Although it is too early to know what the longer term effect of COVID-19 on school places in the UK is going to be, from what I have witnessed over recent months, many schools are suffering financially with administrative staff being furloughed and teaching staff taking pay cuts, whilst parents have been given fee reductions to keep them on board. It is impossible to say how many students, from home or abroad, schools might lose in the immediate future, but I can tell you that schools who were turning enquiries away in January because they had no places for September 2020, have subsequently since around Easter, been able to offer clients places. So, for anyone looking last minute for this year, it is still worth a try to check around.
Likewise, many schools have been very flexible in arranging assessments for overseas students of late – pre-tests, the Common Entrance and some school entrance exams scheduled for this time of year have gone ahead in various overseas locations, including being administered in people’s own homes! For UK students there have been no exams, so some places have been offered on the basis of school reports, and in other cases the full offer of places has been delayed until the Autumn.
Having had my own children at three different boarding schools whilst I lived overseas and having been involved in guardian duties with children at six other schools, the recent global pandemic has made me re-assess the provision of care for overseas boarders in some schools. Things I might have taken for granted in the past; I would now encourage parents to check. For example, in my mind, everyday provision of a school should include helping parents arrange airport transport and being flexible about students arriving at different times on the day that school re-opens at the end of the holidays depending on their flights. From my experience of my own children, this has always been the case, but over the past couple of years, I have discovered that this is not standard at all schools.
Secondly, you might like to check about provision when a child gets ill. For example what the regulations are if a child returns to school unwell or on medication at the end of a holiday (even if an overseas doctor has deemed them fit to travel) and generally in what situations a child can be kept at school if they become unwell at school or when they would be sent to a guardian. This is worth knowing because a friend who offers to let you use their name as guardian, may not realise what they are letting themselves in for, or if you are paying for a guardian agency, the daily rate for having a sick child to stay can mount up over time.
And then that bring us to the current pandemic – since the start of the year, most schools have had their own quarantine regulations in place for children travelling from Asia and some have been quite strict so that many students were unable to go home over February half term as they would have to have isolated for two weeks when they got back. So, in such a scenario you need to make sure that unless schools stay open to overseas students in such situations, you need to have someone you can turn to, who can have your children to stay.
Since lock down began, most expatriate students have gone home overseas but some schools have kept boarding houses open for overseas students who were unable to get home. In addition, with current UK quarantine regulations, some schools are offering to open two weeks early in order for international students to fulfil their quarantine in boarding houses before schools open for the start of the new academic year. Of course, the government quarantine regulations might have changed by the end of the summer, but where schools are not offering quarantine accommodation, you need to think about what your children would do in a situation like that.
Some schools are going even further than this and talking about the possibility of cancelling exeat w/es for next term so that a bubble can be established in a boarding community. In addition, there has been talk about reducing the length of half terms (because of the problems of overseas children travelling) and increasing the length of the Christmas holidays instead.
Whatever September and beyond brings in the wake of the current situation, the issue really just is that with an unprecedented global pandemic like now, no one really knows what is up ahead, so be wary that a school that is generally inflexible about flights and sickness, is unlikely to be one to take the lead in being flexible for their international students in times like these. Just ensure you are aware of this, and if this is the case, make sure you have someone who is prepared to stand in whatever the issue.
Fiona Hodgkins
June 2020