Are there any good non selective boarding schools

[Lemonandpeardrops]

Looking to possibly return to uk with dc going into year 9 academic year starting September 2025.

Looking online and quite a few boarding schools seem to want you to apply 100 years prior to dc starting plus lots of tests or isebs etc. we’ve missed the boat on those I think anyway but wondered if it’s no longer possible to get in to any good schools without reserving a place years in advance as I don’t really have any solid plans yet and would rather not pay huge deposits before I can know what we are doing?! (I’m ancient and getting a place seemed much easier when I was at school)

Oh, I think there will always be some people hanging around in pubs and coffee shops, in real life and online, who are desperate to share their obviously correct views on other peoples' conversations.

Just smile nicely and nod, and they'll shuffle along eventually to interfere somewhere else.

I think that if you say you just want a school that might be boarding, or maybe not, and it can be anywhere in the UK, you probably need to be a bit more specific if you want useful advice.

Are there any parameters at all for your search? Do you want a sporty school or an academic school? Do you really not care if you live in the Scottish Highlands, East Anglia or Cornwall?

My DS is very sporty, not very academic, and we had a two hour radius limit so I can attend matches. It was a very short conversation with his Prep HM before we identified the two schools that would be seen as something to aim for with a following wind, and the two schools that would be safe bets. We will probably go with one of each, so he only needs to go through two selection processes, one someone challenging, one less so.

Many boarding parents do want to be near their children as long as possible, but they make decisions for their family and children based on more than their own simple feelings.

Boarding absolutely isn't for every child or family, but the decision (like most parenting decisions) is far more complicated than "don't you want to your children at home?"