Website: www.oundleschool.org.uk

Address: OundleNORTHAMPTONSHIRE

The historic and hugely successful Oundle School, set in a delightful market town but within easy reach of London (Peterborough to London King’s Cross takes 45 minutes by train), offers a wide range of GCSE subjects, including Arabic, Chinese, Design Technology, Computer Science, Greek, PE and Russian – everyone has to do at least one modern foreign language – and there’s also the Cambridge Pre-U qualification and various extension courses in the sixth form, such as a medical preparation course.

The school incorporates a theatre and gallery (the Yarrow Gallery, built in 1918 in memory of a pupil killed at Ypres), both open to the public, a radio station (Oscar Radio) and a particularly whizz-bang DT and engineering centre .

• 1,100 pupils aged 11–18, co-ed, mainly boarding
• About £6,000–£12,000

Website: www.greshams.com

Address: HoltNORFOLK

Gresham's may be situated amid 200 acres in the far, eastern reaches of north Norfolk, just four miles from the glorious coastline, but the school – which was originally founded as a grammar school in 1555 by Sir John Gresham after the Reformation closed the only local source of learning – provides East Anglian parents with a truly top public school (it offers both the IB and A levels) that has the stated aims of providing its pupils with ‘an enlightened education which celebrates British values in a Christian setting’.

Its theatre, the Auden Theatre – the poet was a pupil, as were composers Benjamin Britten and Lennox Berkeley, poet Stephen Spender, director Stephen Frears and actress Olivia Colman, plus inventor Sir James Dyson – which last term celebrated its 20th anniversary, is justifiably famous, school productions attracting a genuine public audience beyond parents. It’s set in 200 acres in an AONB and has a rifle range (shooting is big here).

• 480 pupils aged 13–18, day and boarding (plus prep school)
• £3,350–£11,660

Website: www.lincolnminsterschool.co.uk

Address: LincolnLINCOLNSHIRE

Musical standards are high at Lincoln Minster School, an outward-looking cathedral school – the chamber choir performed on Howard Goodall’s album Inspired. It was formed in 1996 by the merging of three senior schools (and, later, a prep school) in purpose-built modern buildings overlooking the Minster and historic quarter; prizegivings are held in the cathedral.

Last term, Year 6 pupil Shivani Jansari was named Creative Arts Pupil of the Year and, in 2017, Artur Giniiatullin, a Year 12 pupil, won a United Learning art award. This term sees the start of a Sports Ambassador Programme, with visits from national coaches.

• 500+ pupils aged 2–18, co-ed, day and boarding
• £3,135–£9,022

Website: www.lesgrammar.org

Loughborough Grammar School, which is linked to (co-ed) Fairfield prep, challenges the notion that boys do better in mixed schools, presenting research that shows results in a boys-only school improves by 0.2 grades per GCSE and suggests that teenage boys take greater intellectual risks when not distracted by girls; certainly, the academic results are impressive here.

There is, however, plenty of collaboration with girls in music, drama and Combined Cadet Force (CCF) as well as in A-level subjects such as Classics and politics, plus an enormous choice of clubs, from bees and pond to harps and saxophones.

• 950+ boys aged 10–18, mainly day
• £4,183–£5,401

Website: https://www.glenalmondcollege.co.uk

Address: PerthSCOTLAND

William Gladstone founded Glenalmond College in 1847 to keep young men away from the perils of the city and it certainly offers fresh air and wholesome, bracing activities: fishing on the River Almond, a golf course, white-water rafting, canoeing, climbing, canyoning, clay-pigeon shooting and skiing. Old Glenalmonds include the cartoonist H. M. Bateman and actor Robbie Coltrane. As befits its home country, Highland Bagpipes and Drumming are both taught. Elaine Logan, the inspirational first female Warden, has introduced the Learning Project, in which teachers observe each other’s lessons and pupils’ progress is tracked. The William Bright Society is for academically gifted pupils and independent learning through the EPQ is encouraged.

