British Boarding Schools for Americans? Well, the idea is not really preposterous, and the children of Americans living in the UK or elsewhere in Europe have for a long time attended some of the elite academies across Britain.
Today, there seems to be a greater push to increase the number of American recruits, and British boarding schools are trying to compensate for declining British enrollments by trying to get more applicants from overseas.
A good example is Caterham School. The school is over 200 years old and housed in a phenomenal Victorian building tucked in a London suburb surrounded by well-kept greens, and the students are dressed in dark, sober uniforms and wear decent shoes.
Picture all this and you have the best picture of a typical British boarding school, the Caterham School. Changes are on the way, though. No longer can you hear only posh English accents, today we are surprised by Russian, German, Spanish, and other languages from across the world.
But the school’s administrators are looking to add more brash accents and languages to the student mix. They are looking to get more American students. The school is very eager to recruit more Americans and this is obvious as they take part in a British boarding school luxury excursion to Washington, D.C. The purpose of this high-profile trip was to attract more high-class American students to make up for their declining enrollments at home and to bring in more revenue. The school feels it has a great product to offer that they want more people to take part in, and getting a few students from America is the goal.
Caterham was one of 14 British boarding schools that were present a Washington conference recently of the International Association of Boarding Schools, and we all know that the British boarding schools are famous for not only centuries-old traditions but also high academic standards, secure and comfortable school surroundings, and a value-for-money academic education. At most of the British boarding schools, the cost of tuition, room, and board, will be around $20,000 annually. That the British Pound lost some of its value helps also, of course.
The schools are admitting that there could be some lingering stereotypes to overcome. British boarding schools are said to be harsh places where the morning runs are extremely long, the showers cold, and that headmasters still use canes to instill decent discipline, but these are merely tales of the past.
The days of rigorous Christianity and cold showers are long gone. At most British boarding schools, you will find state-of-the-art educational facilities, contemporary computer rooms, the best sports and recreational options, and up-to-date dorms. The contemporary headmaster makes sure the school offers a friendly family atmosphere for students from all parts of the world.
The British boarding schools were more or less forced to change into modern-day institutions and adapt to new changing social and economic times. Just look at the declining number of full-time board students that went down from 125,000 in 2001 to about 70,000 today, and this applies only to private British boarding schools!
The reasons for the decline are the economic situation in the UK, continuous cutbacks in spending for the British military, and the ever-growing willingness of well-to-do British parents to let their children stay at home rather than sending them away to school. To make up for this decile, the British boarding schools started an active worldwide recruiting campaign. Of all 8,000 international students, over 40 percent come from the Far East while only 10 of the international student body are from North America.