Full boarding schools

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Dear all, we are looking for a full boarding school for my son for Year 9 in 2025. We have visited some schools and shortlisted the following 3 schools:

• The Ley School
• Cheltenham College
• Cranleigh School

Would like to seek your comments about these 3 schools in term of boarding experience, academic support and pastoral care.

Thank you for your valuable comments in advance.

Cranleigh is not full boarding, relatively few are.

Nor looking online are either of the others.

The Leys has quite a few "home boarders" who are attached to boarding houses but go home for nights and weekends.
They say that the majority of their pupils are boarders, but this makes me wonder if they are counting these day pupils as boarders. If I were looking for a boarding school I wouldn't want somewhere where a third of pupils leave the house at night.

Cheltenham College is, as far as I am aware, full boarding in the traditional sense. I've also heard good things about their head.

Looks like CC also has day boarders, albeit limited to a quarter in any boarding house. But they don't offer weekly boarding (and have set exeat weekends) which at least suggests the house won't empty out at weekends. It would be worth exploring with both schools exactly how many pupils remain on site at weekends. I was a boarder for years and while weekends back then were interminably dull I attended a school at which 80%+ were full boarders so we were at least all in the same boat!

Shortlist schools that are 100% full boarding in the boarding house. 100% there every Saturday and every Sunday (except fixed exeats/half term).
thats just a handful of uk boarding schools now.
most school admissions are fuzzy about the truth so seek unequivocal full boarding if you want a school for your son where he stays at weekends.
midlands examples are Oundle, Uppingham and rugby. Not sure about any future north or south.

the Leys is midlands and is a day/weekly school. It’s dead at weekends as most go home. A lovely weekly boarding school though.

Aren't Eton, Winchester, Harrow and Radley the only ones left now?

Have you looked at Epsom College?

According to the ISI reports on The Leys’ website, full boarders to home boarders is about 2:1, so about a third of the pupils do leave the boarding houses at night, after prep.

There will be a new head in September. Here’s a video with the old head and the new one.

Latest numbers.

Terms are really short at The Leys - in summer they break up in June

Marlborough and Oundle also and Sherborne Boys and Girls.

OP- this can be a confusing topic because it kind of depends what you are looking for. As pp have said there are now relatively few that meet the strict definition of full boarding- where all students must stay in every weekend bar fixed exeats and holidays and there are no or tiny minority of day students. Some only offer full boarding but have some flexibility over weekends- again this degree of this varies a lot and also have a lot of day students.

some schools also have flexi boarding as an option where students can stay in a few nights a week. Those schools tend to have fewer in at weekends but there are also schools like Wellington which only offer full boarding and still clear out at weekends.

Ita all a bit ridiculous - as someone on a previous thread said “ parents want a mythical school where everyone stays in every weekend so that their dc has company on the odd weekend they stay in” 🤣. Ie parents wants flexibility for them but not for everyone else.

key thing is know what you want- my dc go to a “full boarding” school ( no flexi) with a 50% Saturday night rule and that works for us as we live fairly close. Most actually stay a bit more than that, especially the exam year students and those heavily involved in things like CCF and minority sports. There are day students but they are a minority.

As I said I am happy with weekend flex but my red line was that the school had to have a majority of boarders and feel like a boarding school with day students and not the other way around.

No idea how this factors in with boarders at The Leys, but they have school on Saturday

@Summertimer most boarding schools have Saturday school but many now allow students to go home from after matches on Saturday until either Sunday evening, or, in cases, Monday morning. In some schools the majority of boarders do that so the numbers in on sat night/ Sunday are v low. That means they are not a great choice if you live far from the school and can’t facilitate every weekend at home for your own dc.

I'd second these comments. If your kid will be at school on Saturdays you want their mates to be there too.

I boarded and can't imagine how crap it would have been if the house was dead over the weekend. I stayed once (A-Levels approaching) over an exeat weekend and it was grim and that was with most of my year group still in situ.

The Leys has - or certainly did few years back - actual non sport lessons on Saturday. Son of a friend could not wait to leave for state sixth form

I would definitely add Rugby School to that list (given you have Cheltenham on it) Rugby is full boarding i.e. The kids don't go home at weekends (tho' they have one/two weekend exeats per term)

Just to clarify, the Leys has both day and boarding houses, so you wouldn’t be in a position where half the house are day pupils and disappear at weekends - you’re allocated to an appropriate house.

Have you looked at Bedes, Upper Dicker, Sussex, which has various boarding options, and is in a lovely area?

But what people are saying is that even the boarders now often go home at weekends so if you are a parent who is not in a position to have your dc home every weekend due to distance or other reasons then you need to choose a school that does not allow it and those schools are now very few and most have been named on this thread. The Leys is not one of those schools and does allow boarders to leave at weekends so even in a boarding house there won’t be many in on Saturday nights.

The schools themselves will generally not admit this as it makes them less attractive to international students. You need to do a lot of digging and ask current parents what the reality is ( even 5 years ago is too long ago as things have changed so fast).

Almost all boarding schools have non-sport lessons on Saturday mornings ( and sport in the afternoon) - it makes up for the fact that they mostly get 3 or 4 full afternoons of sport/ enrichment stuff each week and very long holidays/ long exeat weekends. Honestly I think it Saturday school can be harder as a day student and if you’re not big into the sports and extra curricular stuff I can see why you might prefer a state 6th form where it’s just a case of showing up for lessons.

The over emphasis on sports was one of the deal breakers when our DC was at The Leys feeder school. They have a different senior leadership team now, but in the mid 2010s Maths levels were behind the small local school we transferred to when leaving in Yr5. Sports excellence seemed to be required to get a good overall assessment in the three subjects given effort and attainment grades - English, Maths, Sport. I don’t think it’s quite the same at The Leys, but quite a few more academic kids leave before that’s tested.

Quite a few at the Leys board Monday to Saturday and come home Saturday night. It's a popular school locally (Cambridge area) but it's not up there academically although I heard last years GCSE results were very good. Amazing sports (for an inner city school) and is in a great location in Cambridge, short walk from station etc. I have heard excellent things about pastoral support there and it's not totally sport focused but have great performing arts etc .

They apparently got their best A Level results ever this year. I have also heard that Cambridge’s top private sixth form - Perse - might have been top in the UK for A Levels this year. I don’t know what yardstick was applied though as league tables can be complied in various ways. Our top state sixth form is 5th or 6th on a table I recently saw and has frequently been in top ten lists.

Coming back to sports, I think we do see more of a focus on academic kids these days at The Leys. We know the cohort that has just gone through - I think 3 of the all A* passes are the children of teachers.

The boarding experience at Cranleigh school is excellent and they have just had a new Head, Mrs Sam Price, from Benenden school, so a really exciting time to be part of things. Cranleigh School is a bit of a hidden gem and well worth another look?

I have a son who boards at Cranleigh in year 10. Joined in year 9. He is having a fantastic boarding experience. The pastoral care is excellent, in my opinion, and the new head outstanding. It is a predominantly weekly boarding.