Boarding Schools

The ISC website's Parent Zone contains detailed information about the advantages of different types of independent schools, within which falls the category of boarding schools. The ISC Annual Census  gathers data on the numbers of pupils in ISC schools who are boarding, and some of the key facts are given below.

In 2009, of the total number of ISC school pupils, 13.2% of them (68,131) were boarding pupils. The overall proportion of schools which did not offer boarding increased. At the same time, however, there was a rise in the proportion of schools that provided boarding to 75% or more of their pupils. Those schools who only took a few boarders, having moved out of the market completely, seem to have driven the rise in the number of schools that provided no boarding at all.

Fees for boarding schools vary enormously, being dependent on the size of the school, the number and age of the pupils, and the context of where the school is situated. As a rough idea of what ISC boarding schools charge, the average fees broken down by year group for 2009 are as follows:

Boarding School Fees

There will of course be many boarding schools which fall both below and above the average fees for each year group, and scholarships, bursaries and other types of financial assistance are available in almost every ISC school to help with the payment of school fees.

The number of pupils boarding at ISC schools in 2009 varied between UK locations. The geographical distribution of the number of boarders can be seen below, divided into the nine ISC regions:

Number of pupils boarding:
South East - 26,257
South West - 13,932
East Anglia - 6,964
The North - 5,520
West Midlands - 4,931
East Midlands - 4,516
Scotland - 2,237
Greater London - 1,751
Wales - 1,038

Further statistics on boarding schools and boarders can be found in our Annual Census report.