Anderson Education offers more than a quarter century of experience and trust

Welcome from Anderson Education – the UK Boarding School Specialists with over 25 years’ experience helping local and expat families. Finding the right UK boarding school for your son or daughter when you are living over 5,000 miles away, is a daunting task.

We recommend that families identify their criteria – What type of school do you think would suit your child? Co-ed or single sex, should they join a prep or senior school or perhaps if they are older a 6th form college would be a better fit. Do you have an age range in mind, would joining at age 11, 14, or 16 be best? Have you thought about the qualifications offered, A Level, IB or BTEC? What about academic level, support required, location, extra-curricular activities and strength in sport, music, performing arts, STEM and outdoor adventure programmes. Thinking about all these different options can be mind blowing – how will you choose?

Is there a list of the top UK boarding schools? Families often ask us about league tables, these are produced by a number of leading newspapers and independent organisations in the UK. Can you just select a school on academic results? Anderson Education advise that league tables are not truly representative because an increasing number of schools are not submitting their result, they believe that a boarding education has so much more to offer.

The league tables are not comparable because they often use different criteria, for example A*-A grades, A*-B grades or value added. Value added in education refers to the extra benefits, skills, and knowledge that students gain beyond the basic curriculum and how they have progressed as an individual from their point of entry. The right school for your son or daughter is going to be one that offers an environment that will nurture, challenge and encourage them to reach their full potential and above all be happy!

A recent survey found that communication, open-mindedness, an inquiring mind and critical thinking were valued more highly by businesses than subject knowledge; these are all qualities to be developed to ensure that our children are prepared for the rapidly evolving future of employment. We also recommend that families look at a school’s Destination of Leaver’s List; this shows which universities and which programmes of study, students are progressing to and reflects on the strength of teaching in the subject department.

If you feel that a UK boarding education may be a good option for your son and daughter, but you could use a little help, visiting the UK Boarding School Exhibition in Dubai, Riyadh and Al Khobar is a great starting point. Come and talk to our Education Consultants and meet heads of up to 20 schools. Get the answers to your questions and begin your boarding school journey. We look forward to meeting you!