Need advice on UK Boarding Schools for International Student

[alifewelllived]

We are Australians living in Vietnam & my eldest child (daughter 13yo) has asked to go to boarding school in the UK so she can have more opportunities to develop her passion of sport (currently plays U15 football in boys team, plays mixed rugby, swims, & plays tennis & badminton and also be exposed to an education that will help her flourish (currently one of the best students in the French School in Hanoi). I am fully supportive of her dream - we have a very close relationship & I will send her off knowing that she is fully capable of thriving in boarding school. She also has British heritage, loves travel and is keen to play football in Europe, so for this & other reasons we have decided on the UK rather than Australia.

We are working with an agent to select the schools and have narrowed it down to 5 whom we have submitted applications to:
Felsted
Bishop's Stortford
Bede's
Kings Ely
Oakham
We are booked to head over to the UK for school tours and entrance tests the week after next but I am really wanting to narrow our selection before we get there as I feel that sitting tests for 5 schools in a week (plus inspections etc) is just going to be too much!! However I am struggling to cross any of them off the list as they all look fabulous. I understand many people take a couple of years to make these decisions, tour the schools before submitting applications etc, but unfortunately our expat life has not allowed us this time! So am seeking your very honest feedback on these choices. What is a priority for us is a warm, nurturing environment that encourages independent & out of the box thinking, supports the students to excel whilst making them global citizens (ie. not just concerned with their own success, but rather the success of all), and that has a fabulous sports program. Also its important that the boarding experience is a very positive one for her ... (ie. not a place where the school empties out over the weekend). As far as I can tell from the school websites, they all score pretty highly, so I need your help to make this decision!! Many thanks in advance.

I am biased as I am local to it but have you thought about Trent College?

Big ground, known for sport and breadth of education.

PM me if you want to know anymore.

We have a daughter at Mount Kelly,and certainly don't recognise the picture painted above,its sport(apart from swimming) is poor,its a small school and struggles to put out teams,its fixtures tend to be against other small schools.
We were told it was strong in sport and it really isn't.
The boarders are mainly from the far east or swimmers,at weekends the swimmers are often at competitions ,so the school is pretty empty after matches on saturday
Certainly no girls football,
The academics are not great ,most years nobody to Oxbridge,few medics etc. cross it off your list.
Our daughter is leaving the school for all of the above and more.

I had forgotten about Rugby, another great co-ed full boarding but girls' football is not a strength.
OP I have assumed that you want a year 10 entry point since your DD so for 13+ schools this would be outside the normal admissions cycles and relying on another DC having left or school not filled to capacity.

My son went to the Junior School at King's Ely but has left to go to a more academic senior school. I am not sure that girls play football at King's Ely past year 8 (so it is definitely something you must check). Having said that there are some very good girls' clubs in the Cambridge area but I am not sure whether they would allow/be able to accommodate a boarder being able to attend these.

If it were just a case of her wanting the traditional "girls" sports of Hockey, netball and tennis it would be a good fit though.

I have no personal knowledge of it but understand Oakham is much better all round for sports than Kings Ely.

If she is a good sportswoman it would also be worth looking at whether she has any chance of a sports scholarship. At King's Ely it can be up to 20% of the school fees but is usually in the region of 10%.

Bradfield - top boys football school and has girls football too. Academic results don't look great on paper but top students supported to do well. Excellent pastoral. Almost 100% boarding BUT fairly high % flexi/weekly board. St Edwards Oxford definitely full boarding and similar on pastoral and academics but not sure about football (tho is close to centre of Oxford so should be relatively easy to find a team)

I only have second hand info on Felsted. It's quite heavy on the 'new money' pushy parents. My friends children very sport loved it but she didnot like it so much. Daughter was bullied and the school didnot do much beyond the usual to help the situation sort it. Also at my DD,s school there is an ex felsted master who is quite pushy. I have no idea about the football side.

If you can I would look for a school where everyone has to board or at least stay Friday for Saturday matches. Uppingham springs to mind but I have no idea if they do football.

