Hi, looking for advice on boarding schools please. We are British expats living in the Middle East looking for a great boarding school for our daughter from year 9. She is an all-rounder - academic (CAT4 average 139), loves maths, in the netball team, does a lot of dance and plays piano. She's self-motivated and is pretty competitive (mainly against herself!). We've been to see Wycombe Abbey (and we and the kids loved it) and going to see Downe House in a few weeks. We obviously need backup options but we're struggling to find another suitable option other than these two.
Ideally we are looking for a good all-rounder school that is academically challenging but also lots of fun with good drama and dance offerings and somewhere that is easily accessed by both sets of grandparents (one in the north west and one in south east!) and also from Heathrow or Gatwick Airport. Since we are abroad, one on the most important things is that we need it to be full boarding rather than weekly boarding so that she won't be left at school with just a few other overseas kids every weekend. We want the weekends to be really fun with lots of friends and lots of activities going on. Happy to look at co-ed but struggling to find any other option that is academic and also still pretty full on a Saturday night.
Are there any other expat parents out there going through (or having been through) the same decision making process or any other parents at these kinds of schools who can suggest other good options for me please?
Thanks so much for your advice!