Choose between Sherborne School and Cheltenham College

[JessicaCC]

How to choose between Sherborne School and Cheltenham College for my DS? No special needs in art, sport or music but prefer a school with better discipline, caring and academic.

[EleanorRigby123]

Hi Jessica.

You sound as if you are an overseas parent perhaps relying on recommendations from agents/advertising.

The bottom line is that with a few outliers - the big single sex boys schools - all of the leading UK boarding schools offer pretty much the same thing. They have great academics, sport, music, art, drama etc. Your DC will achieve the best results they are capable of - regardless of whether the school is first in the league tables or one hundred and first. Pastoral care is also uniformly good. Every school will on occasions have problems with smoking, drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, sex, etc, (all of which will get huge publicity in the media) - because they are catering for teenagers and teenagers sometimes have problems and sometimes experiment. All of the schools will deal with these things in a similar way because if they allow a drinking, drug taking culture to develop or do not address eating disorders etc parents will not send their children there and they will go out of business.

What will make a difference is the peer group -particularly those in the same year in the same house - because that is where your DC's closest relationships will be. But for most parents there is little they can do to judge that in advance.

I would be asking myself do I want single sex or co-ed? That is a huge question and will make a big difference to your DS's development - and it is odd to see both in a short list of two. Most people have a strong view on this from the outset. Make sure you are not just being offered schools from which your agent gets a commission.

If you are overseas you want to know how many students are in school at the weekend. If your DC is one of three overseas boys who do not go home at the weekend he will not like it. And despite what schools tell you there are not many which do NOT empty out on a Saturday night. I would then look at things like distance to airports, access to UK based relatives and friends etc.

The best thing to do is to actually visit the schools with your DS.

[JessicaCC]

Eleanor, thanks a lot for your advice.