Schools Guide

Schools by County

SHOW ALL Bath & North East SomersetBedfordshireBerkshireBristolBuckinghamshireCambridgeshireCarmarthenshireConwyCornwallCounty DurhamCumbriaDenbighshireDerbyshireDevonDorsetEast SussexEssexGloucestershireHampshireHerefordshireHertfordshireIsle of ManIsle of WightKentLancashireLeicestershireLincolnshireLondonMiddlesexMonmouthshireNorfolkNorthamptonshireNorthumberlandNottinghamshireOxfordshirePowysRutlandScotlandShropshireSomersetStaffordshireSuffolkSurreyWarwickshireWest MidlandsWest SussexWiltshireWorcestershireYorkshire SHOW ALL

Foreword

When we in the Forces take the decision to send our children to boarding schools, there are always doubts. Will the school we have chosen provide the stability that we believe our children requiremore

Introduction

"We in the Services have three options: our children have a disruptive education; we board; or we live apart from our families. None of these is ideal for most people". Such was a recent indictment of the choice facing Service parents starting to educate theirmore

Articles

The Education of Service Children - the boarding option - Introduction Service Children's Education (SCE) CEAS

Children's Education Advisory Service (CEAS) The Continuity of Education Allowance (Boarding) Childcare voucher scheme CEA Eligibility certificate application process Specific learning difficulties

Boarding?

Boarding Or Day? Boarding Or Day? - The Pros and Cons Boarding School Inspections

Choosing a School

Selecting a School Difficult choices, but help is at hand The challenges facing parents who work overseas School Visits - Questions & Answers League tables - best used as only one of a series of factors League tables - what else should parents be looking for?

Government Funded Boarding Schools

Ministry of Defence funded schools Queen Victoria School (Scotland) Welbeck - The Defence Sixth Form College What A Gem - 35 State Boarding Schools Boarding School - not likely

Boarding at an Independent School

The merits of boarding at an Independent School Choosing an Independent School is a very personal process The case for continuity The moral and spiritual climate in a boarding community The extra-curricular challenge Duke of Edinburugh Award Scheme Former pupil, former parent provides a sporting perspective School sport Housemasters - with the benefit of a Service background

Types of boarding School

The advantages of starting boarding in a Preparatory School In loco parents The Preparatory School Parent partnership What the pupils and parents think Single-sex or co-Education? The pros and cons Equal, but different Why girls' schools rock 'The key is the child and what the child will want' Having it all Strong role models in boys boarding schools Single-sex education, then and now The advantages of choosing a diamond school

Specialist Schools

Special schools - nurturing special talents and abilities Special educational needs and additional needs An independent specialist provision school An Independent Specialist Needs School

The Sixth Form

Sixth-form choices - the threats to the gold standard The sixth-form examinations - the choice

Whatever next?

Whatever next? University applications and gap years Why global volunteering could be the best gap year option The University and Colleges Admission Service

Overseas

Overseas schools

Pupils and parents

The pupils The parents

Paying the fees

Paying the school fees ranks second only to paying one’s mortgage and, as such, this is a real attention-grabbing subject. Sending a child off to a fee-paying school means not only a major financial 2006: more

Special Awards

Looking specifically at grants and awards for children of those in the Armed Forces the ISBI lists some 200 schools. The following list has been specifically researched from the Independent more

From the editor

Ian Jones' career includes eleven years as Head Master of Bedford School, two years as the Director of Studies at Britannia Royal Naval College more

Useful information

 

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When we in the Forces take the decision to send our children to boarding schools, there are always doubts. Will the school we have chosen provide the stability that we believe our children require? Is life away from home and family going to prove too much? Or will our children enjoy boarding school too much – will home life with us from now on prove dull and mundane in comparison? Will the stability of school then become more of a home than the transitory, nomadic existence that Service life can sometimes seem? These are natural, human worries that are probably experienced by every parent who has ever been in the position of driving away from their child; left at boarding school for the first time – but the purpose of these pages is to make the decisions associated with this pivotal stage in our children’s lives somewhat easier.

My personal view is that in taking the decision to send a child to boarding school, we in the Services are not choosing a course of action that, while expensive, will make family and home life that much easier in the face of regular domestic upheaval. It is rather a decision that is taken with the welfare of our children in mind – there are some who will simply not benefit from the boarding environment and ethos, while many will positively thrive. However, for those Service children for whom boarding school is the right educational background, the particular benefits are self-evident – although as my own experience showed, some children adjust to boarding at a different stage than others.

However, I would like to comment for a moment with my Single Service Chief of Staff hat on, rather than that of a parent whose children have enjoyed the benefits of boarding school throughout their lives. In these days of intense operational activity, our Service men and women, who find themselves routinely deployed overseas, discover that the knowledge that their children are happily based in a stimulating and settled environment allows them to focus on what they are doing – the benefits to the Army as a corporate body are therefore clear. The service that boarding schools and the Continuity of Education Allowance offer to Service families is therefore something to be valued and treasured; the freedom of choice and stability in the formative years of our children that this scheme offers are essential to the well-being of our Armed Forces; I therefore commend these pages for the choices they offer. As I have said in the past, it is vital that our people, who do so much for this country on operations and elsewhere, feel that we are doing everything we can to improve and stabilise their family life. Our commitment to the welfare of their families is considered the highest of priorities, and is recognised as being a critical aspect of the delivery of operational capability. By facilitating some of the most important choices that we will ever make for our children, this guide plays an important part in ensuring that we meet that commitment.

General Sir Richard Dannatt was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1971 and served seven tours of duty in Northern Ireland and also with the UN in Cyprus while with the Battalion. From 1994 to1996 he commanded 4th Armoured Brigade in Germany and also in Bosnia during the early days of the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

After heading the Defence Programme Staff during the new Labour government’s Strategic Defence Review in 1997/98, he took command of 3rd (United Kingdom) Division in January 1999, and also served in Kosovo that year as Commander British Forces. In 2000 he returned to Bosnia as Deputy Commander Operations of the NATO Stabilisation Force (SFOR). From 2001 to 2002 he was the Assistant Chief of the General Staff in the Ministry of Defence before taking command of NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC). In March 2005 he took over as Commander-in-Chief Land Command, and assumed the appointment of Chief of the General Staff in August 2006. He retired as Chief of the General Staff on 28 August 2009.

He was awarded the Military Cross in 1973, was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in 1999 and was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 2009. General Dannatt is also a Trustee of the Service charity Help for Heroes. He is a patron of the war-zone charity, Hope and Homes for Children. He is a Fellow of Hatfield College, Durham and was also recently made an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law by Durham University. In 2008 he was President of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association. General Sir Richard Dannatt was educated at Felsted School and St Lawrence College. He and his wife, Philippa, have their permanent home in Norfolk and are both graduates of Durham University. Married in 1977, they have three sons and a daughter.