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Essex has its own long-established independent schools offering boarding in various permutations. Day pupils too get the benefit of longer school hours and staff who often live where they work so are on hand to give extra help.
New Hall School, Felsted School and Brentwood School all have homely boarding houses on campus, where local students live alongside others from all over the UK and the world. New Hall’s dorms are described as ‘a revelation’ by our reviewer. Boys and girls as young as seven are welcome to board at New Hall, while they have to wait until year 5 (when they’re nine) at Felsted. Brentwood’s boarders are nearly all international students, but they are joined by a small number of senior-age locals in the two on-site houses (one girls’, one boys’). Holmwood House School in Colchester is an up-to-13 prep (expanding to 16 in the near future) and offers a taste of boarding for girls and boys in year 4 and up – a maximum of two nights a week, often themed and usually aimed at particular year groups. Popular with parents pondering the big name senior boarding schools.
Of course, there are many more boarding schools in easily accessible neighbouring counties. Essex families’ favourites are schools deeper into East Anglia (such as Woodbridge School, Ipswich School, Ipswich High School and The Royal Hospital School in Suffolk and Gresham’s in Norfolk), as well as in Hertfordshire (Bishop’s Stortford College and Haileybury), the East Midlands (Oakham, Uppingham and Oundle) and Kent (Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and King’s Canterbury); even those much further afield may tempt them away.
Need help? Perhaps you suspect your child has some learning difficulty and you would like advice on what you should do. Or perhaps it is becoming clear that your child's current school is not working for him or her, and you need help to find a mainstream school which has better SEN provision, or to find a special school which will best cater for your child's area of need. Our SEN consultancy team advises on both special schools, and the mainstream schools with good SEN support, from reception through to the specialist colleges for 19+. Special Educational Needs Index
Find top international, British, IB and American schools in over 40 countries. The Good Schools Guide International publishes impartial and forthright reviews of international schools across the world.
We examined the value-added from KS2 to GCSE for 2022 to see which state selective grammar schools added the most value to their offspring. A note of caution - the more highly selective a grammar school, the less scope there will be to add value.
Grammar schools are state-funded, academically selective senior schools. The education a child receives at grammar school is paid for by the state unlike at private schools which provide education for a fee. There are currently around 163 located in 36 English local authorities, with around 167,000 pupils between them. Northern Ireland has a further 67 grammar schools, but there are none in Wales or Scotland. A word of caution: there are private schools that have the word 'grammar' in their name but this is purely for historical reasons.
At specialist music, dance or performing arts schools, the arts aren't optional extras. They’re intrinsic to the school curriculum. Students are expected to fit in high level training and hours of practice alongside a full academic provision. It's a lot to ask any child to take on, but for those with exceptional performing ability this kind of education can be transformative.