• 390+ pupils, aged 12–18, co-ed, mostly boarding
• £5,627–£12,170

Website: www.benenden.kent.sch.uk

Address: CranbrookKENT

Benenden is a famous traditional, atmospheric girls’ boarding school, founded in 1923 and set in 240 acres of landscaped grounds around the Earl of Cranbrook’s 19th-century family home built in Tudor/Jacobean style, which has made it triumphantly into the 21st century, with excellent academic results in a broad range of subjects, including design and technology (DT). There’s a superb science block, opened by former pupil The Princess Royal, a 150-seater lecture theatre, an eco-classroom and an all-weather sports field; planning permission has been granted for a new music school and hall.

Pupils can take Extended Project Qualifications (EPQ) and there’s a Professional Skills Programme for sixth-formers that offers experience with businesses. Despite its rural location, it’s easily accessible from London and close to the Bluewater shopping centre, which is, no doubt, popular. It’s even got its own edition of Monopoly.

• 550 girls aged 11–18, boarding
• £12,560

Website: www.shrewsbury.org.uk

Address: ShewsburySHROPSHIRE

Shrewsbury, which is considered one of Britain’s great public schools, was founded by Edward VI in 1552 and occupies a graceful position in 100 acres high above the Severn, 10 minutes from the town centre; girls, who wear stylish tartan skirts, arrived in 2008 (they started at age 13 in 2014).

Salopian distinctions include the world’s oldest running club, The Hunt, and race (the Tucks), a Snowdonia cottage affectionately known as Tally and the ancient chained library, which contains the manuscripts of former pupil Charles Darwin. Private Eye founders Richard Ingrams and Willie Rushton, plus Michael Palin and Lord Heseltine, are also old boys. The new headmaster is Leo Winkley, a theology graduate, who comes from St Peter’s, York.

• 800 pupils aged 13–18, co-ed, day and (mainly) boarding
• £8,295–£13,040

Website: www.kings-taunton.co.uk

Address: TauntonSOMERSET

Kings' College is a happy, traditional-feel school set on the leafier (racecourse) side of the town and with a campus feel – many staff live on site. It’s sporty – Olympic hockey goalie Maddie Hinch went here – with close links to the county cricket ground (Jos Buttler is an old boy), and has its own equestrian centre. It’s a Woodard school (founded by the Victorian cleric) and the splendid chapel, a concert venue for a musical town, is a centrepiece; the chaplain, Father Mark Smith, has a ‘mini-farm’ (mostly poultry and pygmy goats).

• 460 pupils aged 13–18, co-ed, day and boarding, plus prep school
• £7,460–£11,055

Website: www.tringpark.com

Address: TringHERTFORDSHIRE

There are exciting opportunities for talented children at Tring Park School, an inspiring vocational school – and one of only eight in the UK that’s Government funded. Entrance is by audition – pupils are accepted according to talent, although there’s also an academic test – and half the school day is spent on vocational training in dance, musical theatre and acting. Compulsory GCSE subjects include three options out of religious studies, music, art, textiles, drama, geography, history and computing science.

It’s produced the actresses Caroline Quentin, Lily James and Daisy Ridley, plus Olivier award-winning choreographer Drew McOnie and the Royal Ballet’s Joseph Sissens.

• 360 pupils aged 8–19, co-ed, day and boarding
• £4,955–£11,920

Website: www.habsboys.org.uk

Address: ElstreeHERTFORDSHIRE

The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School has more going for it than just the longest school name (and hardest to say out loud) in the English language. In 1690, rich haberdasher Robert Aske started the school, now in a secluded position in the 100-acre estate around Aldenham House, for the less fortunate members of his profession, since when it’s become a byword for brilliant results.

A famously academic, energetic, multi-demoninational school – the alma mater of funny men Matt Lucas, Sacha Baron Cohen and David Baddiel, plus historian Simon Schama, art critic Brian Sewell and Sir Nicholas Serota, chair of Arts Council England – sticks purely to A levels (no IB or BTec), believes in filling every hour and isn’t keen on dilettantes.

• 1,400 boys aged 11–18, day (plus prep and pre-prep)
• £6,782

Website: www.hereford.ac.uk

Address: HerefordHEREFORDSHIRE

Parents in this rural county are considered extremely lucky to have such a centre of excellence such as Hereford Sixth Form College, founded in 1973, on their doorstep. The principal, Jonathan Godfrey, is a leading figure in the world of sixth-form colleges and the results and breadth of subjects are impressive, as is the music: the Academia Musica choir has a recording contract and performs regularly in cathedrals. Chief sports are basketball, football, hockey, netball and rugby, and players are given individual fitness programmes at the gym.