I also immediately thought of millfield - it has amazing sporting facilities, is co-ed, and has loads of international students so your daughter would be with lots of others who have parents overseas. It really does every conceivable sport and to a very high standard so I'd be amazed if it didn't have a girls soccer team - might be worth enquiring?

As a longtime lurker I have finally been motivated to post on the forum by your message. Having researched school choices and education heavily my concern would be about sending an expat daughter to a part boarding school. I have been an expat so understand the needs of an expat child, and was also a full boarder. I went to Uppingham and was offered a place at Oakham, and my husband was at another well known full boarding co ed public school. I am also going through the schools choices for my children.
Oakham is majority day or flexi/weekly boarding pupils. At weekends it is very quiet for the boarders, and when older the day/ weekly boarders used to meet up / go out in Oakham while the termly boarders were literally in the boarding house waving out of the window. Because it is predominantly day/weekly most of the cohort will be local, and an international child will lack that contact and support. Oakham is an excellent school but I would not advise putting an expat child in such a situation. For example how many girls will be full boarders aged 13, and be interested in the same activities? Who will your daughter play sport with on Sunday afternoons? Indeed while an expat I heard of many children who were miserable at their part boarding schools and left. Those at full boarding schools seemed much happier as they were more included and involved with school, friends and entertainment 24/ 7. There will also be far fewer international / expat students at the part boarding schools; The girls in the football team are likely to take part in football out of school, which your daughter will miss out on.
There are not many public schools which will promote football as a major or even minor girls' sport. It just hasn't become part of the ethos. So I think you will have to choose between football and full boarding, and my suggestion is full boarding is more important. Sport at the major public (boarding) schools is there for the taking - if your daughter is sporty she will soon pick up the sports, and get into the teams. Any sports teacher will be keen to have her and develop her coordination and skills even for new sports. (I am guessing she enjoys sport in general). What the full boarding schools have, which the part boarding don't, is sport availability all the time. The school day is longer and everyone is there all the time, so there are always plenty of sporty friends of the same age around - I found that in the evenings a load of us would go to the sports hall and play some basketball/ run around type of game. On Saturday nights we would put speakers out of our dormitory windows overlooking the tennis courts and play tennis, with boys from the other houses coming to join in. The boys too would be playing sport all the time - it was their form of relaxation and getting out of the house, so during free time every day there were always boys playing around with footballs in the nearby pitches, and we used to join in. We all lived in our sports kit all weekend every weekend. I know two really sporty girls who are the best in their school football team, but are going to schools which do not have football teams but are good at sport. I think you need to really dig a lot further. Find out exactly where the sports facilities are in relation to your child's boarding house, which boarding house has the sporty housemaster/ reputation, what are the sporting options at the weekends. All the well known full boarding public schools will be good at sport, and have fantastic facilities. (The same for music/ art / drama etc). You need to examine them for other considerations which are important to you and would suit your child. Actually it will be easy to reduce the list once you have looked at access from airports, full boarding, entrance availability, numbers of international pupils and full boarders and their ages, well known international reputation, then more particular features of the school, eg house or entire school dining, pastoral care, language development for her French. I would start by ringing the Registrars and having an open and honest chat, then asking to email the Head of Girls' Sports. Good luck.

Have a look at Repton. Very sporty, full boarding school with strong focus on football and a very active girls football team (looking at sports calendar). I know they have close links with ISFA for boys football but not sure about girls. Academically, the school does well with reasonable numbers to Oxbridge. There are a decent number of international students. It is quite a down to earth and unpretentious school with lots of DCs on big sports scholarships.

It is further away from London but there is the option to fly into East Midlands which is very close (I assume you would need to do a connecting flight) or maybe Manchester or Birmingham which are only about an hour away. The school will organise airport transfers.

Bishop Stortford has gone downhill over the last couple of years and I would not recommend it now. Felsted has never had a brilliant academic reputation. Neither school has girl's football as far as I am aware.

I can't discuss particular schools but I noticed that one reason your DD wants co-Ed is that the boys are good competitors.

Sorry posted too early - by that age they aren't likely to be mixed teams (but maybe others can say how much mixed sport there on a more ad hoc basis)

Great post by paperbattles.

