The Student Room Group

How to choose a boarding school? And average cost?

I am currently at AS level in London, and unfortunately due to certain circumstances i may have to move to boarding school for A2. However i (and my parents included) am completely confused as to where to start to look for one. There are so many, and i cant seem to find a website with a definitive list of all of them, every one seems to be different. I'm also aware that i'd need to see if they will even have space for me but it would be a start if i could even make a short-list of the schools i want to look at.

Also, we're not sure what the normal range in price is for boarding schools, as in how much normally a excellent one is, then a decent one, average one etc. For example I've seen one for 24k a year for a decent school but I have no clue whether thats overpriced or not, so would love to hear personal experiences, how much were your fee's?

So in summary, i am looking for a co-educational, full board sixth form, any help would be much appreciated :h:
Reply 1
There's a list here. Just like all day and/or state schools, they're all completely different so it's best to choose a few favourites and go to their open days before you make any concrete decisions. (Beware that quite a few boarding schools are becoming IB only in 6th form so won't be of any use to you.

As for price, £24k is about average I think (I went to King Edward's Witley but left before 6th form, so my fees were slightly lower). For a top school you'll probably end up paying around £30-£35k, but there are other costs involved like uniforms, deposits, house funds, trips, educational supplies etc.
Reply 2
Original post by Damask-
There's a list here. Just like all day and/or state schools, they're all completely different so it's best to choose a few favourites and go to their open days before you make any concrete decisions. (Beware that quite a few boarding schools are becoming IB only in 6th form so won't be of any use to you.

As for price, £24k is about average I think (I went to King Edward's Witley but left before 6th form, so my fees were slightly lower). For a top school you'll probably end up paying around £30-£35k, but there are other costs involved like uniforms, deposits, house funds, trips, educational supplies etc.


Thanks alot, guess I've just got to trawl through and see which seem applicable to me then go to see them if i can, i dunno suppose i was sort of hoping for some kind of school search engine, wishful thinking :daydreaming:
Ah ok i see now, 24k seems to be very good then for one of the schools i've got my eye on, thanks again, and any other experiences/advice from people would be greatly appreciated, especially with Year 13 entry :h:
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by PopDaRouge
Thanks alot, guess I've just got to trawl through and see which seem applicable to me then go to see them if i can, i dunno suppose i was sort of hoping for some kind of school search engine, wishful thinking :daydreaming:
Ah ok i see now, 24k seems to be very good then for one of the schools i've got my eye on, thanks again, and any other experiences/advice from people would be greatly appreciated, especially with Year 13 entry :h:


Many schools won't be interested in someone joining just for Y13, so be prepared to talk to quite a few schools. As well as finding a school you like, you need to find out
Do they offer the subjects you are studying?
Do they do them with exam boards compatible with the ones you have used at As? (it generally doesn't have to be the same board, but some transfers are not allowed and you would have to start the AS again). Details of what is permitted at:
http://www.jcq.org.uk/exams_office/entries/gceentryinformationincltransferofcredit/
(If it has to happen the exams officer at the new school sorts out the paperwork).

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