Boarding school with emphasis on stem

DS at Rugby.
School is doing very well academically, your DC would do a full curriculum for the first year then choose, usually 10, GCSE subjects for the next two years. Most pupils do all three separate sciences, you can also do IT.
Sport for boys in the first two years is rugby in the autumn term, hockey in the spring term and cricket in the summer term. In the third year (year 11) pupils can choose different sports including basketball and continue with these sports in the sixth form or choose others. Lots of sporting opportunity.
Rugby is definitely full boarding, school full at weekends and leave-outs roughly one weekend in three.
Lots of children from all over the world, the houses are all mixed up so no one nationality dominates in a house.
PM me if you need to know something specific.

Aika79

I'm sure you have your reasons for wanting a boarding school in the UK but some of the best boarding international schools are outside of the UK and in Africa. My kids were in a private school in UK but I transferred them to one of the best private British system schools and they thrived and used to call it home. You cannot put a price on the culture and good weather. South Africa and Kenya have great schools.

Have you thought at all about Scotland?

St Leonards is a fab school - it sunds like your kids would be more suited to an IGCSE/IB curriculum than A-Levels. It offers more in terms of critical thinking and breadth of topic coverage

Computer Science is not remotely “soft” and is identified in the Russell Group “Informed Choices” information as being a useful A level choice for many STEM degrees. Please don’t confuse it with ICT aka “playing with Office”.

All schools offer stem subjects including additional maths, including state schools. At a level further maths is usually offered too - but do remember that in Britain young people choose their a levels not their parents. As for schools, my DD's school is stem exclusive but 6th form only, however most do offer full boarding - they should have arrangements for overseas students including placements with families during half term (2 weeks typically) which you can pay for.

Malvern is day or full boarding with a significant international intake. Saturday school followed by Saturday sport makes it very busy at the weekend - it certainly doesn't empty out.

It offers IB and A Levels, a brand new science centre, a brand new sports complex with swimming pool, and a powerhouse of a Politics/Economics/Business Studies department. Top sets at GCSE often move on to Add Maths, from what I've heard.

In line with other British independent schools, it doesn't really offer what are considered "soft" subjects at GCSE or Sixth Form level, so no computer science or global perspectives.

I thought the title said stern
Phew :o

Oundle certainly ticks all your boxes - STEM, sport, international students, full range of CCF (not just army!) & proximity to airports! It has/is a fabulous school for us with two DC currently there as full boarders. The fact that there is one day house has been an unexpected bonus as our dc have made lots of friends & contacts nr to school which has proved invaluable for parties etc in the holidays! We love the international feel of Oundle and it has educated our dc beyond the class room in so many ways. Pastoral care has been outstanding. Staff are caring and inspirational. Some mn posters often give Oundle a hard time for being “too big” or “too academic” or “a large amount of day pupils” IME none of this is true but you need to feel and see for yourself. Neither of my dcs are ‘super bright’ but they are getting all the support they need from fabulous teachers. One with a scholarship so they do offer them. Sport great, the ‘new’ Director of Sport really impressive plus whole new sport centre currently being built! The little market town that Oundle is in the heart of, is the icing on the cake!
Other schools- Uppingham - friends with very happy children there. Rugby - similar to Oundle but further from Heathrow. Charterhouse- friend with child from Africa there and he really struggled at first but I believe he is getting on better now, she says she would look elsewhere second time around. Nephew at Marlborough, but they live nearby,fairly happy with it.
If you want to pm, happy to help.

Agree with PPs about Bromsgrove - they have both A level and IB so options would be open. Maths department is huge and successful, the brightest are definitely pushed in maths. Science is very strong and well resourced but ICT not really a thing there. Opportunities for clubs etc, I'm sure, but not a GCSE.

Most boarders are international (some Brits based abroad but also many foreign students from all over, especially Russia, Germany, and many East European and Asian countries) so it remains busy at weekends, despite having many day pupils. Having local kids also means some boarders get invited out at weekends which is nice.

On the practical side, school-run transport to and from airports at the start and end of half-term and term makes that side of planning easy (and no danger of a younger or less responsible boarder disappearing or missing their bus/taxi!) There are NO exeats at all, which means the overseas kids never get carted off to distant relatives or host families. I think this is quite rare, most schools have exeats.

Global Perspectives is an IGCSE subject, quite popular in international schools but hasn't really taken off in the UK yet from what I've seen. But Bromsgrove (and I'm sure most of the other schools you mention) has Politics at A level / IB.

Sport at Bromsgrove is amazing, it usually ranks top few in the country and although there is a focus on typical British sports like rugby and cricket, the athletics, swimming, basketball etc is all excellent too.

Good luck in your search!

"we have just dismissed Malvern as the Registrar has told us that it is either day or full boarding - no weekly options?"
I've seen a similar comment on here before so God knows what the mother I met whose DS was actually there was talking about when she said it was weekly boarding then went on to moan about picking him up every weekend???!!!
I do have to say that many schools call full boarding in school everyday everyday but Saturday when you're allowed to go home. As I said above quite a few friends came a cropper with this they were told the school was full boarding but every went home on Saturday.

That did not use to be the case for Malvern

Maybe they have been looking at MN or are giving an admissions type answer.

