ongoing pandemic is making this a difficult time for all of us. From governments to individuals, we are all trying to find a balance between safety and relative normality, especially for our children. Fortunately, the British government recognises the importance of in-school education, so our schools remain open and we are impressed by how well they are adapting their provision and policies to accommodate the needs of families from all over the world.

The winners of Independent Schools of the Year 2020 were announced recently at a virtual awards event hosted by Independent School Parent magazine.

An independent panel of 14 judges selected the winners from more than 300 nominations and we were delighted to see so many of the British boarding schools we regularly recommend achieving recognition.

The Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA) is the largest association of boarding schools in the world, representing more than 600 independent and state boarding schools, over 500 of which are based in the UK. Its mission is to champion boarding and promote boarding excellence.

The BSA and its member schools want to work with the best education agents and consultants, and its Certified Agent Scheme is a mark of professional quality, so we are delighted to announce we are now proud members of the scheme.

As a summer term like no other draws to a close, so does the run of virtual visits and online open days. That said, many of the British boarding schools we work with have innovated to help families get a feel for them from the comfort of their own homes and whenever suits.

Towards the end of May, the Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA) launched its Covid-Safe Charter. This is a voluntary code, aiming to give confidence to everyone that the school is following all appropriate measures to ensure that boarding is a safe environment for pupils.

Member schools choosing to adopt the Charter must guarantee to meet all its requirements. These include measures to be undertaken:

While some UK schools reopened to limited numbers of pupils on Monday 1^st June, for most the new term sees them resuming their home-based online learning. This is being delivered in a number of ways over a variety of digital platforms, so we thought we’d feature a few examples.

Our brilliant British boarding schools may be closed to the vast majority of their students but, behind closed doors and/or from the safety of their homes, some of their staff are working hard to help bolster supplies of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) for key workers and to support them in other ways. To name but a few…

While it is impossible to visit our wonderful British boarding schools in person at the moment, most have virtual or video tours available on their websites, and many are innovating to offer virtual open days.

We are consistently impressed by the children who have the courage to leave their own country, family, school and friends to attend one of the UK boarding schools we have recommended, and we love to celebrate all their achievements. Finn is perhaps one of our greatest successes; having joined Year 12 at Warminster School in September 2018, he was appointed Head Boy for this academic year.