Boarding

As it is one of the most traditional British boarding schools we work with, the fact that there will be girls’ 6th Form boarding at Winchester College from 2026 is big news!

Looking ahead to the start of the next academic year, here are a few things we’ve heard about that are new in September at our British boarding schools.

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.

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.

Any fresh start can be daunting, so how do British boarding schools help new pupils settle? As well as ensuring families have all the information they need prior to their children starting their UK education, some schools run special days to help new starters fit into their new communities, while all of them have their ways of helping new boarders to settle in. 

While it is increasingly rare, a six-day week of lessons and activities/sports is still to be found in the UK independent education sector, so why do some British boarding schools run Saturday school?

Recognising the demands of exam courses, for these schools Saturday morning lessons represent important curriculum time. Also, much of the value of a boarding school education comes through the weekend extra-curricular programme. Here are some examples.

Continuing this little series, the next question is, “What makes resilience so important today and how can boarding help to build it?”

So, what’s boarding life at a British boarding school really like? We’ve just received this lovely YouTube film of our student Taya, who talks about her experience of life at her boarding school in the South of England, Leighton Park.

For the second blog in this series, we asked two boarding schools in England’s South West, “Have you adopted vertical or horizontal boarding across your boarding houses and why is your chosen model best for your students?”

1. Relative cost. Boarding schools in the South of England, around 1 to 1.5 hours from London, tend to be the priciest, as easy access to the Capital means they are often popular with British families whose children board during the week and return for the weekend, even if only for a Saturday evening every other week or so. Boarding schools in the Southwest, in regions such as Cornwall or Somerset, in Wales, and in the North of England and Scotland are often more reasonably priced, as they are rather more remote and not quite so accessible – supply and demand!