What you need to know when searching for a boarding school in the UK
FAQs & Resources, School Admissions
Starting the search for a UK Boarding School is an exciting time for you and your child. Years of experience mean that we can help
Academic Families works with more than 450 schools throughout the UK, and we have become experts at matching children to the right boarding school for them in order to ensure each student thrives.
We're delighted to present one of our partner schools:
Dollar Academy Senior and Prep School in Dollar, Scotland.
The school’s values of “Work Hard, Get Involved and Be Kind” create a positive environment where young minds can thrive. The values unite the whole school community.
Dollar’s Prep School (Primary 1-5) follows the Scottish curriculum and offers excellent facilities, outstanding teaching and small class sizes. The Junior School encompasses Primary 6 and 7 and provides the stepping stone for pupils to transition to the Senior School. Students have a primary teacher for ‘core subjects’, complimented by a wide range of subjects taught by specialist teachers from the Senior School. Pupils study a broad and varied curriculum in the first two years of Senior School (known as Form 1 and Form 2), before choosing 7 or 8 subjects to study at National 5 in Forms 3 and 4.
In Form 5, most pupils choose 5 subjects to study at Higher level, from a choice of 34 subjects. In their final year, Form 6, pupils have the choice to study additional subjects at Higher if they want more breadth of learning, or study some of their Higher subjects from Form 5 at Advanced Higher level. The Advanced Higher qualification is highly regarded internationally, with an A grade being equivalent to an A* grade at A-level. Dollar's pupils are rightly ambitious and recently collected statistics indicate pupils do more Advanced Highers on a pro-rata basis than anywhere else in Scotland. Advanced Highers, with their emphasis on project work, are excellent preparation for life beyond the school gates.
An education at Dollar prepares pupils for any university in the world. Around 60% of pupils leave each year to go to the Russell Group universities, with a small number also going on to Ivy League Schools in the US. Medicine, Law, Economics & Engineering are popular degree choices each year.
With more than 120 co-curricular activities on offer, from golf to guitar building and swimming to string orchestra, Dollar is sure to have something to interest every pupil.
Sport is central to life at Dollar Academy. The school’s facilities include grass and all-weather playing surfaces, a fitness suite, a dedicated strength & conditioning room and coach, a swimming pool, a rifle range and two sports halls. Dollar is one of Scotland’s leading rugby and hockey playing schools, and passionately encourages participation at every level. The school also has an established reputation for cricket, tennis, athletics and golf, recently partnering with Gleneagles to offer an exceptional Golf Programme at their PGA Academy.
Music is also very popular, with 14 different choirs and orchestras and a World Championship-winning Pipe Band. Each year students put on a major musical production in professional Scottish theatres; previous productions include Grease, Les Misérables and Sister Act. Dollar also has a superb art department with sector-leading fine art, photography, ceramics and fashion design provision. The Combined Cadet Force is one of the largest in the country, consistently winning national military skills, shooting and first aid competitions, and hundreds of pupils take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme each year.
Dollar Academy welcomes students from all over the world and there are currently pupils from 34 nationalities in the school. A good level of English is required, although the school has a dedicated Support for Learning department, who help several day and boarding pupils to develop their learning wherever a need is encountered or any barrier to learning is identified. Dollar offers free support for those students looking to gain ESOL & IELTS qualifications. With students from Scotland and all over the globe, the community at Dollar is vibrant and multi-cultural.
Boarding has been a key feature of life at Dollar since the school was founded in 1818, and the Care Inspectorate has described the school as having a ‘sector-leading’ standard of care for its boarders.
The focus is very much on creating a home-from-home environment with boys and girls living in small, family-style period architecture boarding houses which have both traditional charm and modern comfort. The houses are all located on Dollar’s stunning 70-acre campus in the heart of the small town of Dollar, meaning pupils can enjoy excellent social, sport and leisure facilities. At weekends there is a full programme of trips and fun events, including shopping trips, cinema trips, go-karting, treasure hunts and paintballing.
Each of the boarding houses is run by a pair of full-time, live-in Houseparents, who treat pupils as an extension of their own family. The Houseparents are supported by a number of Assistant Housestaff as well as teaching staff from the school who support with homework.
One great advantage of boarding at Dollar is that there are several hundred day pupils living locally, so boarders have a wide circle of friends, both in and out of the boarding house.
You'll probably have many questions about the exciting times that lie ahead. We are here to reassure you and support your decision to educate your child in the UK.
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