Best academic boys boarding school.

[Nantucketsummer]

Hello everyone.

This is my first post. I known that many of you are very knowledgeable and wondered if you may me able to advise me. We are from the U,S. but live in the U.K.

Our 8 year old son is showing signs of being academically gifted and we are considering sending him to a British Public School. We love the thought of a traditional boys boarding school. How difficult will it be to gain entry ? I am aware that the boys start at 13 but how many hoops will we jump through before then?

Thank you all in advance.

Best for what? Exam performance? All-rounders? Sciences? Arts?
It's like saying which is the best college in the USA for grad school, but not specifying whether one is studying law, AI or marine biology.

Also, what type of school does he attend now? Do they go up to 13, or will you need an interim place?

In addition We love the thought of a traditional boys boarding school
Yes, but how many of them have you visited?
I love the thought of roughing it as a fashion journo in Manhattan... but life in the us isn't like sex and the city, and life in the UK isn't like brideshead revisited or Jennings.

do you mean public school or private school?

The best academic results so I guess that is exam performance at A Level. I imagine this will mean that the school is very selective at 13 and sends lot of boy to Oxford , Cambridge and Ivy league colleges.
I mean a private boarding school at the moment my son attends a small village primary school.

Well it depends where abouts in the UK you live.

Unless you're not bothered about how far away he is.

I’d suggest you google boys’ boarding schools, read the websites of any that catch your eye, note their entry procedures and then return here with a more focused question!

And there are a million threads on boarding if you use the search function. I’m afraid best is rather too nebulous to be helpful ...

We live in the South East.

Tonbridge, Winchester ?

If you live in the SE and have enough money to be considering boarding you must be well aware of the most well known schools.

Why not tell us what you think and invite people to agree/disagree?

You might find these resources useful:

www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Them-Attitude-Children-Boarding/dp/0953790401?tag=mumsnetforum-21

www.amazon.co.uk/Wounded-Leaders-Entitlement-Illusion-Psychohistory/dp/0953790436?tag=mumsnetforum-21

www.boardingschoolsurvivors.co.uk

Thank you LIZS , I will do some research and arrange to go for a visit.

Well, not really. There are a number of generally more and less generally academic boy's schools and I can't think of any that particularly specialise in sciences or arts.

The obvious gang mostly require registration in UK year 5 (turning 10 between 1st sept to end of August ) or 6 with preselection generally happening the following year, (ie year 6 or 7), mostly using computerised tests as the first sift which can often be done from abroad (see ISEB website, pretests). Prescreening usually involves English maths verbal reasoning and non verbal reasoning, then interviews (some, like Winchester, do things a little differently).

UK based children have to take common entrance or scholarship exams in year 8 but most schools offer a slimmed down set of exams for foreign-educated children , generally covering maths, English, science and often french if studied - you would have to check school by school. One boring factor for foreign based applicants is that having secured a conditional place in year 6 or 7 you would often have to pay a much higher deposit to hold the place (around a term's fees compared to £1k ish for UK based applicants ).

If he is boarding from abroad you need somewhere that offers full boarding and doesn't empty at weekends - you will see much discussion of this on Mumsnet. This knocks out Westminster which would otherwise be on your list for academics. You should also think about whether you want him doing A Levels (more common, but has them studying just 3-4 subjects for their last two years) or International Baccalaureate which, with 6 subjects, some people think is better aligned with a return to the states for university, if that is what you have in mind.

Re traditional boys' school, you should be aware that a number of the traditional gang have gone coeducational so you should probably spread your review wider than boys only, at least at first.

Remember to think about connections to airports.

Start by looking at Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Tonbridge for boys only and perhaps wellington college (offers IB) Marlborough, Sevenoaks (IB only I think), Brighton, Rugby, Kings Canterbury for coed. That would give you a good spread of types and styles but all good academically (look at a level and gcse league tables for comparison of outcomes, remembering that these schools are all to various degrees selective) and you can work out from there. Get a subscription to the good schools guide and trawl the websites to get a short list to visit when he is in year 5.

Winchester College. Ticks all of your boxes. Very academic and very traditional. There is a prep school which feeds to the main school, called Pilgrims.

The clue is in the username. I can't fault it academically, or in any other respect.

If you did want to try for Eton, bear in mind that your DS would need to be registered by the time he is 10 and a half.

Good luck with your decision-making!

Sorry - missed that you live in the UK.

In that case you need to think as well about whether you want to consider prep school (no need board) for year 7 and 8 or if you intend to keep him in the state system, doing the whole secondary transfer with the intention of moving after two years. Or whether you want to aim slightly less trad and consider schools that start at 11

Than you for all the helpful replies. We would prefer a boys school although they do appear to be the most selective. I think that moving to a prep school for year 7 and 8 seems like the best idea. I presume that boys apply to a number of school for the year 6 pretest ?

Thank you all .

Westminster, Dulwich or Whitgift if you are happy to look at London.

Given that a lot of schools pre-test in Y6 these days, waiting to move him until Y7 may be too late as he will already have to have been assessed by then. I would move him to a selective prep as soon as possible. A small village primary may well not have the resources (or motivation) to prepare him properly for pre-test.

Do all the boys go to selective preps ? Which selective preps can you recommend?

I wouldn’t have said, Punt, that pre-tests need any special preparation beyond normal school. (Having seen a child through this!)

The advantage of moving at yr 6 is that the two subsequent years can be very full-on (particularly if in a scholarship set). So it’s nice to have a gentler year in which to acclimatise and make friends.

Also, if the child moves to a boarding prep they can, if asked at pre-test interview, answer honestly about how they’re liking boarding. (Even if they’ve only been at the prep for a few weeks before the pre-test.)

Goodness OP - you’re not being terribly entertaining! Why should we do all the work?

Winchester and Eton are the most academically selective boys boarding schools. Many will say that Winchester suits the non sporty academic while Eton is better for the all rounder but that is quite a broad brush assessment.
Other equally academic boys schools are Westminster (co-ed in 6th form) and St Pauls -both are primarily day schools with limited boarding provision so may not fit what you are looking for.
I personally would not put Tonbridge in the same league academically despite its high CE mark -others will diagree - but its sport is brilliant. Not sure about its Oxbridge record.
The co-eds mentioned by other posters are all good and will get their top cohorts into the top Universities in UK and the US if that is what you are looking for.
Most, but not all, students entering the big boys schools will come from preps. Westminster and St Paul’s have their own preps but also have an 11+ entry for boys in the state sector. Probably best to enter your son at Y6 to be on the safe side - though many wait until Y7.

Most preps outside London are not academically selective - but they will only be able to prepare an academically able boy for the academically selective schools. They don‘t perform miracles. Most UK families are not keen on boarding at this age. If you are in the SE you will find a number which will have a good track record of getting boys into the top schools. But you need to choose carefully.

If you are contemplating returning to the States while your son is at boarding school in UK you will want to go for a FULL boarding school. And there are not many of those left.

I would look at the Tatler list for boarding preps. There are several high quality ones in Berkshire such as Lambrook Haileybury, Papplewick and Horris Hill and Caldicott at Farnham Royal in Bucks are all
worth looking at. There are lots of London day preps too but you need to check if they get the children into the top boarding schools. Check the feeder schools for the senior schools you want. I would go to one of these before Y7 too. That’s a bit late in my view.