@sendsummer completely understand. We asked this specific question and they said no and we have not proceeded further on that basis as I do want to be able to take my son home at weekends after sport

Abingdon has a boarding cohort and offers Maths, Add maths, physics, chemistry and biology as well as proper computing and electronics to GCSE. Amazing new science facilities. An 8 lane pool and a strong CCF and many other strenths. Ok it is mainly day boys but both weekly and full boarding.

Iamacatflap
The subtext in that is fees are for full boarding or day. It does n’t necessarily mean that pupils can’t / don’t go home at weekends.
A proper full boarding type school will only allow full boarding pupils to go out on Sundays usually after some sort of service.

@Happygardening we have just dismissed Malvern as the Registrar has told us that it is either day or full boarding - no weekly options?

Bubblysqueak You must be very near to me!

If you're looking at Oundle, then you might as well look at Uppingham (pretty much full boarding) and Oakham (only about half) simply because they're all quite close to each other and having some moarison might help you decide. It is very difficult to decide where your DS might thrive just as a paper exercise.

my information isn't anecdotal or second of even third hand
Think your definitions of those terms are different from mine Happygardening. I would regard a DC at school X having first hand experience of being a pupil at that school. The parent of that DC has first hand experience of the school as a parent and plus experience reflected through their DCs and their friends. Anecdotal evidence is evidence relying on personal testimony (Mumsnet ) rather than collected systematically for statistical analysis. Nothing wrong with second /third hand / anecdotal experience but it is just that, whether collected as a professional or a parent.

Marlborough is definitely full boarding. I am not sure when the cut off date for applications is but they are massively oversubscribed so I would suggest you need to get in early.

They have 2 teams for basketball - an under 16 and a first team. Their swimming pool is fantastic and the height can be altered depending on the sport being played in it.

Winchester has an exeat every three weeks, I believe Eton and Harrow do and Marlborough definitely does. Most UK parents who's children full board want regular exeats. I fully appreciate if you're abroad and will therefore have to find a guardian for exeats etc you might feel differently.

I agree with happygardening regarding knowing exactly if you are wanting a full boarding school or not. Any school which offers weekend exeats is a slippery slope. All the boarding schools I know that offer weekly options have tended to be more weekly with just the overseas children “left behind” on Saturday night.
This for us was a key factor in choosing a school over probably anything else. For us we wanted a boarding experience where 100% of boys were in the boarding house 7 nights a week and at least 3 weeks in a sitting.
Infact we ended up selecting nearer 6 weekly boarding. This is even more rare in the UK these days! It’s not for every child either. Quite a few “full” boarding schools have compulsory exeats every third weekend (eg Uppingham).

For Swimming someone mentioned Millfield, Mount Kelly is the other big Swimming school. Standards for all sports at Millfield and certainly Swimming is very high

Oundle are building a new swimming pool this year.

I forgot to add that Bromsgrove offers both swimming and basketball.. They have a CCF and a volunteer programme - you can choose which you prefer. They also offer Add Maths (for top set Maths) and business studies at GCSE and Economics and/or business studies at A level and Global Politics for IB. So it seems to tick a lot of your boxes.

We have found it a really lovely, caring school (but can only agree with HappyGardening that as are all schools some may have a different experience). My son has certainly thrived and built his confidence since going there. I would suggest having a look.

My DS2 full boarded from yr 2 initially at prep then at Winchester College inevitably most of his friends did the same thing and we were friendly with the parents. When we all used to meet and chat over our DC's their schools etc the commonest complaint I used to hear after the cost of school fees was that they thought they were sending their DCs to a full boarding school but in fact it was a weekly boarding school and like a ghost town at the weekend. A full boarding only school is a completely different animal from a weekly boarding school. Secondly I worked in boarding schools for over five years. So Im talking from experience here not just mine but the experience of others.
If you want full boarding which you obviously do then my advise is look for. school where the either all of the vast majority full board and the rest are day pupils.But there is little now appetite for full boarding amongst UK parents so there are only a handful of proper full boarding schools left.
The big four for boys are Eton Winchester Harrow and Radley. You're too late for Winchester, unless your DS has a very late birthday your too late for Eton, Radley has I've heard changed its admission policy (it used to registration at birth) you need to look on their website, and Harrow used to pre test in yr 7 so you might be ok for there but again look on their website.
Coed full boarding schools I can think of are Marlborough again you might be too late, Uppingham, Kings Canterbury Oundle (I think it has a sizeable number of day pupils) and Rugby. A few years ago I met a women in a shop whose DS was at Malvern and she said he came home every weekend and was moaning about the drive (it was a Saturday and her DS was standing with her) someone else on here around the same time said it was full boarding only! A friends DD is at Cheltenham she definitely comes home every weekend a did the DD of my neighbour in my last house. There will be a few others, you could also look at Gordonstoun due to its location has a lot of full boarders , and maybe Milfiled.
Never forget they want your 40K+ a year and bar a few are struggling to fill all their vacancies (whatever they claim on their websites) and will tell you what you want to hear.
With regard to Cheltenham my information isn't anecdotal or second of even third hand but I don't wish to say where it comes from but it does go to show that in every school there will be blissfully happy parents and unhappy ones. My advice is pick four max that you like the look of and investigate them really carefully and find one that you like the feel of and is going to work for you.