If you are after academic excellence and a range of good sports, then you have lots of choice with a huge number of UK boarding schools to pick from. However, if you want the best uk school for football, the choices become far more restricted.
The facts are that at most top private schools, where there are the best facilities and academic results, football is not the major sport. Many schools typically specialise in Rugby for the first term, have hockey / football in the Spring term and play cricket and athletics in the Summer term. This will give students the chance to experience many different sports but in terms of specialist football development, our experience tells us that with so little time being coached soccer, players will struggle to progress to the high levels needed.
The other problem faced by parents are schools which claim to be specialist “UK football boarding schools” actually have low quality programmes. Our experience is that several schools which rank highly on Google searches did not provide quality coaching and we would not recommend them. Some achieve good results because they have attracted good players but in terms of a programme to develop skills and game understanding, we do not consider them to be at the level we would look for.
The serious footballer needs a specialist UK football boarding school or University environment which is geared towards football progression and mirrors a pro club academy experience as closely as possible. It needs to be played for at least two terms, be one of the top footballing schools in the country, have expert coaches, an excellent, competitive fixture list. Although some football schools do not allow day release there must be potential progression pathways into professional football clubs. This is what our list of carefully selected schools provides in conjunction with academic excellence to fall back on.
So, if your child is serious about football, you need a specialist football or soccer boarding school, with good coaching, a strong fixture list and one which plays it for more than just 1 term. If you need advice, remember we are always happy to help advise!
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