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

Millfield was very sporty in my day.

Just remembered something useful for you, OP - two prep school boys I know of were talent-spotted whilst playing for a local club and recruited by Reading RFC. Footy club asked that they go to senior school locally and they are at Bradfield - school and academy commitments both possible in their cases.

Millfield is the only big boarding school I know where a burgeoning pro sports career is catered for.

I think it depends on the sport. Private schools certainly cater for would be professional rugby players. But these boys will have been playing for academy sides throughout their senior school career so it is not the school that develops them as such. And some schools offer full scholarships to 16 year old academy players to boost their school team standings.
Also rowing, hockey, sailing.fencing etc are dominated by private school alumni.I think the difference is that football has a properly developed grass roots, inclusive, needs blind recruitment model which is equal opportunity. Many other sports are exclusive in the sense that if you do not have money it is way harder to identify and develop your talent.

A number of the best footballers at the sporty Croydon privates were/are there on sports scholarships for football and play for academy/semi-pro teams outside of school. They are expected to work hard academically and the school football team has to come before their "proper" team. They need to be very motivated and self-disciplined to balance it all. Some get scouted from their teams by professional clubs.

Kind of echoing what you say, lemonmeringue!

Are you looking for scholarship options or just good sporty schools?

I ask as my DC go to Whitgift which is both academic and sporty. However to even be considered for a scholarship you need to be playing at county level. The competition is seriously high and my DS who has played club rugby since he was 6 only made it to the C team. I would suggest you have a look around at the different schools and see which best suits your DS and be aware that he may enter and not be chosen for one of the top teams. Just putting it out there as I know many parents who have been disappointed

LemonMeringue - you are entirely correct, I should have qualified my rather sweeping statement!

Exactly, aweedropofsancere!
The boys on scholarships are not only very talented, but also have to work very hard on both the academics and their sport.
My DS has played with a number of these boys for years and they definitely deserve their scholarship places!

Echoing motorcycles post, a very sporty prep school friend of DS' went to Bradfield, so DS was really surprised when his school (Westminster) played them and his friend had not even made the B team. Competition was cleatly tough.

Westminster is another FA pioneer alongside Charterhouse. As well as Bradfield they regularly played Brentwood. But OP needs to look at ISFA results to know who is good.

I already commented on these. Similar too group last year.

www.isfa.org.uk/index.php/competitions/boodles-isfa-cup/story/356/boodles-isfa-cup-results

More representative of the whole school talent pool is the ESFA trophy
www.esfa.co.uk/competitions/?2018/Boys/u18b_st/8
It is always difficult to know for day schools how much the school coaching is contributing when the best players are having frequent outside club and academy training.
Also many academies won’t let their players play school matches in case they get injured.

Trying for professional football may be a dream but it takes total dedication as well as talent and even those who make it through academies during their teenage years are likely to get dropped age 18 or shortly after.

Bit more info from an internet search.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.spectator.co.uk/2018/09/why-football-is-a-league-for-gentlemen/amp/

Cranleigh and Lord Wandsworth might be worth a look but I don't know how much they emphasise football compared with other sports.

Bootham School in York plays football, not rugby, as their main Winter sport. Quite strong academically, as well.

Charterhouse is one of the top football schools and traditionally has been one of the strongest. It is said to have the best or flattest pitch in the UK - and it has an incredible setting.
Its also one of the 9 'major public schools' and good on the academics.
And the old boys team (Old Carthusians) once won the FA Cup.
Forget Harrow - great school but they play Rugby.
Winchester is known to be very academic but not so good at the sports. Beautiful and ancient school though.

Repton is amazing and a football, not rugby school. Know lots of people with kids currently there.

callum hudson odoi.....victor moses ....bernard traore recent leavers who are all internationsl soccer players....win the under 13 national soccer cup every year....

four current English Rugby Internationals, three current England cricket internationals...four old boys in GB hockey team.....

sporty enough ?

not true.....sedbergh,..whitgift..wellington are all in teh same league just not co ed.

the boss of me..

i went to Whitgift fifty years ago and my children went to Rugby more recently so I know and could pay for "posh" schools ...i suspect today that Whitgift is a better school than those mentioned....certainly for sport it is far and away better,..12 old boys current England/GB internationals, Hockey, Rugby, Cricket and soccer...while academically given its intake its value add would be right up there. Best Boys IB school in UK,

The boss of me has undersold Whitgift to a significant extent.

If your child has the natural ability in the sporting arena it will be nurtured and brought out. Very strong ties with local clubs particularly Crystal Palace. Recent alumni include Callum Hudson-Odoi, Victor Moses and Bertrand Traore, a host of Rugby Union Internationals including Elliot Daly currently playing for England in the World Cup in Japan, England cricketer Jason Roy along with numerous other County Championship players.

It is also ethnically diverse with strong ties to the local community. It is a school that prides itself on offering financial support for boys with over half the students being on some form of support be it bursary or scholarship.

Despite the boys learning in what is clearly a privileged setting it is a school that feels a bit more real world than many others I have visited.

If you have a hard working boy with a passion that needs igniting I would send him there in a heartbeat

I think Whitgift is good at allowing it to look like talented boys at the school will received interest from Chelsea, Crystal Palace and various rugby clubs etc.
Really it's the other way round, with Whitgift seeking out (and offering scholarships to) talented boys already in sports academies, so that they can take the glory later on. It's all good marketing - how much advertising have they had over the summer from 2 of their cricketers being in the England team (one of whom at least was scouted by Whitgift) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (sp?) who was only there for 3 years, again having already been within the academy system.
I think the A team is pretty much set before the start of term in Year 7 and a boy who is not already truly excelling will probably find it hard to break into that top tier, especially as I think there are only 2 football teams in a Year 7 of c.200 boys. I'd imagine it's easy to miss the cut and not be able to catch up as it's not a core sport.

Hi Walking. May I ask how you know so much about the school and it’s selection process?

Whitgift is a very academic school,

Whoever says you need to be in an academy by 5/6 to be a professional has never played/not been involved in the reality of long term development of athletes across any sport.
That being said sporting age (number of years playing one or many sports) and football pathway are important factors to 'making it'.
Is your son playing at a high level at 14/15 in a recognised league e.g. EJA?
Great - because at this age academies are allowed to recruit from abroad and the competition just got fiercer - chances are, however, they won't be burnt out and are ready to make a push that coincides with their biggest growth/physical maturation period in their life.
Mentality is everything at this level and most quit at this stage, the ones who kick on and improve whilst maturing will get scouted.
Private schools I know nothing about.

Millfield has an excellent football programme with a new director of the sport, with excellent external links. Academically very strong as well- ignore all the people who say otherwise. Many students are highly academic.

Whitgift, Charterhouse, Bradfield are all renowned for their football. Whitgift is most academically selective and Bradfield not selective at all (I.e.a kid that can get into Eton/Winchester would be our if place).

Depends if the football is just a passionate hobby or a career aspiration. If the latter, Bradfield has a proper programme to facilitate.

Having said that, one of DS’s friends got signed by a premiere league club and wasn’t allowed to play for his school after the age of 14 - he had to leave his private school after GCSEs to attend the football clubs own school.....