Schools Guide

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We have again included ‘Pupils and Parents’ sections, which we believe provides some of the most compelling reading in the guide. In the pupils’ part we have covered virtually the whole age range across a range of schools. In the parents’ part there is a spread of perspectives from past and present Servicemen and wives from different backgrounds and circumstances, but all focusing on how best as individuals they could educate their children. In many ways we think it is the most interesting and valuable part of this guide. For those with reservations about boarding, it is a marvellously positive advert for one of the real beacons of British education and a great credit to the whole of the boarding sector.

First, pupils boarding in the 21st Century- these are just a small cross-section of the many contributions we have received from those currently boarding in the UK

We thank all those who contributed and we believe they are a great credit, not only to their schools, but to boarding in all schools.

James McCran, age 11 (Year 6),
Lockers Park
Prep School, Hemel Hempstead I am in my second year at boarding school and my mum asked me if I still enjoyed it. I said ‘Yes and no. Yes because it’s lots of fun, but no because I really miss my family especially at the moment because my Dad is in Afghanistan.’ But I know that I never, ever want to go back to a normal school again.

Most of the stuff at school has been fun and exciting. Clay pigeon shooting is great and I know that I would never have the chance to do it at a normal school. My favourite subject is art and my least favourite is maths. Summer term was really good because we got to play in the shrubs a lot. You get to play lots of sport of your choice in the evenings. Cricket is brilliant.

In my last dorm there were four beds. The biggest dorm I have been in has ten beds. I like both. The good thing about being a boarder is that they try and make you feel as at home as possible. At weekends you get to move into other people’s dorms to be with your mates if you aren’t already. Because the school community is very small we’ve got each other and it makes it easy to know everyone from all the other years.

Highlights of my first year were The Feast, playing in football matches, trip to the Science Museum, Uppingham Skills Day and watching Watford play football. If you like playing in woodland areas, Saturday-night films, amazing lessons and cool trips then Lockers Park is for you!

Emily Shea-Simonds, 11 year old pupil at
Orwell Park School
My name is Emily Shea-Simonds and my dad is a Wing Commander currently working for the MoD. He has been posted all around the country and abroad – very exciting for him but very difficult for me to keep changing school all the time. When I had just made friends in one school I was suddenly moved again. By the age of eight I had been sent to five different schools around the country and abroad! Then I arrived at Orwell Park and it has been my home from home for three years. I love the school to bits. It has fantastic grounds stretching to the River Orwell and offers a brilliant range of activities. I have chosen photography, indoor hockey, cheerleading, dance, badminton and art modelling. The facilities here are wonderful and guaranteed to offer something for everybody. I love the sport on offer here, and have been involved in teams for hockey, netball, rounders, cross-country and swimming. The school is full of music and drama. I play three musical instruments and sing in the school senior choir. My last performance in a play was as Mozart, and I can be seen on stage next as Babyface in Bugsy Malone.

The best thing about Orwell is the friends that you can make here. The boarding is great fun, the matrons read us bedtime stories and we have a new boarders’ common room just for the girls. If you have any problems there is always someone to talk to: teachers, matrons, peer listeners and of course my lovely tutor. I feel really privileged to have come to Orwell as it is such a great school; we are forever doing things and we are never bored.

Frances Rose, Year 8 pupil at the Duke of
York’s Royal Military School
I came to the Duke of York’s when I was 11, a small, shy weepy kind of girl, but since I’ve been here, I have grown in confidence, and my thirst for knowledge and new experiences has grown. We do a lot of sport and I play centre in the U12 B netball team, as well as being captain, which I have worked hard for. Besides sport, in the boarding house I have been voted dorm captain as well as house captain. I hope this will prepare me for responsibilities when I move to a senior house.

There are so many opportunities on offer here at the Duke of York’s. I am really looking forward to senior school, when I will be in the CCF and will go on CCF camp and Adventurous Training. I hope to go on the French exchange to the Ecole Militaire in Aix en Provence, and perhaps I will join one of the sports tours abroad. This year there is a hockey tour to South Africa. Perhaps I will be good enough at my musical instrument to join the school marching band and visit Valley Forge Academy in the USA, or perhaps after my A-levels I will do a gap year in one of our partner schools in Australia or New Zealand. Even in junior school there are many clubs and activities, ranging from sports like riding, shooting and fencing to cookery or craft club. What with a very full timetable of lessons, prep every weekday evening, which is monitored by teachers who can explain if you get stuck, and clubs and activities, which mostly are included in the fees, I don’t get much time to be bored.

Before joining this school, I had been to three different primary schools. I was lucky. There are some pupils, who went to several more than me. This moving around didn’t help my confidence and I didn’t have a firm background in my subjects. Making friends was hard because I moved so often.

The Duke of York’s is a school especially for the children of military people. It is great to know that everybody else has a parent who is or was in the military. We are not trained to join the Services but we are proud of the military background of our parents, and I know that if my father is sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, other people will have had the same worries as me and will help me through my concerns. My father knows I am safe and happy here, and he can get on with his job, knowing that I have good friends and that I am getting on with my studies.

Alexander Beaton, Year 10 pupil at Royal
Hospital School, Holbrook
Dad joined the Army after finishing at university and is still in it to this day. With the Army comes lot of moving around from place to place, and he and mum thought that that wasn’t the best environment for someone to learn, so the idea of boarding school came up.

I started boarding at eight and absolutely loved it. I had always been quite a ‘mum’s boy’ and wasn’t quite sure about how I was going to cope. Thankfully, I settled in just fine and loved the ‘being away from your parents’ factor. I joined RHS at the age of 13 (Year 9) after completing my five years at the prep school. It was quite challenging to break into the friendship bonds but I was accepted quite quickly.

