From London day school to…boarding school? Are you outta your mind??

Can’t afford fees at your London day school any longer? Well, have you thought about sending your child to boarding school? “What?”  You ask.  “Are you a complete moron, Snowdon? That’s like saying ‘Let them eat cake’ when they can’t afford bread!”  Hear me out, folks… Sometimes, solutions aren’t always intuitive.

The average London day school costs approximately £10,000 per year in fees with uniform, lunches, clubs and other add-ons often extra.  There are some examples where a boarding education could come in under this amount.  If you live in an LEA with good local schools, you may just want to explore those options (but then again, if that were the case, you probably would have sent your child to that good local school in the first place, wouldn’t you have?)  If, however, you don’t have that kind of good fortune, there are boarding options which will bring you in under the mark that you’re currently paying. Plus, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post on state boarding schools (which come in at around £10,000 per annum), there may be further hidden savings in that your child won’t be eating at home, making the water meter spin, or using toilet paper for that matter. 

Here are a few of the options I’ve come across over the years:

• Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex is an all-boarding school for 11-18 year olds. I’ve heard it said that it is among the richest schools in the country, which I guess it needs to be when you consider that most of its students are on some level of bursary; only 4% of parents pay the full fees. You may have seen them in their curious uniforms on television, and every year their band leads the Lord Mayor of London’s parade. It is now too late to apply for admission for Year 7 in September 2009, but if your child is currently in Year 5, you may want to consider thinking ahead about this gem of a school for Year 7 in September 2010. Those applying for admission to the Sixth Form have until Monday 3 November to get their applications in. Although the school does not advertise it, applications are considered for other years, but there is usually a waiting list. Fees are determined on a sliding scale, but as a guideline, a family with an income of £30,000 per year can expect to pay approximately £4,000 for a year’s tuition and boarding. It’s worth checking out: www.christs-hospital.org.uk/allaboutmoney2007-08.pdf
• Welbeck — The Defence Sixth Form College in Leicestershire is a sixth form boarding school for medically fit UK, Commonwealth (hmm…I should let my Canadian friends know) or Irish citizens. It really is for those who’d like to pursue a career in the Forces; I’m not really sure what happens if you change your mind mid-course. Since 2005, the school has been sited at a new, state-of-the-art campus in Leicestershire. Its focus on the sciences is not for those who are not strong in this area. As with Christ’s Hospital, parents make a contribution, but it’s on a sliding scale. Children from families with incomes under £17,000 per year get a free ride, while a family income of £100,000 will mean annual fees (tuition and boarding) of just over £6,000. For more information, including application deadlines, check out: www.welbeck.mod.uk
• United World Colleges are part of a global education movement founded in the 1950’s based on the ideas of Kurt Hahn, a German Jew who founded Salem, a school in Germany, and later, when the Nazis rose to power, Gordounston. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and the Outward Bound movement. The first United World College, Atlantic College in Wales, was founded in 1962. The United World Colleges are rooted in the philosophy that conflict and hostility can be overcome if young people of different races, nationalities and religions can be brought together to learn from each other. There are now 12 such colleges around the world and all offer the International Baccalaureate diploma programme. Admission is based on merit, and there is a generous scholarship programme which dishes out money on a combined basis of merit and need (bearing in mind that dummies don’t make it in in the first place.) Interested pupils must apply through the UK arm and are assigned to one of the 11 schools outside the UK or to Atlantic College. The deadline for applications is in February. I had friends who attended United World Colleges back in the 1980’s. They were very much the Guardian-reading, furry armpitted, Birkenstock-wearing, panpipe-music playing, Students-Against-Global-Nuclear-Extermination type (you get the idea…) that I didn’t have much in common with back then. I also did not think much of the IB back then. Now, however, I’m a big proponent of the IB (well, you don’t have much choice when faced with A-Level inflation) and, having lived in three countries and travelled even more extensively for business and pleasure, I regret not applying myself and forced my younger stepson to apply a few years ago. For a well-rounded, socially conscious, academically strong pupil, I highly recommend applying. Check it out: www.uwc.org.uk 
• The Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Dover provides an education for the children (11-18) of military personnel. Fees per year range from £1,650 for those with parents serving, to £3,900 per year for those whose parents leave the services during the child’s stay at the school, to £7,500 per year for those whose parents were no longer serving on entry. I actually don’t know much about this school and would welcome feedback from those with children there. Check it out: http://www.army.mod.uk/welfare-support/education/1161.aspx

 That’s it for today.  I’ve got a few more ideas up my sleeve which I’ll share with you in the coming days.

