State Sixth form boarding college/school with equestrian facilities

[XelaM]

I may be looking for a unicorn, but can anyone recommend any state boarding schools/colleges with equestrian facilities or with close links to nearby riding schools for Sixth form?

The (perhaps unrealistic) wish list:

(1) Sixth form where one can do A-levels and not just equine college courses;
(2) boarding;
(3) equestrian facilities or links to nearby yards so our horse can be stabled there;
(4) state rather than private so I only pay for accommodation rather than school fees as well.

So far I am looking at Hartpury (preferred option but I understand oversubscribed and no guarantee of accommodation) and RAA.

Any others have this magic combination?

When you say state do you mean universities? Somewhere like Writtle? You’d have to pay university fees for both accommodation and boarding (and livery)

It's for Sixth Form, not university. I understand I would have to pay accommodation and livery, but private boarding schools are around £50-60K per year, whereas state boarding schools/colleges are around £15-20K

If you are under 19 when you start the course, then you don't need to pay fees. https://www.hartpury.ac.uk/college/student-life/finance/

How about RAA in Surrey? Not sure how admissions work but they have an equestrian centre on site. https://www.raa-school.co.uk/

Or how about looking at private sixth forms who offer scholarships and/or bursaries? I think you'll be more likely to find the combination you're after, the likes of hartbury will be more vocational focused than academic and I don't know how many 16/17 year old boarders they have?

Or the Duke of York school in Dover? It's a military school which may not appeal, and I doubt they have facilities on site but the military ethos will always put plenty of emphasis on sport so I expect they would be accommodating, more so than many schools anyway?

Sorry I'm an idiot, you already mentioned RAA
facepalm

Thank you 🙏 the Duke of York in Dover has absolutely phenomenal sports facilities from what I can tell, but I haven't seen any equestrian options on their website. I might ring them up.

We're looking at RAA but it had some bad reviews on Mumsnet regarding bullying at the school 😬 which made me nervous

I would be very very careful before boarding a 16 year old at a college where it is mainly 18 plus. There tends to be “very” light to non existent supervision at times at the ones I know of ( though much further north than Hartbury or Dover).
Is there a reason why she can’t stay at home, go to school and ride after school/ weekends?

It complicated, but in essence we intended to move abroad, but now she wants to stay in the UK to complete her A-levels and is very very keen on Hartpury. We know people at the uni (not the college) but I think they have a lot of college boarders as well. We're at the open day today 😀

RAA don't offer equestrian A levels (or equivalent) anymore. All the horses are school horses, you'd have to negotiate with the stables to take your own and I'm not sure it would be agreed in all honesty.

They used to offer Btecs and additional qualifications but that stopped about 4/5 years ago.

They have several A level open days coming up though, so would be worth a visit to ask. If your unable to visit, get in touch with admissions and they can help. They will put you through to the stables for all equestrian questions or the website has all the emails you need.

Bullying is rare, not to say it never happens. Bullying can happen anywhere, but it's not a major concern at RAAS.

Thank you. We have been to their open day a few years ago and have registered for the one this year. I was very impressed with the school when I looked around before. The grounds are just gorgeous. They did tell us that we would have to negotiate to bring our own horse and I know they aren't specialising on any equine courses, but we're not really looking for that. My daughter intends to do standard A levels (most likely Biology and Chemistry and possibly Psychology).

What are the academic results for hartbury like?

I would take note of the point of light touch supervision and quiz them closely on this..

@XelaM please come back and let us know how the open day goes. This doesn't sound like such a mad idea.. we have been to Hartbury for an NSEA competition and the facilities were fab..We live about 2hrs away but in a remote area so getting to any school is a pain. Being able to board could be fab.

We would also be looking at Biology and Chemistry A level and one other (History / RE / English).

The A-level academic results for last year were actually pretty good (80.7% A-C) and we were very impressed with the talks on the open day. It actually appears that they have a very full timetable every day and compulsory supervised studying after school, so they are apparently monitoring their academic progress very closely.

The equine and other sports facilities are amazing 🤩 but I was a bit surprised their Equine Academy SJ elite squad requires two double clears at 1.30 BS or FEI just to do the try out (developmental squad requires four double clears at 1.10 for the try out) in the last 18 months. I didn't realise it was that competitive and not sure if a pony that has four 1.10 BS double clears would make their team or whether you need a horse.

The compulsory supervised studying appeals!

Yes I looked at the equine academy and entry looks fierce! It sounds as though there is a riding club which would be more our level though there is no pony club. Local pony clubs do use it.

I might ask what the results are like for the A levels we are interested in as the average according to Department of Education is a C at A level and the progress score is negative. But it could be that the softer subjects are pulling the sciences etc. down.

Does she have a horse that she is wanting to take?

We have ponies that she competes on in BS but not sure they'll be able to do horse strides and I think Hartpury don't have junior teams, only senior horse teams (although both are quite big strided)

My advice is that if she wants to take a pony, then she needs to take a serious look at what the livery is like at these places. They notoriously have very very minimal turnout. Hartpury definitely allows very little, so you may need to factor in actually liverying them somewhere else nearby.