Finding an top sports boarding school (especially football)

[jharringford]

My DS is a very sporty boy (especially in football, not rugby) and also quite bright and hard-working. The fact is that we want a top boarding school with a good football program and also high academic standard.
We are thinking about Harrow or Winchester.

Apart from Millfield do you have any recomendations?

Thank you

Yes Charterhouse is good at football - it co-founded Association Football!!! And performs very well in the ISFA Cup every year.

Bradfield also does well, Ardingly - both also worth looking at.

I don't really understand why you're so fixated on Whitgift. It's very average academically for a selective private school IMO, and isn't amazing at sport at all. It's selling point is it's inclusivity and pastoral approach - possibly produces more wordly and rounded pupils than other schools, which is a good enough reason to choose it if that's what matters to you. But that doesn't sound like what you want.

Oh and Millfield is for serious sportspeople who aim to compete at national and international level. If your son isn't in an academy, I don't think that's what he's aspiring to, right? So Millfield might be a stretch.

Eton?

www.etoncollege.com/Football.aspx

I think the issue with Eton is that rugby is still the main winter sport, rather than football.

Mixed reports about Millfield too.

I wonder if Abingdon is worth a look? I can’t comment with much authority but from what I’ve heard on the grapevine they seem to take sport seriously and offer a wide range only problem is that it only has a small number of boarders.
My DS2 went to Winchester (left 2016) unless it’s changed very significantly I wouldn’t say it’s the right school for a serious football player.

Millfield gets a bad press on here but I know a few parents who sent their DC’s there and who praise it highly. Someone I worked with sent her very talented (in terms of her chosen sport) but she thought average ability DD there but they lost interest in the sport but came out with top A levels in academic subjects.

Have a look at Berkhamsted ...excels at most sports

Probably not Eton (one of my DC is there). It's absolutely bloody marvellous all round, but I wouldn't say that football is prized above all else. My DS hasn't played football since he went there (for which his is mightily grateful, as he hates it).

I think you might find, OP, that any school that really pushes football might be a bit less of an academic power-house. I don't mean that in a bad way - that's just how it is. I know several boys who have boarded at Sedbergh (all went there for its sport), and have loved it - though, again, it's ok academically, but not 'top notch'. I also know people who've had boarders at Millfield (again, all sporty - and, again, not especially bright), and they've all loved it.

As Happygardening says, I wouldn't choose Winchester for its football provision (it's a brilliant school, though - again, I know several people who have had children there).

FWIW, I don't think I'd send any child to a school where only a few children board, though that's not what you're asking.

Whitgift gets 75% A-A* at GCSEs so that’s the same as Charterhouse. The latter sends more children to Oxbridge, though. Charterhouse is obv a prestigious boarding school whereas Whitgift is a school that does boarding.

Millfield seems to have a very broad range of abilities and isn’t a patch on the other two academically. Obv amazing for sports.

OP, perhaps it’d make sense to visit some of them and get a feel for what they’re like + discuss football in more detail?

EstoPerpetua, I thought that Sedbergh is a more rugby school

oneteen, I will thank you

happygardening, thank you for the advice

TheBossOfMe, yes, but Ardingly and Bradfield are good academically?

Millfield is great for football but most of the girls and boys play for academies. That's the way you get on in football
Kings Taunton is also good for football but tbh, if you want posh academics then pick a school for that and get him to trial for a club.

We were in a similar position to you and only applied to schools where football is the main winter sport (as opposed to rugby). We have accepted places for my son at both Winchester and Charterhouse and we are trying to decide between the two. Winchester are desperate to improve their sport but there is still someway to go and culturally sport is not as important as it is in many other schools. Charterhouse is a great football school but isn't as academic as Winchester. As someone else said on here, Bradfield has an excellent football programme but is less selective academically again.

@Jharringford Sedbergh is well known for rugby. However, the boys I know who have been there have been keen on (and good at) all sports.

What exactly are you looking for in an ideal world? Are you looking for an outstanding school where your DS can also play football, or a football academy type school which will also offer your DS a decent education? If the former, and if your DS can get a place, then any of the top schools will educate him brilliantly and also let him play football to some extent (I'm thinking Eton/Winchester at the top of the pile - with an obvious preference for Eton - then Harrow, Radley, Charterhouse, Uppingham etc). If you're looking for somewhere that specialises in football per se, I'd be clueless.

FWIW, if he wanted to apply to Eton, he'd need to do so by the end of Year 5. And, of course, the majority of applicants aren't awarded places. It's presumably the same at other schools, though I have no experience of them (other DC are at day schools).

Thanks for the advices.

Does anyone recomend Ardingly?

I thought that Ardingly is not as good academically

arcolamp, thanks for the advice

Actually, another one to throw in the mix. Epsom College. Co-Ed, academic and seems that they're really upping their football game
www.epsomcollege.org.uk/beyond-the-classroom/sport/football/

A school that hasn't been mentioned yet but one that I would recommend is Oakham.

It's a mixed school and quite a lot of pupils do the IB rather than A Levels so I'm not too sure if that's what you would want?

Ardingly has a lower CE requirement than many but still gets results (IB not A level) . Tbh a well motivated child is likely to do well at most independents. If he is say 10 how much variety of sport has he really been exposed to, football may be the most accessible now but once hockey, for example, is in the mix he may change preference. Unless he is showing signs of professional skill level it is not worth placing great weight on it at the expense of other criteria.

Mill Hill is very sporty. Academically average but has an illustrious history on that front which they play up.

Oakham is great if you are hoping to get sports scholarships to American universities.