Boarding at an independent school

The North of England is understandably a popular choice for boarders and their families. With vibrant cities, stunning coastlines and spectacular landscapes, the North attracts boarders from across the UK and beyond. This area of the UK is renowned for its friendly communities, and a warm welcome awaits boarders who choose to call the North of England their home. 

The physical and mental wellbeing of pupils is central to a boarding school’s sports offering. Sport is a crucial part of boarding school life. It provides a healthy and active lifestyle, promotes good physical and mental wellbeing, teaches teamwork and leadership skills, and develops resilience, determination and many other important lifeskills. 

Sherborne Girls sets out to nurture and inspire a vibrant community of fulfilled, inquisitive and confident young women who are thoroughly prepared to enter higher education and embark on their future lives, with a desire to make a difference. A fundamental part of our vision and aim to develop the future generation of twenty-first century women is ensuring every pupil...

Far beyond any of our memories, our predecessors spent most of their day outside. Nature was where they spent their free time, worked and ate. Fast forward to the present day and many of us are guilty of putting time outdoors at the bottom of our to-do list. In fact, a fifth of the teenagers we surveyed at The Duke...

Deeply embedded in articles on what makes a good school you may find a short paragraph on its provision for the ordinary pupil, but that genus deserves further attention. Some of the hardest work a school has to undertake is to care for the pupils who are seen, or perceive themselves, as ‘nothing special’.  

Independent schools have been connecting with their local communities and collaborating with state schools for many years, but it is only in recent years that we have begun to collect data which clearly demonstrates this. Thousands of mutually beneficial partnerships now exist between independent and state schools, unlocking new educational experiences for all involved. This work was reinforced in a...

The word ‘wellbeing’ is used a lot in today’s culture but what does it really mean? When the Office for National Statistics (ONS) measures wellbeing it looks at an ‘individual’s feelings of satisfaction with life, whether they feel the things they do in their life are worthwhile and their positive and negative emotions. [1]

When I was 17, I spent three weeks of my summer holiday planning and delivering a holiday to a group of children from a school in Cheshire who had severe learning difficulties. They travelled annually to my boarding school in North Wales where they experienced their first-ever holiday without their parents. It is one of the strongest memories I have...

A level Economics is growing in popularity, particularly in the independent schools sector. Having studied the subject at A level, many students go on to follow the subject at degree level with some 70 per cent of those studying economics at university. Many of these graduates go on to roles in government and business, shaping the future of our economy.

A well-rounded education which develops children mentally, physically and socially relies heavily on the strength of a school’s co-curricular programmes. This is particularly important in a boarding environment where enrichment activities provide an essential avenue for expression and personal development.