Alumni include Paralympic gold medallist Josie Pearson, composer Samuel Karl Bohn, actor Matt Milne and pop singer Ellie Goulding. The college size may be daunting for those from smaller, rural schools, but it has an exhilarating, grown-up, uni feel.

• 2,000 pupils aged 16–18, co-ed, day
• £0 (for UK residents)

Address: HerefordHEREFORDSHIRE

Hereford Cathedral School is the county’s independent school, strong both academically and in sport, so places are much in demand. Everyone pretty much knows everyone and many pupils are from farming stock; probably the most famous Old Herefordian is champion jockey Richard Johnson.

The magnificent cathedral surrounds give it a traditional feel – it was founded for choristers in the 12th century – of which pupils are justly proud. Each year, three or four boys are accepted as choristers (a considerable reduction in fees); they don’t need to be musical geniuses, but they must enjoy singing, be team players and be committed.

• 500 pupils aged 3–18, co-ed, day
• £2,676–£4,627

Website: www.stswithuns.com

Address: WinchesterHAMPSHIRE

Founded in 1884 by a daughter of the Dean of Winchester, this selective school has a justified reputation for producing bright girls and a tenacious grip of the top of the league tables. Major efforts are made to stimulate brains through an eclectic programme of lectures, plus dynamic headmistress Jane Gandee’s enthusiasm for Radio 4 and the compulsory weekly Stretch programme (activities such as chess, music or music composition).

Girls must also surely benefit by osmosis from the academic atmosphere that pervades the city through the cathedral and the renowned boys’ public school, with which there is co-operation for dramatic productions.

• 500+ girls aged 11–18, day and boarding (plus prep school)
• £6,855–£11,200

Website: www.mayfieldgirls.org

Address: MayfieldEAST SUSSEX

Mayfield's former pupils are known as Old Cornelians, after Mother Cornelia Connelly, who, in 1863, took schoolgirls from the Holy Child School at St Leonards-on-Sea on a picnic to the rural ruins of the Old Palace of Mayfield, which she thought would be a splendid site for a school. Nowadays, there’s a lay headmistress (Antonia Beary, whose career is steeped in the Catholic faith) and it takes all denominations, but it is still underpinned by Catholicism – sixth-formers attend a weekly liturgy in the chapel.

Mayfield is famed for its equestrian successes under director of riding Jill Barker – girls may bring their horses to school or share one and there are both indoor and outdoor arenas – but the school is high-achieving in many fields. A wide range of academic subjects includes economics and Latin at A level and classical civilisation and food and nutrition at GCSE.

• 350+ girls aged 11–18, day and boarding
• £7,000–£11,300

Website: www.sherborne.org

Address: SherborneDORSET

In so far as you can call Sherborne a town setting, it offers the best of both worlds, being within a charming market town – Sherborne Abbey plays a big part in school life – with good train links with London.

It also has close ties and the pooling of some A-level subjects with its opposite-number girls’ establishment down the road. There’s a civilised aura and pride in the school’s heritage, which dates from the 12th century.

Distinguished Shirburnians include mathematician Alan Turing – there’s a code-breaking society – novelist John le Carré (then David Cornwell), poet Cecil Day-Lewis, broadcaster Tom Bradby and actors John le Mesurier, Jeremy Irons and Hugh Bonneville.

• 540+ boys aged 13–18, mostly boarding
• £10,125–£12,500

Website: www.miltonabbey.co.uk

Address: Blandford ForumDORSET

Dorset is spoilt for rural-thinking schools in beautiful locations, but Milton Abbey, a converted monastery in a Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown landscape, is particularly splendid (the TV adaptation of R. F. Delderfield’s public-school novel To Serve Them All My Days was filmed here).

Pupils can bring ferrets and ponies, keep bees, look after farm animals, go beagling and walk dogs. Academia (it’s non-selective and part of Round Square) is individually tailored, with a strong emphasis on vocation – two-thirds of sixth-form pupils take BTec – and there’s a large learning-support department.

