Boarding schools benefit vulnerable pupils, says study

GIVING vulnerable children a boarding school place can dramatically improve their future, a government study has found.

Out of a cohort of youngsters who were previously in care and then sent to a boarding school, the majority were subsequently taken off their local council’s risk register, the research is expected to show.

The study, published this summer, follows the progress of 52 children who looked after by Norfolk Council Council and sent to boarding schools.

Martin Reader, chairman of the Boarding School Association (BSA), said that the study shows how boarding has a “transformative benefit”.

The research was commissioned by the Department for Education (DFE) and the Boarding Schools Partnership (BSP), a scheme that will see children from vulnerable families enrol at some of Britain’s top boarding schools including Harrow, Rugby, Benenden and Eton College.

Under the initiative, school fees will be covered by local councils.

Mr Reader, headmaster of the £37,000-a-year Cranleigh School in Surrey, said that boarding schools are “genuinely thrilled” when “one of our pupils from a disadvantaged background has prospects transformed”.

Addressing head teachers at the BSA’S annual conference in Brighton this week, he will say: “As privileged institutions we cannot be seen only to serve ourselves.”

Mr Reader said that for the past decade, boarding school have been offering places to local authorities but without much uptake.

“What has been happening is that probably for about 10 years now, we have been talking with local authorities,” he said. “We have been saying that our schools are prepared to take on looked after children. But it would be fair to say that the local authorities have not necessarily taken it up.

“There will always be the question of ‘will a child fit in a boarding school’? There will be an agenda out there which says all boarding schools are full of really privileged children”.

In the past, similar schemes have failed to get off the ground. Last year, a multimillion pound project to give disadvantaged children free places at top boarding schools was axed.

Buttle UK, the charity leading the project, said it was unable to proceed because local authorities were not willing to refer children.

Currently, only about 100 children go to private boarding schools paid for by councils but Colin Morrison, the BSP chairman, hopes this will climb to about 1,000 a year within five years.