Academic

A subject that sits between, and bridges, Art and Science, many British boarding schools offer Design & Technology (DT). Here are just a few examples.

Summertime means results season here in the UK and, with Sixth Form exams being the pinnacle of secondary education, here we ask how have our British boarding schools done in 2025?

If a long-term commitment to UK education isn’t for you and summer school isn’t quite what you’re looking for either, what about a British boarding school immersion programme?

Usually offered during the summer term, many schools will consider a stay of weeks rather than months, so students get more of a flavour of boarding school life than summer schools can provide, without signing up to a long stay and/or exams.

In education, Value Added (VA) is the difference between the grade expected due to a student’s baseline assessment score at the beginning of their course and the grade they achieve at the end. A focus on final exam results alone can miss the huge steps students and teachers may have taken along the way, whereas the measure of VA offers a fairer indication of how far a student has come and a fairer measure of how well the school has brought that student on. Therefore, VA helps assess the effectiveness of a school in improving pupil outcomes beyond what would typically be expected. 

Most often represented by its famous provision of outdoor learning, Gordonstoun has a wonderfully broad curriculum that also comprises a range of activities and projects which complement classroom-based learning, one of which is cookery. A group of keen bread bakers regularly meet in the Gordonstoun kitchen to mix and prove their dough before breakfast, creating home baked focaccia and pitta for the all-school lunchtime sandwich bar.

Unsurprisingly, clients often ask how a British boarding school can help a child’s English, particularly if they are concerned their child’s grasp of the language could hold them back academically.

Admittedly, English is a quirky language, so expecting anyone who has only been learning it for a couple of years to immediately understand idioms such as to “learn something by heart”, “put their thinking cap on” or “rack their brain” is quite a “tall order”!

Having known this small British boarding school for many years as a girls’ school, its transition to become co-educational from September 2025 is big news. In other news, Cobham Hall has also just launched a pioneering Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) centre for students aged 11 to 16, set within the beautiful grounds of its historic estate in North Kent.

Education is enrichment and preparation for life, but there’s no escaping the fact it’s also about readying young people for the world of work. Not everyone has a clear vocation sending them on their journey to medicine, law, professional sport or becoming an astronaut, so the sooner those of us on a more meandering path become familiar with the world of business the better. Many schools offer Economics and/or Business Studies as subjects, but some have gone further and opened Business Schools on site. 

While summertime is generally quiet, with pupils and teachers enjoying their well-deserved holidays, it is crunch time for all those who sat their IB diploma, A Level, Scottish Highers and GCSE papers before the end of term. So, how are British boarding schools’ exam results this year?

IB results are the first to be released in July, and we received good news of student success from several of the schools that offer this qualification. 

Exam season is in full swing, with students sitting IB, A Level, BTEC and GCSE papers, so how do British boarding schools prepare pupils for exams? Here are a couple of good examples from two non-selective schools we recommend for encouraging the very best from their students.