Bradfield College for a full UK based boarder

[Cocodmackie]

Hello,
looking for views (ideally first hand or close to it) for Bradfield college for a year 9 entry (DS) and younger DD and DS to follow.

DS is academic but not top of the class, very sporty and enjoys choir. Loves CCF (joining). We move a lot for jobs and could be abroad so interested in weekend numbers and he likes staying weekends as he does at current prep.

many thanks

A few years ago I had a friend with a full boarder DS at Bradfield. He was really unhappy because the school emptied out at weekends and all of his friends went home. I know other families who choose Bradfield because it is predominantly a weekly boarding school.
Great school for the right child but it would not be on my list if I was lokking for full boarding at 13.

I wouldn’t choose bradfield for full boarding.

Have your school suggested others - Uppingham Rugby Oundle and Marlborough would be good places to assess?

Thank you I thought this might be the case. We’d do weekly most of the time but wanted that option should we be away but sounds like only a handful of foreign students stay weekends. Thank you for commenting

I’d look further away from London, as more children are likely to stay. King’s Canterbury and Sherborne traditionally had a lot of full boarders. I’m not up to date on that, but they are both excellent schools with an academic top end, a lot of sport and CCF.

I’d look for schools which don’t allow weekly boarding and just have fixed exeats. Sherborne, Canford, Marlborough, rugby, Oundle. Winchester, Eton, Harrow

These are good options too besides I believe canford is quite weekly and Marlborough does allow you home occassionally after sport apparently from someone on here.

The others are either strict full boarding or strict full boarding and day. Exeats or holidays every 3/4 weeks so they’re never away for too long.

No weekly at Canford apparently

They are allowed out after Saturdays it says there.

They use word acrobatics saying we don’t have a weekly option to hide it but the others dont allow you to take “extra Saturdays out” and go home; besides holidays or exeats - it’s in or out.

If students can leave, they normally do.

Besides, if the others are options that offer full boarding and are great schools I’m not sure why you’d choose canford over them.

Ah I see. I was just thinking of schools far away from London.

Marlborough College or Radley (if happy to consider all boys). MC and Bradfield are probably on par academically, Radley is a step up academically and sporting wise.

Thank you. I did want the weekly option for when we are in the UK and children wish to come home so a book mix would be great. Thank you the suggestions

Marlborough is a level above Bradfield academically, as its A-Level results and university destinations demonstrate.

Canford is more relaxed than somewhere like Oundle or Marlborough re weekends but good number stay in. The rule is that they need to stay in 50% of Saturday nights. Mine tend to do every other weekend but sometimes they’ve stayed between exeats (so 2 weekends in) and there have been plenty of people around- it’s a campus school with central dining and the houses are all adjacent to each other so easy to find those staying in and while they don’t organise weekend activities other than the few closed weekends there is plenty to do on site ( gym, golf course, astros) or they go into town.

it does have a v strong CCF and it’s probably around the right academic level so worth taking a look if the location would work but if you want them home every weekend probably not flexible enough tbh. .

personally I’m v happy with it and both my dc are thriving there.

Full boarding. Pretty academic. Sport. Ccf.

on this basis, Oundle . Look at rugby as an alternative. It ticks every box too except I don’t know what their ccf provision is however most traditional British boarding schools offer ccf. My children have been at Oundle.
excellent opportunities for sporty children with one to one support for those on elite programs. It is not a school that buys in talent. Beware choosing a school that appears sporty but infact buys in talent at discount fees knocking out the actual fee paying children off the A teams (Repton - I’m looking at you!)

exclude every single school that allows any child out over and above the three weekly standard exeats. There litteraly a handful of these schools to choose from.
Oundle. Rugby.
Uppingham too but that’s very tweedy/country vibes which may or may not be your thing. Radley also struck me as having a disproportionate amount of idenikit fathers in tweed. With Labradors at heel stood next to their Range Rovers. But again, if this your thing, great. It is a very good school (all boys though which seems more and more anachronistic in this day and age).

Agree.

Marlborough also fab.

Uppingham parent set is like Oundle but idk how to describe its parent set. There is crossover with Oundle but it’s much more middle class anxious hyacinth bucket in ways. Less cool. And really only this or international students. It has less integration.