Mum and dad have moved around from place to place, such as Germany, Canada, North Yorkshire and a few more, and the great thing about boarding was that we weren’t having our education disrupted. Boarding school was, by far, the right decision.

Boarding school has also helped me to take fewer things for granted. Holidays, for example – after being away for long periods of time you really start to appreciate holidays. I have also had lots of amazing opportunities, including playing with the band at Twickenham and at an Essex/Sussex cricket match. I have been to London many times on drama trips, and taken part in rugby, hockey and cricket matches for the school at weekends and on weekdays.

Boarding school has really helped me to develop socially and physically. I have been able to develop more without my parents by my side all the time. It has taught me to deal with my own issues by myself and I feel that is an essential skill to have.

Rhiannon Brooks, Year 10 pupil at Christ
College Brecon
I have been going to Service children’s education schools since I started school, but after many years of this I decided to go to a boarding school for Year 10, the start of my GCSEs and beyond.

As a boarder I have found it much easier to concentrate on my studies. The teaching at Christ College is excellent and we have allocated time in which we do our homework (or ‘prep’ as we call it here). I have a lovely study/bedroom, which I share with one other girl and she has become a really good friend. Actually, everyone in my boarding house is really friendly and I’ve made loads of new friends since coming to Brecon, something that, until now, I found quite hard. The house parents and house tutors are a great help and very supportive.

Boarding is great fun. There’s always something to do and I’m never bored. I go rock climbing every Wednesday and take part in games activities four times a week. Also, we have Combined Cadet Forces every Thursday, which I really enjoy. We’re in a beautiful part of the country – the Brecon Beacons National Park – and the school uses the whole environment as one large classroom. We are also just a two-minute walk from the town of Brecon itself, so everything is to hand. As my family is in Germany, I’m in school most weekends but again there’s always something to do. There are about 315 pupils at Christ College, and over 200 of those pupils are boarders so the school is geared up for boarding. We have lessons until lunchtime on Saturdays and play lots of sports fixtures in the afternoon. We regularly go on weekend excursions such as bowling, shopping, ice skating, cinema etc., or just relax in our comfortable and homely house. Overall I enjoy boarding very much. It’s great fun and I would recommend it, especially Christ College, to anyone!

Sebastian Green, head of a boarding house:
what boarding school has done for me
Over the past five years I have been at the Royal Hospital School and I have enjoyed all my time there. I have made friends for life and I have had many experiences I would not have been able to have had I not been there. These have come through sport, academic studies and music. During Sebastian and siblings my first three years there I began learning the bugle in the marching band, read in chapel in front of 700 students, went to Lord’s cricket ground for a cricketing masterclass and settled down in my studies ready for GCSEs. As the son of a Naval parent we have moved around almost every other year, which means constantly changing schools and having to make new friends. By boarding at the Royal Hospital School I have established a set of good friends in an environment where I have become used to each teacher’s teaching technique and, most importantly, have been able to settle into a routine, which has definitely helped me with studying.

The routine has been very crucial to me settling down and working hard; not only that, but the teachers are always there to offer help and guidance whenever it is needed. They are always happy to give you advice whether it is about work, a problem or sport. The school has also provided me with a controlled environment in which to develop my independence.

The school offers a fantastic range of activities, all ‘under one roof’, that I know my parents would have difficulty in matching, particularly as I have two brothers and a sister. I have experienced a lot more than if I had gone to a local school. I play the bugle in the marching band, which participates in divisions at school but has also played at the Help for Heroes rugby in Twickenham (in front of 50,000 people) and at Essex cricket ground for the Essex vs Middlesex 2008 Twenty20 match. With the Royal Marines CCF, I have been on various expeditions, summer camps in Germany and Scotland, and competed in the inter- CCF Pringle Trophy at Lympstone. I play rugby, hockey and cricket for the school, but it has something for everyone, with a wide variety of other sports, including sailing, canoeing and horse riding. My particular favourite is cross-country in which the school has made it possible for me to compete in various races around the country.

This year I have been privileged enough to be head of my boarding house. This has allowed me to develop my leadership and communication skills.

The Royal Hospital School has provided me with many great experiences and if I was asked if I would board there again given the choice, the answer would definitely be yes.

Adhip Sherchan, Year 13 pupil and head boy at
The Duke of York’s Royal Military School, Dover
When I first came to the Duke of York’s Royal Military School I found that it was steeped in a rich history and was founded in 1803 as the Duke of York’s Royal Military Asylum for orphans of Servicemen. Some 200 years on and our school has changed significantly, although the original ethos is still alive in providing education to children of ex- and serving Service personnel. The fact that everyone in the school has had an upbringing with the Forces in their background contributes to a unique environment and a strong sense of camaraderie among the pupils, and I felt this on my first day here.

The school has been my home for the past six years and, to be honest, I do not know where the time has gone. Six years seem to have gone by so quickly and I was privileged to be made head boy in this my last year of sixth form. There is always something to do here, whether it is with your friends or by yourself. I have participated in many sports, and have learnt to play the trumpet and bass guitar. There are numerous bands that you can be part of and I am a member of the blues band that plays to a very appreciative audience once a term. The 150-acre site contains so many facilities and opportunities that help you nurture any talents or interests. From the CCF to the multitude of sports pitches, you cannot help but throw yourself fully into the school and get stuck in.

Now in my final year I have an extreme enthusiasm and confidence for beginning my adult life. However, I know that I will look back with fond memories and affection, and that my ties with the school will remain.