Weekly boarding schools without Sat lessons?

[TurkeySoup]

Hello wise mums --

I'm trying to compile a list of weekly/flexi boarding schools that are within striking distance of London that do NOT have Saturday school lessons. Saturday morning fixtures are fine, just not Saturday lessons.

I'm aware of Brighton College. Are there any others?? There must be!

Thanks in advance!! x

@Madcats - Thanks. Maybe I'm looking for something that's not really on offer 😆I think I will have a really hard time selling the boarding idea to DS unless I can say he's home for a decent part of Saturday. Maybe I should cast my net wider for day schools. It's so hard to find the right fit for a really sporty boy who wants to stay at home!

@Foxesandsquirrels - Ah just saw your reply re: Aldenham. That's what I was afraid of!

You also need to consider what sport the school is offering on a Saturday. You mention that he already does sport on Saturdays anyway. Often, club can often be of a better standard to school sport so you need to check that. And many schools do different sports each term. That means for example if your boy currently plays football every Saturday - they may lose that to only play for one term. Also check the sports - lots of schools are hockey and rugby so you may find your son misses out on what they really want to be doing.

Berkhamsted? Very sporty. Is on the train line out of London, would depend on where you are. They offer flexi boarding but I think it is mostly international students. But he might like to make some international friends too

Why don’t you look for a school that offers no Saturday sport. Then he gets the best of both worlds. Weekends with club sport and weekdays with school sport. So much better to have a mix of social experiences in sport rather than just rely on the narrow range of people in private school sport. I know girls schools such as South Hampstead High have an excellent sport offering but don’t do weekends.

Bishops Stortford College have recently gone to sport only on a Saturday.

Bishop’s Stortford College - no Saturday school but matches are played on Saturdays if you’re in the team

I'm interested in the Saturday matches but no Saturday school thing, in terms of how does it work? Does everyone participate or do they typically just have an A and B team? If you're good but don't want to play Saturday matches as you play another sport out of school do you have to? Do you just show up for the match and then leave? Do parents take DC to away matches or is there a coach?

I do think one of the big challenges for boarding schools that have day students now is the clash between school sports/Saturday school and existing commitments for non-school sports.

Kings Ely is further away but easily accessible from Kings Cross/Liverpool Street/Tottenham Hale.

Have boarders but no Saturday lessons but I'm not sure they do weekly boarding. Definitely worth checking out though.

@TinaYouFatLard and @BreakfastClub80 - Thanks! Do you happen to know what BS is like academically/sport-wise? 🙏

Not bad at all, good academic reputation but it's very much a local school with a small mostly international boarding community.

Ah, okay, thanks @Foxesandsquirrels. Probably not the right fit then.

This is really going to depend on the school, but this is how it works at DD's:

If you get a sports scholarship there is usually an expectation that you pitch up to everything you are asked to attend.

At junior/early senior level DD's school tends to field 1-3 teams (and rotate children in and out of them to give every child a chance to compete). It is drilled into the kids that "it is an honour to compete for the school".

As the children get older there is more scope to do non-team sports (gym/badminton/volunteering etc) and there is less pressure to compete.

DD swims, so we drop out of about a third of fixtures. Fixtures are arranged at least a term in advance, so I tend to email head of sport with the date clashes at the start of the term.

Kids make their own way to home matches and those at schools within a couple of miles away at the weekend. Otherwise teams get ferried about in minibuses or coaches. Away matches can often be 90 minutes' drive away so it isn't unusual for a single match, followed by "tea", to take up most of the day.

The boarding schools, with Saturday school, tend to organise their fixtures in the early afternoons.

Multi-school tournaments tend to be mid-week.

Squad training is usually for 90-120 minutes after school on particular days.

@Madcats thanks- that makes sense.

Sorry I don’t have any more insight as don’t have DC at BSC. I know it’s fairly good academically and know several day pupils who are very happy there. I have a DD at Haileybury (which was mentioned by a pp on this thread) and was quite envious that BSC dropped Saturday lessons, which was why it’s on my radar!

Aldenham actually deal extremely well with high achievers. There are a good cohort of them in most years who have chosen it for various reasons. No Saturday school

@Madcats -- That's a mega, mega helpful breakdown. Thank you for taking the time to write that!

Would you consider a state boarding option? They are very unlikely to have Saturday lessons and weekend sports are likely to be limited/flexible if already engaged in club activities.

@MKDmumofflash - Didn’t even know there was such a thing!

Queenswood for a girl.

Aldenham for co-ed.

Look at Royal Alexandra and Albert. It's a BEAUTIFUL state boarding school with the most incredible grounds and even ponies.

@XelaM - Wow, that does look amazing, I had no idea there were state schools like this! Unfortunately it does appear to have Saturday lessons though :-)

Cranbook? In Kent but I don't know if they do Saturdays. DD is at one in northern England and there's definitely no Saturdays so it's not a given.

Tough ask, OP
Saturday matches are nearly always in the afternoons (because so many boarding schools have Saturday morning lessons). So that’s a lot of driving around for you. Is it really worth it, just for a few hours at home on Saturday morning?

Cranbrook is a state with boarding and no Saturday school apart from matches.
If your child is sporty Sutton Valence would be a really good option and as some else said Saturday school apart from matches being dropped from September.

To add to what @Madcats wrote, I would really recommend you ask each school you are considering as to how they organise themselves.

I have two boys in secondary school, neither of them very sporty but each of their London day schools run A-H teams in each year in the main school sports, which means even my unsporty and not very skilled, quite clumsy boys are expected to be playing most Saturdays.

Home matches can start any time between 8.30 and 1pm (older kids seem to get the later start times, maybe to match their sleep cycles) and away matches can be a leave at 8am with the school coach to return around 2pm, so basically don't plan anything before 3pm on a Saturday.

Music and drama productions often have general rehearsal on a Sunday. Quite rare to get a whole weekend away from school unless it is a term where the kids are doing an individual sport (tennis is on offer for example in the summer term).

But most of all do ask detailed questions of the schools themselves. I stupidly assumed two broadly similar schools in the same market segment would have a similar approach but they don't. One of them for example sets the kids in a team from week 3-4 of term and from then you know exactly which matches they will play when. The other one mixes up the teams every week and you have no idea until Friday afternoon as to what your Saturday will look like.