Boarding schools continue to flourish, evolving to meet the changing profile of today's families, both in the UK and overseas. Greater flexibility of boarding options, generous scholarship and bursary offerings, and imaginative ways of involving parents in their children's day to day school experience keep Britain's best boarding schools on the wish lists of aspirational families worldwide.
Now in its fifth edition, Boarding Schools by The Good Schools Guide contains over 350 of The Good Schools Guide’s highly informative and famously frank reviews. Every single school has been visited by our writers; we check out everything from dorms to food and weekend activities. We also speak to parents and, most important of all, pupils.
The guide is packed with maps, reviews, articles and colour photographs. Whether parents are interested in big names, local treasures, state boarding schools or country preps, this is their unbiased guide to all that’s best in British boarding.
If you’re considering boarding for your child, our guide will help you make the right choice.
☑ In-depth and unbiased reviews of 350+ prep and senior schools from Cornwall to Scotland
☑ Includes top state and independent boarding schools Impartial and invaluable advice on all aspects of boarding education
☑ Content includes facilities, pastoral care, weekend activities
☑ What type of boarding - full, weekly or flexi?
☑ Contains information for international families
Price: £40 +p&p
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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.