Blog

Many of the British boarding schools we recommend are affiliated to a wider group or “family” of other schools. One such organisation is Round Square, which maintains and facilitates a network of 160 schools in 40 countries that has been growing ever since it was founded fifty years ago by philosopher Kurt Hahn.

Time flies when you’re having fun and, amazingly, we are already more than halfway through this academic year. While the summer and exams may still seem a little way off, coursework deadlines could be looming and it’s never too soon to at least prepare for revision.

Following on from our recent guide to British Sixth Form study, we thought it might be helpful to zero in on the options available at boarding schools in Scotland.

Roedean School has recently upcycled an existing boarding house with study facilities for Year 13 students into a Sixth Form Centre where both Year 12 and Year 13 students can socialise and study.

Schools in the UK offer several different qualifications to students completing their Sixth Form studies. These include the vocational BTECs (certificates awarded by the Business and Technology Education Council); the Cambridge Pre-U, which prepares learners for the skills and knowledge they need to succeed at university, and, in Scotland, the Scottish Highers, which provide certification for a broad general education and have been the main route to higher education since 1888.

Consisting of 750 of the country’s best young singers, the National Youth Choir rehearses twice a year during the summer holidays, giving members an excellent opportunity to develop their vocal techniques across a wide range of challenging music.

The hazy, lazy days of summer, with their soundtrack of the thwack of leather on willow, still seem a long way off. However, The Royal Hospital School is already looking beyond this summer’s cricket season, recently announcing the launch of the Graham Napier Cricket Academy in September 2016.

Felsted Preparatory School’s Science Department is proud to have been awarded a Primary Science Quality Mark Gold Award. According to the assessors, “the Science Department’s passion for teaching is very evident” and “the range of opportunities both within the school day and in extracurricular ventures is excellent… Having specialised staff has enabled the school to develop initiatives and projects beyond the scope of most primary schools.”

We seem to be so often celebrating the many successes of the British boarding schools we are proud to recommend, you might think we’d be in danger of becoming blasé. No fear when we receive a rundown of annual achievements like the one we’ve just had from Oakham School. We are delighted to report the School has won not one, not two but FOUR national awards in one year!

The UK’s Department for Education recently announced that admissions rules are to be changed so children born between 1st April and 31st August will be able to go into reception a year later than some of their pre-school peers. The news that summer babies are to be allowed to start at the age of 5 rather than 4 is receiving a mixed reaction from parents, so we consider the arguments for and against.