Full Boarding Recommendations

[BridgetZimbabwe]

Hello from sunny Zimbabwe
We are looking for a school in UK for my son to attend 6th form in 2025. We were in UK in April and visited 6 amazing schools, but none of them were the absolute perfect fit.
My criteria are simple:
Full boarding
An all year round cricket program
A sports science related A level option

I would be happier with a school in the south where I have a support network but would consider further afield. My preference would actually be to keep him in Zim, but he has a single track focus on playing cricket and Zim cannot offer what he feels he needs to achieve his ambitions.

Did you look at Millfield?
https://www.millfieldschool.com/senior-13-16/sport/sports-a-z/cricket

Have you thought of the Royal Hospital School near Ipswich? Beautiful site, excellent facilities, lots of cricket, and a proper boarding community. I'm pretty sure there's a Sport BTEC, and Science and Psychology A levels are popular and strong.

Epsom , Cranleigh or Charterhouse, although few are full boarding these days. Where have you ruled out? Some will have closed applications for 2025 already.

Millfield.
As long as you don’t need very high academic achievement as well.

We did not look at Millfield from the outset as felt it was a bit big for what we were looking for - having said that, we went to Bryanston and Radley which are also big schools. I will re-look! Thank you

Have noticed that cricketers often play for local “county cricket” as well as school cricket. Not sure his this works logistically for an overseas pupil for transport. Schools prob can’t offer advice for off campus & pretty sure county teams have pipeline & tryouts for young players. You might start by contacting top “county” teams and ask about recruitment & nearby boarding.

It’s not the south but if he loves cricket I would look at Yorkshire. So many wonderful cricket opportuntities! I know Ampleforth College is full boarding and has amazing cricket. They just built new cricket nets. I think they do sport BTEC alongside biology and psychology A level etc.

Didn’t Ampleforth have decades-long issues around sexual abuse and the monks though?
It would be a long way down my list if I was out of the country.

Did you look at Repton? That would be my first thought for a cricketer. They also offer a range of A levels that would work for sports science- PE, separate sciences or psychology, plus sport as a btec.

The Taunton schools are good for cricket, if you want somewhere smaller than Millfield. I'm not certain but I think they are quite popular with military families so boarders abound.
Another option would be Sherborne, which certainly has a sports related BTEC on offer and year-round cricket. And it's essentially full boarding.
It's not as strong for sport as Millfield- so could be easier to break in to for a new arrival- but the top teams are pretty good, with plenty of County and Academy players, and they offer sports scholarships which come with extra coaching, strength & conditioning etc.

Some terrible things happened and they’re very open about that. I think their safeguarding is probably one of the best in the country now.

For cricket if he’s targeting becoming professional, you ideally need to start with the counties/ academies and work backwards because boarding school cricket, while often good, is typically not the main route to professional, and some schools will be better than others about facilitating county or academy participation for boarders ( the county players at DSs school tend to be day students or have parents who live close). Unfortunately English cricket is quite opaque/ hard to navigate and varies by county. Having county coaches involved at the school ( which some do) is one route. Also the weather means that actual matches are only a summer sport at school although there will be nets in the winter.

On that basis I would at least speak to Millfield because if nothing else you will hopefully pick up some info on the best way to approach this. They are also most likely to offer sports science at A level. It’s not the most academic cohort but that doesn’t mean that a bright child won’t get v good grades.

Best of luck- my son also loves cricket - although he’s not at a level that I can give you much concrete advice.

HTH.

Of not Ampleforth, then what about Scarborough College. Very much not in the south but with strong links to Yorkshire Cricket Club

Oakham used to be good for cricket but they have day students as well. No idea about playing in winter, never heard of year round cricket other than indoor nets

Year round cricket does not really exist in the UK - the weather is too bad in winter and the schools all switch to rugby and/or football.

The best you can hope for is a school with huge indoor facilities which is willing to run winter nets alongside other indoor sports like basketball and badminton.

Thanks so much everyone.
I hugely appreciate all your help and advice. Such a help - and each bit of advice is being considered carefully.
South Africa is not an option for us sadly. I understand about no actual outdoor cricket in the winter so looking for a school that has all year round training - even if indoor.
Thanks again

Just as an 'out of the box' suggestion, does it have to be UK/ northern hemisphere? Would somewhere like Geelong Grammar in Victoria work for your son, Bridget? Their training seasons would be more closely aligned to yours, the distances involved mean full boarding is exactly that, and I believe the Aussies play a bit of cricket....

