Boarding School required for mid year move year 9 -

[GurtrudesBosom]

Have decided to move DD after a nightmare 1st term at her senior school(last term). Lots of issues including bullying by exclusion and her total loss of self confidence due to these issues. There is lots of other stuff too, but irrelevant to this thread.

She previously boarded - with no issues extremely content,successful and happy for several years at her prep school. Its just all gone horribly wrong since she started at her new school. We have reached the point where moving her seems the better option.

I would love some recommendations of some schools. Our criteria:

Must be boarding with LOTS* of boarders, especially at weekends.

*Must have excellent Pastoral care and generally caring attitude and committed staff to this cause.

*Fairly academic

*Would prefer Co-Ed (but will consider a caring non bitchy all girls)

• Not too expensive - we are stretching ourselves financially on top of and despite employers allowance towards fees.
  
  *Ideally within 2 hours of Bristol (will consider further afield for the right school though).
  
  I would love to hear of any experiences of moving DC due to similar circumstances and personal experience of caring schools.
  
  Many thanks in advance.

[BigGreenOlives]

Start your own new thread - people will have good ideas for you.

[Ladymom]

Dear GB, my DD is exactly going thru what your DD did! Can’t agree more what you said. Can you share which school u eventually choose?

[1BigMumma]

Hi
Did you ever sort this out? I only just looked at Mumsnet and saw this message which I had to respond to! If you are still looking you MUST take a look at Moreton hall in Shropshire. It is the loveliest place and the academic achievements seem to be amongst the best in the country. My daughter is so so happy there and it is FULL boarding, with good quality stuff on every evening and weekend and I think most of the girls stay most of the time.
Good luck!
1BigMumma

[schoolnurse]

poppy reawakening very old threads (you done this with at least two others) to push a particular school makes many on here suspicious that it's the school trying to drum up business. Queen Ethelburghers likes doing this.
As I've already stated the gossip locally is that the school is struggling financially and that it's numbers are down this sort of thing adds more more fuel to that fire.

[ChocolatesAreTheOnlyFruit]

Clifton College?

[poppyloveshorses]

I would suggest Westonbirt, I moved half way through year nine from Stonar because I wasn't happy and I wanted to find friends and be settled before I started my GCSE's. it really helped and I made friends really quickly because its so friendly, so definitely go and see it.

[mousehole]

The baording at Dauntsey's is very very good - my ds chooses to stay in most weekends. Alhtough weekends only really start after matches on Saturdays as there is Sat morning school. I would avoid any school which offers weekly boarding as this will mean that most do come out at weekend and the school won't be fully committed to the weekend activities.

[happygardening]

Dauntsey I know does have a very good reputation locally and at just over £27 000 is cheaper than many but according to its website very very few bursaries and those who get them are scholarship level its probably too late to apply for your DD's year group and I also suspect no financial discount for the OP's occupation.
OP *goinggetstough" is I know exceedingly knowledgable about this and very friendly if you PM her. .

[happygardening]

According to the last ISI report Dauntsey has 766 children and 289 "full" boarders and 0 weekly but i happen to know that full boarders can come home on Saturday.

[mousehole]

dauntseys over kingswood any day

[NeitherShreddedNorSmug]

I have a friend with a DD at Kingswood, and am happy to ask her any questions you might have - PM me if that would be useful.

[mousehole]

I have a boarder at Dauntsyes (ds) so I can speak with full knowledge and honesty that this is a fabulous school and the girls in year 9 are lovely - there's tons going on and very very caring staff.

[Mutteroo]

It's always worth asking about bursaries even if you've passed the cut off date. Feel for you OP as we moved our DD half way through yr 9 but this was from state to private. Felt like we had jumped from the frying pan into the fryer at times, however we still felt it was the right thing to do for DD and six years on, she agrees!

[derekthehamster]

The only problem that you might have, is that again, they might have allocated the burseries at the beginning of yr 9. It's £27,000 a year full boarding .

Still a phone call would confirm this.

[derekthehamster]

I think I might have to change my name, unfortunately all my hamsters are male!!

[derekthehamster]

I'm a mother and yes my son goes there.

There are 16 day pupils at the school (just had it's inspection, and I remembered this part), and although it's flexible enough if you need to take them out for family weddings etc, nearly everyone is there all weekend.

Give them a ring and see if there are any vacancies, because children do leave for various reasons.

[outtolunchagain]

There was a thread about Dauntseys quite recently I think , search thread titles, a number of mumsnetters have children there I think

[outtolunchagain]

Was thinking about this again today, what about Dauntseys school , Wiltshire I think and certainly has a lot of boarding houses which would imply they have a good complement of boarders .

Monkton Combe and Bloxham are nice but not exactly academic if that is what you are looking for ,likewise Kingham Hill.

[happygardening]

I personally think you should approach Christ's Hospital apparently full boarders in the overwhelming majority although they can come home on Sundays. Also offer extensive financial assistance the only issue I can see is that you say "fairly academic" I believe its on a par with entry into a good grammar.
You could search it on MN its often mentioned in threads there is a father (I think) whose nick name might be Derekthehamster whose children go there.

[happygardening]

Westonbirt is very tiny but very caring but I know because I'm friends with a member of staff virtually all boarders are Chinese.

[outtolunchagain]

Oakham has a high percentage of boarders, what about Royal Hospital School, a long way from Bristol but lots of forces and lots of activity at the weekend ( even day pupils have to be in on Saturday).


What about the Cheltenham schools or
Malvern, not sure where you are at the moment , possible at either of these already.

[grovel]

Westonbirt?

Supposed to be lovely. Not co-ed though.

[FelicityWasCold]

Tudor hall is all full boarding as well. Loads of them in at the weekends I think.

[mumtolawyer]

It may be a bit far, but have a look at Moreton Hall, Oswestry. It was our second choice (but only by a very short head) secondary school. Very nurturing and comfortable feel, and we were looking for a mostly full time boarding school.