Millfield is a bit of a marmite school and since girls' football is not a big thing there I personally would discount it due to distance from main airports and that I have heard (in RL) more teenagers let down by it by than positive endorsements ( seems rather sink or swim, no pun intended ). Living as far away as you do, pastoral care would be my absolute priority and I am not convinced that Millfield delivers that.
Renton is another good idea although relatively remote location. Very sporty indeed but sound for everything else. I have heard from one mother who is very experienced in boarding schools that it is a school that does what it says. She was very pleased with the pastoral and academic support as well as high level coaching for her DD who is a national team player.

Although Singasong makes a good point, co-ed schools will have established football coaching whilst girls' schools have no tradition in it and have to bring in coaches.
OP's DD may not be able to compete in the boys' football teams at senior school level but she may be allowed to train with them if she is good enough.

Repton not Renton

Just to add that the new headmaster of Repton has a very strong academic track record so I can see that side of Repton improving further.

alifewelllived I can guess that all these new suggestions may be confusing your present shortlist. If I am right in thinking that your DD will be a year 10 admission (or very late year 9) there will be few if any places at the very selective co ed full boarding schools (you won't have the luxury of selecting houses etc) or the other less selective but well regarded ones. However if they fit your remit it is worth trying with them since to be completely frank your DD's dreams of boarding school life in England plus her need for academic stretching run the major risk of not being fulfilled by any of the schools on your original list.

@nottinghamgal - thanks for introducing me to Trent College. This does look like a lovely place.I've got a lot more of research to do after getting so much useful feedback from you all.

@tavinbloom - certainly won't add Mount Kelly to the list. Thanks for sharing your personal experience.

@sendsummer - yes, this has been a relatively new development in the plans for my daughter's education, so it does mean we are very late with registration for 13+/yr 9 Sept 2017 entry. Still, she has an excellent academic report and exceptional references from her teachers and sports coaches, plus brings an interesting international perspective so she does have some things working in her favour for a late entry. As an expat I don't have the advantage of being able to plan out my kids' path through school in quite the same way as others.

I really appreciate your sound advice and am happy to scrap my entire initial list if, after my new analysis (after considering everyone's feedback), they turn out not to be suitable.
I have new clear considerations:

• Full boarding numbers/percentages
• Quality of pastoral care
• Competitive girls football team
• Excellent academic support/standards
• Distance from the major airports

Repton does look very good so I will get in touch with them too ... However, they are remote and I do have lovely relatives in Widford who would visit if she was closer to them. Lots of things to weigh up here & although I do have a lot of new information here to sift through, I feel much, much better informed, which is great! Thank you all!

@Allthebestnamesareused - thanks so much for contributing your "on-the-ground" experience with Kings Ely. Very helpful. I don't think they'll be on my final list.

@user1469682920 - Bradfield also looks very impressive. I've added it to my new list to read up on! I've got a lot of work to do before we head to the UK next week. Am wishing now that I'd posted on Mumsnet months ago instead of going with an agent ... the information provided here as been so valuable. Thanks for your contribution! :)

Have a look at ACS Cobham. Strong on girls' football and a very nice boarding community. But not cheap. (You're looking at £40K for full boarding.) Strong academically and they do the IB and get good results.

@GhostlyAbode - I will keep a look out for pushy parents & staff if we go the next steps with Felsted! Thanks for alerting me to that possibility. Have also added Uppingham Springs to my list of new schools to look at. Thanks for your post.

@Jillofnotrades - Will look at Millfield too, although sendsummer discounted it for a number of reasons. I will take both your opinions into account when I make further enquiries! :) Many thanks for sharing.

@paperbattles - excellent post - thank you very much for sharing your well-founded insights. So useful to me & not doubt others too. I certainly have a new list of priorities and my work cut out for me over the next week before we fly out! Looks like its going to be a very different agenda than the one I thought it would be. Couldn't have asked for a more comprehensive response from all the mums on this forum. Such a great resource. Thank you again!

@Dancingdreamer - there've been a number of mentions of Repton so I will absolutely make enquiries with them. Thanks for the transport considerations too. Filling up my knowledge tank well!