Rugby is nice but like Uppingham very prescriptive all round mould everyone gets out into. Much less individual student style. But more driven and less middle class anxious.

Look at Repton - amazing school, brilliant sports (both boys and girls), ccf, academics, drama and pastoral care, full boarding with brilliant socials organised every weekend for each of the year groups. Not a Rugby playing school. 1 exeat (Fri - Sun) and 2 privilege weekends (Saturday night to Sunday) every half term. My DC absolutely loving all aspects of Repton school.

Thank you. We’ve applied to Marlborough but wasn’t sure if parents are all too “flashy” as some have said. However I guess being so large there must be quite a ranges. Pastoral care is paramount but want to make friends with parents who are grounded despite incredible privilege, if that makes sense. Thank you for your comments

You might want to consider The Duke of York’s Royal Military School. Has all the things you mention, but would also save you a small fortune. The majority of the school are full boarders and Rugby is strong.

Do not think inexpensive means a lack of quality.

Marlborough undeniably enjoys its designer-label reputation — the school and the pupils alike and it attracts wealthy people. Still, I have some wonderful friends from there who are hilarious and have that effortlessly confident social energy.

You can’t get much more flashy than Bradfield!

I think the closer the schools are to London/The South the flashier they get.

Oundle, to clarify, is not flashy. Neither Uppingham nor Rugby if this of great concern OP but most people from these flashy schools do, in my experience, mellow and have any airs and graces knocked out of them by life in their 20s.

I would agree Bradfield isn't ideal for a full boarder. If you want to move between full and weekly you might consider Teddies or Wellington. Most of the top schools offer full boarding but not many enforce it so those who can go home, do. You should probably also kick the tyres on the percentages of boarding v day, as this can alter the feel and culture of a school. They can insist that full boarding means full boarding, but if several hundred pupils go home every night that's surely debatable.
Your son sounds like a great prospect for any school so in reality you are spoilt for choice. If you start with some filters such as geographical area, boys/girls/mixed and campus/town that should start narrowing things down. It will also make a difference to your search, whether you will be needing bursary support. If so, unless your DS is top notch at academics, music or sport, you might need to go down a notch or two from the 'great' to the 'excellent' category to qualify.

One of the problems is that the OP’s dilemma kind of epitomises the issue with UK boarding at the moment which is “I want the school to put on a full range of activities and insist everyone stays in except when I want my child out when I want full flexibility”

@op- im not mocking you here, it’s just how it is and a challenge my Head friends are constantly deliberating in terms of numbers- ie is it better for the school to go strict full boarding or effectively be a weekly/ flexi boarding school? You can’t really have both from a domestic student point of view. I think in your shoes I would go strict full and just accept that when you’re in Uk you won’t see them as much as you’d like rather than have them rattle around an empty school at weekends.

That said I would look at canford as think it’s as close to a middle ground as you’ll get plus the internationals are quite diverse so you won’t have a situation where if it’s just your dc and the internationals that they are all speaking their common language and hanging together.

Also for year 9 I wouldn’t care too much about Sunday “activities”. Honestly mine appreciate the downtime and just like to sleep in, go to the gym, maybe wander into town and then watch F1 or the premiership beamed from someone’s laptop.

Haha you are so right. I think schools should work around that with having “in” weekends where all the boarders have to stay so that at least creates a full boarding house for those weekends and everyone knows they are in. It’s hard for us as we could be posted abroad or equally in the UK. Current prep has about half stay weekends half go home which works well. Son enjoys the fewer people at the weekend for some quiet time but they also do big activities so many stay for those.
canford, thank you will have a look although geographically it’s no where near any family or likely housing for us but hear great things. We’ve currently applied to Marlborough and Sherborne (too far west) but Bradfield location appeals, and I have a daughter two years behind and wants all girls (Bradfield is close to Downe house) and the grounds looked stunning at Bradfield, maybe less full on than Marlborough (no idea though). Thank you for your comments.

Thank you for your advice, most useful. I did briefly consider Wellington as they come across (on website) as quite modern, entrepreneurial and stem focused which I like however have heard, in fact at our prep senior school fayre, the admissions guy told me everyone clears back to London every weekend so I discounted it. Teddies looks like a nice school, don’t know much about it but I will dig a little deeper, thank you