Boarding school recommendation

[woodland2]

Hello, I would welcome any suggestions on great boarding schools that would fit below criteria:

1. We live in Spain and my son wants to go boarding next year. Starting in Y10 i.e. September 2027.
2. Full Boarding (i.e. true full boarding)
3. My boy is bright but somewhat lazy. He goes to a very academic private school in Spain and gets by. i.e. he passes all subjects but not with top grades. Please note that education in Spain is fairly different to UK i.e. very theoretical, a lot of memorising and full blown exams since Y3!!. Hence why he wants to move back to British education.
4. He needs strong motivation and encouragement
5. He is not into arts. He likes sports. Speaks German and Spanish.
6. The school food is also important factor for him

I would like strong pastoral care. we are flexible with location although I travel a lot to London and hence somewhere 1 to 3 hours from London would be preferable. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

To get the most out of boarding school you really need to be a self starter. Even in the most dedicated settings students are still relied on to get on with things themselves a lot more than in a day school where parents can keep a watchful eye at home every night. If I'm honest based on what you describe this feels like it might be a very expensive mistake. But I might be wrong!

Given you're based not in the UK I'd really recommend using an educational consultant. The good schools guide among others offer this service. They'll have a more complete perspective and ideas. Inherently most people on a forum like mumsnet will mainly know about the schools their own kids go to which can be helpful but my advice would be to work with a third party to get a list and then ask for feedback on specifics. That's what I'd do if I lived outside the UK.

I am not sure I necessarily agree with the poster with the first reply. The best boarding schools are these days very good at getting the best out of everyone. They have to be in the modern world and old stereotypes are just that.

The obvious first choices for you OP in my view would be Harrow, Westminster and Tonbridge based on my experience with all three. But if you are looking at this calibre of school there is no substitute for going to see them. Repeatedly if necessary.

Good luck.

Be careful. I have a relative who works in one. Many are now under immense financial pressure and have laid staff off. This burns out the remaining staff. If your ds was in the school my relative teaches at, nobody would have time to give a shit if he couldn’t be arsed with his work. My relative is exhausted with health suffering. Teaching load has increased due to redundancies and not replacing staff who leave voluntarily. Morale is low.

Does depend on if he is bright or you mean super academic.

st Edward’s Oxford has done well with my bright but needing chivvying, rather quirky dc. been fine with dc basically hating the arts (though lots are available), huge range of sports at all levels, Pastorally has been very good, staff are all responsive and we have found them helpful and caring. There are lots of international boarders. It has high standards and aspirations for the kids but not a pushy hot house. Dc very happy.

Kings Ely might be a good choice. Just over an hour from Kings Cross, lots of different nationalities, lots to keep him occupied and engaged with school life, masses of sport. Food is fabulous! Pm me if you like - my three have all had the best time as boarders there

@blunderbuss12 thank you. He is already in a boarding school in Spain. Has been since he was 11.

I would be nervous about starting him at the beginning of Year 10. That is the start of GCSE courses where things start to get serious. Moving schools, moving countries, changing education systems, changing language learning in, new friends are all a lot. No child can hit the ground running with all that.

Most boarding schools for boys start in year 9 so it will be down to space availability, the top schools are unlikely to have spaces in year 10.

Tonbridge is not full boarding, its weekly. Some will stay in over the weekend but its a small number of international students. Its also just announced that its going co-ed in 6th form from 2028, no doubt full co-ed will follow later - if that's a deal breaker for you. For the true full boarding, all boys, elite boarding schools, one can only really look at: 1. Eton 2. Radley 3. Harrow. Radley probably the strongest of the three pastorally and sporting wise. Eton is now a slight notch above the other two academically or has the highest academic bar of the three on entry. Radley instinctively sounds well suited, although if you favour a much larger international co hort, Harrow will certainly provide that.

Year 10 is a strange time to join, and most of the schools being mentioned on here won’t have spaces then. Generally pupils join in year 9, so they have a year to settle into school life and try out different subjects before starting the GCSE courses in year 10.

Is he following the British curriculum at the moment? I know friends who moved here from America realised their kids were roughly a year behind British pupils so just started them in the year group below but don’t know what Spain is like or how much of a social issue that would be (eg if he’s a very young year 10 then being the oldest year 9 by a week would matter less than if he’d be one of the older year 10s!).

Why did you not arrange for him to begin in year 9? It’s not impossible to get a place in yr 10 (there is some movement where the odd child finds a school doesn’t suit) but it isn’t usual. He’d have the extra stress of having missed a year of acclimatisation before being plunged straight into GCSE work.

Which is another thing - you mention wanting to get away from memorising and exams, but that’s all there would be from now until the end of his school career. Any decent independent school will hold internal exams at the end of yr 10 as part of continuous preparation for GCSEs in yr 11. The same again in yr 12 as prep for A’Levels. It’s an intense four years of academic effort.

Most boarding schools expect pupils to be all rounders when it comes to contributing to the boarding community. Everyone takes part in drama and singing competitions. Most play an instrument, many help with set or costume design, or take part in arts based volunteering in their local area. You can’t arrive and say ‘I won’t do any of that’.

And he won’t have any say over the school food. Though it is likely he’ll have increasing freedom to order takeaways as he progresses in seniority.

I would strongly suggest you read the websites of the schools so far suggested - really thoroughly, and then if you decide you want to proceed, engage a reputable consultant to guide you through.

several schools already mentioned above that are not full boarding. Your shortlist should be schools where everyone MUST leave at an official exeat . There’s barely a dozen of these schools in the uk so your list will be short. So many schools have full boarding but are not full boarding. Ie children can go home at various weekends of their choosing. Strike those schools. Eg kings Ely, St Edwards (teddies) and Tonbridge from above.
then decide if you want single sec in which case eton, Radley or Harrow but you probably won’t get in as you’ve left it too late.
mixed schools I’d suggest Oundle (my dc go there) or Rugby. Both would suit your son perfectly but again they are probably full although there are always a handful of joiners at year 10 when some child stares at year 9 but was not fit for FULL boarding. The academics will take care of themselves at any of these five schools. They are also large and cosmopolitan enough where your dc can choose their extra curricular activities themselves - be it sport, music, drama etc - children tend to self select what they want to do. There’s no forcing involved.
consultants often suggest really weird combinations of school so I don’t rate them at all. Make your short list and get on the phone pronto to see who has space. All the best ones remain full inspite of the fee increase all schools have had this year.

Even at a full boarding school a pupil will spend vast amounts of time not at school - the OP will inevitably require a UK based guardian who is prepared to have her son to stay for the weekend probably at the least every three to four weeks, as well as turning up for innumerable school events.

And it isn’t a matter of ‘forcing’. The whole point of such a school is that pupils push themselves to try things that might be out of their comfort zone. That’s how they build a broader range of friends, and discover talents and interests they didn’t know they had.

Yes. Pupils push themselves. That is different to forcing isn’t it? The ethos of full boarding schools is to find the inner self starter in them all. They all leave as busy people with a wealth of experiences from their five years at a boarding school. It’s been brilliant for my dc.

I think you might have to go by which schools have a space rather than actually making a choice. As others have said, Y9 is the usual entry point.