 

The best kept British school secret…

Over the next few days, I’m going to share with you a few affordable school gems if your current school has become unaffordable. Note that I am not defining “affordable”. We each have our own snack brackets. Some of you have kids at the likes of Eton or Benenden which you can’t afford as we continue to be increasingly credit-crunched. You may still be able to afford other public schools (yes, there are more affordable public schools!)  Some of you may have kids at boarding schools further down the foodchain (aka at “minor” public schools, as Mr. Snowdon corrects me.) There are still options for you. And some of you may have kids in public day schools. There are still, unbelievably, options for you, too, to explore. Today, I’m going to start with the more expensive options, and during the course of the next week, I’ll work through the various snack bracket options.

We’re unique in the UK in having a small, relatively unpublicised state boarding school system.  There are under three dozen such schools in the UK, most of which offer 11-18 schooling .  A small handful cater to the primary level — but don’t get me  going on that one; as a North American, when I hear people talk about little Peregrine going to Summer Fields or Sunningdale at age 7, I always think of that famous saying: “The English hate children. They keep their dogs at home and send their kids off to high class kennels called Eton and Harrow”.  Having spent ten years in this country now, however, I have begun to appreciate that boarding school for older children may offer something special or at the very least be a necessity in some circumstances.  But I just don’t get it for primary school. Seven is just too bloody young to get rid of your kids.

State boarding schools are open to children who are holders of EU passports.  You pay no tuition but you do pay for boarding — currently around £3000 per term.  You can see why state boarding schools are of limited interest to those who cannot afford London day school fees — you’d be swapping one £10k price tag for another of a similar amount.  (I suppose you could still see it as a saving when you take into account the food the average teenager consumes at home. Oh, and the long hot showers which the meter now registers and which you now pay for…)  But for someone currently paying £15-25000 per year for a boarding school in the private sector in the UK, there are substantial savings.  If you’re a snob, you can still brag to your friends that little Arthur is “away at school” and still talk about him coming home for an “exeat”.  Since the state boarding schools are so little known, very few in your social circle need to know that your stock portfolio is a fraction of what it once was and that little Arthur has actually “gone state!” 

 There are other advantages to state boarding schools.  Some, such as Cranbrook in Kent (one of my favourites) are grammar schools.  Local kids have to sit an entrance exam; only those in the top ability band are offered places.  I think many at Cranbrook would agree that the intake for boarding places is of a slightly lower ability level.  Slighty above average Atticus could therefore get into a “better” school (academically) than he would otherwise get into as a day student at his local grammar school (assuming there is one) by sitting the 11+ in a grammar school district.  Other schools, such as Hockerill Anglo-European College, offer the international baccalaureate and have average scores to give IB schools Sevenoaks and King’s College Wimbledon a run for their money.  (I also loved this school’s language focus: I heard groups of pupils speaking in German and across the courtyard, another group speaking in Spanish; it clearly attracts EU pupils from other countries.) Old Swinford Hospital School in the West Midlands is another one of my favourites.  Once a public school, it is still steeped in all the tradition and physical plant one would expect of a public school.  There are approximately 30 other state boarding schools. I must admit that there are some I would not send my child to as a day pupil if I lived in the catchment area, so I certainly wouldn’t consider paying to send my child to board at those. But there are some good ones (including my favourites above) and they are certainly worth exploring.  Plus, with the Russell Group universities increasingly discriminating in favour of state school applicants, why not enjoy bragging about little Jack being at boarding school and giving him the best shot ever of getting into Oxbridge?

 For more information on the state boarding schools, see:  http://www.sbsa.org.uk