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All private secondary schools in East Kent offer boarding: flexi, weekly, full-time or just the occasional ‘sleepover’. Boarding is popular and ‘flexi’ is actively promoted in some schools - families are recognising the advantages of this arrangement – ‘it’s nice to have the option and is an absolute bonus’, one parent enthused. Weekly boarders mostly come from London and the south east. International students make up approximately a third of full-time boarders.
The King's School Canterbury has the most varied and interesting boarding houses, they’re dotted around Canterbury both within the cathedral precincts and outside. To engage with the full breadth of offerings and experience here, many more local students opt to board along with children from across the globe and UK (three-quarters of pupils board). St Lawrence College prides its boarding provision on being ‘central to the school’s life’ and has a very distinct and appropriate provision for prep to senior. Younger pupils sometimes have a transition boarding space (St Edmund's School and Dover College) before they become immersed in a house boarding culture. Kent College has six well-appointed boarding houses for 204 boarders (only six prep).
Prep boarding is offered in Northbourne Park School, pupils often calling it ‘home’, and The Junior King’s School where there’s so much going on pupils return home for a rest, parents say. Boarding at both is in single sex, beautifully appointed boarding houses whereas Wellesley House’s traditional red brick ‘integral to school life’ Boddington House is co-ed with separate wings for boys and girls, sharing communal areas and kitchen. Weekly boarding popular - often to complement families’ lifestyles, pupil’s extra-curricular commitments, and in preparation for full boarding in senior school.
Boarding schools near East Kent
Due to the easy access for exeats and school events via the High Speed, families are most likely to send their children to the notable boarding schools in or near London: Harrow School, Westminster School, Eton College. There’s fluidity between boarding schools in East and West Kent: Benenden School and Kent College, Pembury (both all girls) are popular, as is co-ed Sutton Valence. Some prep children venture to Saint Ronan's and Dulwich Prep Cranbrook. For specialist provision in sport some might go as far as Millfield School in Somerset or even Sedbergh School in Cumbria, but generally families find that there are appropriate and pleasing options in East Kent. Those most likely to go ‘out of county’ do so for familial connections with a school or if their child has been awarded a scholarship or bursary.