Best boarding schools near Clapham
Boarding comes in all shapes and sizes these days. Full boarding, its purest form, allows children to dedicate time to studies as well as extracurricular and social life; flexi or weekly boarding can be a great solution to stretched days and long commutes. For some hard-working Clapham parents, the idea of children being away from home Monday to Friday so that family time can be maximised at the weekend, holds great allure.
Boarding prep schools near Clapham
While not for everyone, there are families for whom boarding at junior level is a good fit. Typically boarding at prep school can start as early as 7 or 8-years-old but the majority start from the age of 11, doing two years at a 13+ boarding prep before moving on to a senior boarding school.
There are a few boarding options in London at this age. Choir schools – St Paul’s Cathedral School, Westminster Abbey Choir School, Westminster Cathedral Choir School – offer boarding (choristers are required to board) but apart from these, venturing south and west of London is necessary. A handful of boarding preps out this way run Monday morning bus services from south west London for returning weekly boarders: Cheam School (from The Green Man Pub, Putney) Feltonfleet School (from West Hill Road, east Putney), Sunningdale and Cranleigh Prep (from across the river in Parsons Green).
At least a couple of years boarding at a 13+ prep school is still considered ideal preparation for the move to a senior boarding school. A number of Berkshire and Surrey boarding prep schools are around an hour’s drive from Clapham.
Senior boarding schools near Clapham
With a small number of high profile exceptions – Westminster School, Dulwich College, Harrow School – families looking for senior full, weekly or flexi boarding search out of London. Proximity and transport connections attract them to nearby Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex (East Sussex and West Sussex) and Kent. Benenden, The King’s School, Canterbury and Cranleigh School all run weekend bus services to or from Clapham. Other popular choices, thanks often to the train routes out of Clapham junction, include Bedales School, Caterham School, Epsom College, Frensham Heights, Woldingham School, St Catherine’s, Bramley, Sevenoaks School.
Of course, many of the best known, traditional boarding senior schools are popular choices for Clapham families: Eton College, Tonbridge School or Radley College for boys and St Mary’s Ascot, Wycombe Abbey, Roedean or Heathfield School for girls and co-eds Charterhouse, Marlborough College, Bradfield College, Eastbourne College and Wellington College.
Royal Alexandra and Albert School is state boarding school in Reigate, Surrey. It offers full and flexi boarding for children aged 7 to 18. As a state school, education is free but all costs associated with boarding are covered by school fees. There are no geographical factors to admissions process so, although it is some distance from Clapham – the journey from Clapham Junction to Merstham takes less than half and hour – it appeals to Claphamites looking for this unusual type of education.
