People

In her 20+ years as an educational consultant, Gina has helped many families choose the right British boarding schools for more than one of their children, both sequentially and, on occasion, concurrently for twins. Should a family stay true to one school or keep an open mind? Here are her thoughts on the subject.

When siblings attend the same boarding school, it can be fun for them to have a shared experience – they can, and no doubt will, sound each other out on the quality of the facilities or the funny ways of certain teachers!

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.

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…

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.

Dear Gina,

Time flies and we're already more than halfway through term. Charlotte is really happy at Durham, so we wanted to thank you again for your excellent advice.

At every stage of the process we felt the benefit of your individual attention and always had the impression that you really wanted to find the right setting for Charlotte, knowing the schools as you do and getting to know her. That was very reassuring for us, and really important as we negotiated the jungle that is the British school system and all its various opportunities.

At British schools, the Headmaster or Headmistress is not the only head of school. One or more representative from their last year at school is elected or appointed Head Girl and/or Head Boy.

The British boarding schools we recommend employ many different ways to inspire their students, whether academically, in terms of sport or simply to open their minds to all the possibilities ahead of them.

Dauntsey’s holds a series of lectures each year, named in recognition of the links between the school and the Mercers’ Company, which go back to Mercer founder Alderman William Dauntesey, Master of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, who founded the school in south west England in 1542.

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.

Dear Gina,

Dear Gina,

When we collected Johanna from Oxford at the end of March, we decided to combine business and pleasure by spending a couple of days in the area to get to know that wonderful city a bit better. We also visited the heartachingly beautiful Blenheim Palace and its grounds.