Best boarding schools near Wimbledon
Boarding in the 21st century is a progressive, dynamic and convivial affair. It’s not for everybody but the variety in boarding styles means there’s likely to be something available to match the needs of your family. The notion of sending your child packing off to board at the opposite end of the country has, for the most part, been left in the last century. Indeed, parents tell us they don’t want to be more than 60 minutes from their boarding children so as not to miss out on concerts, sporting fixtures and meals out.
Like most of London’s towns, Wimbledon may have no boarding on its doorstep but families in the area are spoilt for choice when looking at boarding options within an hour’s drive.
Boarding prep schools near Wimbledon
For parents who would like their children to experience some form of boarding while still at prep school, there are accessible options and, in some cases, there are even buses to aid logistics. Feltonfleet School, a short distance down the A3, offers boarding (including flexi) from year 3. Cranleigh Prep offers weekly, flexi and ad-hoc boarding which tends to become popular over the course of year 5. They also run daily buses from the Wimbledon area. Aldro offers part or full-time boarding (requires slightly more commitment than flexi) with most waiting until year 5 to seize the opportunity. No buses but an easy journey from Wimbledon for this one. Getting further into the home counties of Surrey and Berkshire, there’s a veritable chocolate box of boarding preps, many of which lay on daily and weekly bus services, for families looking for options without a long journey.
Boarding senior schools near Wimbledon
Parents intending to send their offspring to a major public school usually plan years in advance and their early education choices deliberately focus on this objective. The most popular choices with Wimbledon families looking for the serious, full-boarding, option tend to be Eton College, Harrow School, Radley College, Wellington College, Marlborough College, Charterhouse, Wycombe Abbey, Benenden and Roedean.
For others, a few of the popular school choices heading out of London offer some form of boarding, most commonly flexi or weekly, which can give a flavour of the boarding experience and help parents and pupils juggle the various demands on their time. Marymount, Epsom College, St John’s School Leatherhead, City of London Freemen’s School (Ashtead), Cranleigh School, RGS Surrey Hills, St Catherine’s School (Bramley), Woldingham School and Prior’s Field School all adopt a flexible approach with numbers involved in some sort of boarding tending to increase further up the schools. A number of the above operate bus services which will take boarders up to Wimbledon at the start of the weekend and then ferry them back to school on a Sunday evening or Monday morning.
