As the new academic year gets underway, we’d like to recognise the achievements of students who got their exam results over the summer. Always newsworthy, this past two years’ grades have generated even closer scrutiny due to disruption caused by the pandemic.

This time we turn our attention to the academic side of school life to focus on Classics.

Eminent historian Mary Beard recently announced she would fund scholarships for two students to study Classics at Cambridge University, as a “retirement present” after almost 40 years of teaching and research. Having brought ancient history to a wider, modern audience via television, the Cambridge professor wants to help widen the reach of Classics as a subject.

While the summer holidays can be an anxious time for those awaiting their A Level results in August, International Baccalaureate Diploma students already know their fate, having received their results on Saturday 6^th July. A good number of the British boarding schools we recommend offer the IB and a couple have shared those results with us.

Early in July, students across the UK and the world receive their International Baccalaureate Diploma results. This news, which to them is so important, passes largely unnoticed by the British media, unlike the furore which greets A Level then GCSE results later in the summer.

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.