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Academies prepare to take boardersThe school system is set to experience a major expansion of state-funded boarding: eight academies are planning to offer boarding accommodation by the end of the year, with three opening residential accommodation this September.
At Wellington Academy in Tidworth, Wiltshire, which is sponsored by the private Wellington College, £5.5 million is being spent creating 100 boarding places, largely for children from the nearby garrison. The Priory Academy in Lincoln is building 60 private en suite study bedrooms to encourage sixth formers to stay on at the school, and 50 places will also be made available at Harefield Academy in Uxbridge, Middlesex, with the boarding house due to open in September 2011. An all-boarding state school – the Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Dover – will also open its doors to general admissions after it recently secured academy status. It will now come under the control of the Department for Education rather than the Ministry of Defence, and its 450 boarding places will no longer be exclusive to the pupils of Forces children (see panel). In the next five years, it also hopes to expand its provision to 750 places if finances hold up.
There are currently 35 state boarding schools, at which parents pay around £7,000 for their children to board but tuition is free, and a number of these are now considering applying for academy status. The majority of the academies have identified areas of specific need, many associated with the two-year boarding pathfinder for vulnerable children programme, which encourages local authorities to put children facing care into boarding schools. Backed by the then schools minister Lord Adonis, who was a boarding school pupil while in care in the late 1970s, it has managed to place only a handful of pupils, despite interest from 80 boarding schools. Under the scheme, ten authorities considered 76 pupils for placements, but only 22 had gone by February last year. Having boarding could change everything for these children, who need to have a home from home. It will also strengthen the all-round care that can be given to pupils in the school. Education Secretary Michael Gove has expressed his enthusiasm for the idea, although questions remain as to how the project will be properly funded. Academies taking boarders 2011
Wellington, Tidworth, Wiltshire – 100 The Priory, Lincoln – 60 Harefield, Uxbridge, Middlesex – 50 State boarding schools given academy status this academic year
The Duke of York’s Royal Military School, Dover – 450 Hockerill Anglo-European College, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts – 240
Lancaster Royal Grammar, Lancashire – 200 Reading School, Reading, Berkshire – 70 Wymondham College – 530 State boarding schools which have applied for academy status
Dallam School, Milnthorpe, Cumbria – 120 So for those considering boarding there is another option on the horizon, but, as always, do your homework and, above all, see the school in action before you make any choice.
The principal of the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, an Academy with Military Traditions in Dover, Charles Johnson, said he would not let the move to academy status threaten the ‘military ethos’ of the school, and pupils will continue to march around the school’s parade ground in special uniforms three times a week. Pupils wear the regimental badge of their parents over their hearts. The school’s emphasis is on leadership, self-reliance, adventurous training and teamwork. |
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