I would agree with this. Both Taunton School and King's Taunton have excellent cricket programmes, while Millfield is at the top end of the league table for any sport. I was at an open day there recently and the sixth former who showed me around said that their cricket first XI doesn't even play against other schools, but against county sides of the same age.

I don't remember the rules for the Taunton schools, but Millfield has a high proportion of boarders and boarders are only allowed to return home for a limited number of weekends per year, so there are always plenty of boys and girls around.

On the downside, depending on your circumstances, it was already one of the most expensive boarding schools in the UK, and on the open day the headmaster made clear that the school was not intending to absorb any of the 20% VAT coming in from January. Whether he will stick to that we will see, but he said he was confident that the product Millfield delivers will ensure demand is strong even after the fee increase.

Tawanda Muyeye went to Eastbourne College from Zim and ended up as the Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year for 2019. They have done a whole new sports complex in the last few years, are connected to Sussex CCC and have a full time Cricket Pro.

More here https://www.eastbourne-college.co.uk/co-curricular/sport-at-eastbourne-college/cricket/ it is year round.

Shrewsbury school has indoor cricket facilities but I'm not sure about sport science in the sixth form.

For boarding - choose schools that categorically do not allow boarders home on weekends. That narrows down your list of boarding schools in the UK down to about 20!
then cricket, you need to select a school that is in a first class cricket county. That will halve that list of schools down to about 10!
If your child attends that school then they can trial for that first class county and play county cricket. Be aware that county cricket in the uk largely stops at 16 and then aged 17-18 you need to sign an academy contract usually . Minor counties still play u18 cricket but if your son is serious about cricket then do not go down the minor counties route as it doesn’t lead anywhere. . You’d want to sign that academy contract before starting at a school. You may well be too late unless your child is already playing age group national cricket for Zim to get an academy trial/application.

then choose a school with an active link to that first class county.
i can only speak for Oundle School which is in Northants. This ticks all the above boxes.
it has strong links with Northants county. Each year group at the school tends to have a handful of county players in each year group. The school ferry the children to county training every week (or twice if the child is in not just the county age group but also county elite pathway ). There is all year round cricket training there in a dedicated cricket sports hall.
the only proviso is the entry for 6th form is competitive and the child must be either very academic OR moderately academic and already playing age group elite (county or Zim equivalent) cricket to get a place for 6th form. It is a full boarding school where boarders are not allowed home on the weekend except for set exeats either side of half term. It is vitally important for an overseas child not to end up in a boarding school which allows boarders home at the weekend. This dilutes the boarder experience for the overseas children who rattle around half empty boarding houses all weekend. So not be fooled by the PR of schools who will tell you they are full boarding.90% of schools and parents who tell you this are not being truthful . When you tour the school ask the PUPILS showing you round if anyone can go home at the weekend if they wanted to. If it’s a yes, please don’t send an overseas child there as it’s lonely at the weekends unless they find a friend every weekend to take them home. Not what a boarding school should be.
other schools in the midlands area to consider are Uppingham and Rugby. I’m not sure that they ferry children to county training once or twice a week for free however. Think they have to take taxis ! They are both proper boarding schools. Northants regularly hold county training and county matches at Oundle school.
there will be other schools that are both full boarding and cricket specialist but I am not able to name them as I cannot say for sure what their boarding and county cricket commitment is like.

If he's quite bright, and you don't want co-ed, have a look at Harrow. It does everything well. I know a super L6 cricketer there who was allowed to play cricket abroad for a couple of weeks whilst corresponding with his teachers to keep up with his work.

Radley is also very good for everything.

I agree about Oundle too, a very good school right now.

Thank you again everyone - such wonderful helpful advice. I am so grateful to you all.

If you're keen on Cricket look at St Peter's York, which offers full boarding and is excellent cricket school (convincingly neat Millfield at Lord's this year).

It's in the centre of York, less than 5 minutes walk from the station and although "in the North" is very easily accessible by train from London (trains every 30mins and only takes 2 hours).