• 250 pupils aged 13–18, co-ed, mostly boarding
• £6,750–£13,350

Website: www.ipswich.school

Address: IpswichSUFFOLK

Ipswich School is a big, urban-based school that serves the local community (there are numerous bus stops) and is committed both to stretching the very able and providing one-to-one guidance where needed. ‘We are just as aware of the candidate who secures a hard-won B grade as we are of the individual who picks up a string of A* grades,’ it says. Languages taught include German, Russian, Chinese and Latin and there’s a focus on triple science at GCSE level, plus a programme for the ‘academically gifted’ and a psychology department. Clubs include Apps For Good, karate, Mandarin, textiles, football for girls and jewellery making. Cardinal Wolsey and H. Rider Haggard are distinguished alumni.

• 1,000+ pupils aged 3–18, co-ed, (mainly) day and boarding
• £3,950–£10,057

Website: www.charterhouse.org.uk

Address: GodalmingSURREY

Since the arrival of new headmaster Alex Peterken in 2017, Charterhouse has announced plans to become fully co-educational from 2021. Dr Peterken, who knew Charterhouse as housemaster before becoming head of Cheltenham College, believes this is the ‘natural extension of our current approach’, adding it will not change the school’s 400-year-old values and ethos. Charterhouse made the move from London to Surrey in 1872 for the clean air and space that the sports department is still enjoying. Music is also a particular strength. Old Carthusians include William Makepeace Thackeray, John Wesley, Robert Baden-Powell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, poet Robert Graves, the five original members of Genesis and politician Jeremy Hunt.

• 800 boys aged 13–18 with co-ed sixth form, mainly boarding
• £10,788–£13,055

Website: www.mountkelly.com

Address: TavistockDEVON

Originally founded by Admiral Kelly in 1877 for the sons of naval officers, the school, with the beautiful backdrop of Dartmoor, has a famed swimming record (it has a 50m Olympic Legacy pool). Alumni include Olympic swimmers Sharron Davies, Robin and Paul Brew and Andrew Jameson, plus pentathlete Heather Fell – but is also considered to be academically on the way up. The prep school majors on recycling and sustainability and has a small farm.

• 300+ pupils aged 13–18, co-ed, day and boarding (plus prep school)
• £2,410–£10,540

Website: www.repton.org.uk

Address: DerbyDERBYSHIRE

Repton, founded in 1557 and highly regarded since the days of the active headmaster Steuart Adolphus Pears in 1854–57, is in a village on the site of a former priory, but it’s far more accessible to London than one might imagine (Derby is about two hours from London Euston and 20 minutes from East Midlands Airport).

Particular USPs include a rooftop observatory on the excellent science centre, much success in debating competitions and hockey facilities good enough for Team GB’s men to train on and to give Repton girls a record number of national titles.

The school has produced numerous footballers and first-class cricketers, plus actor Basil Rathbone, Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams, tennis player Bunny Austin, writers Roald Dahl and Christopher Isherwood, publisher Victor Gollancz and petrolhead presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

• 650 pupils aged 13–18, co-ed, day and boarding (linked to prep school Foremarke Hall)
• £8,831–£11,904

Website: www.durhamschool.co.uk

Address: DurhamCountry Durham

Durham School is at the centre of a beautiful city and steeped in history – it started in 1414 when Cardinal Langley re-founded the cathedral (it was a cathedral school until 1996) – academia and culture, with a strong house system and rowing tradition. Durham has produced several past and present sportsmen (Gareth Southgate visited in May), plus actor/presenter Alexander Armstrong.

Societies include Heretics, in which controversial subjects are debated, Tristram (science), MedSoc (for would-be medics) and Hillard (linguistics). Scholarships include the Peter Lee for ‘musically and academically elite children of Chinese ancestry’. There are plans afoot to develop the campus.

• 380+ pupils aged 11–18, co-ed, mainly day(plus pre-prep and prep school)
• About £4,781–£10,338

Website: www.bradfieldcollege.org.uk

Address: BradfieldBERKSHIRE

Picturesque Bradfield, alma mater of politician Lord Owen, novelist Louis de Bernières and explorer Benedict Allen, started, in 1850, as a choir school for the village church, fanning out from the original Arts-and-Crafts manor house and incorporating buildings designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and a chapel by his son, an early pupil.

There’s a superb science centre, plus the famed ‘Greeker’ theatre in which performances of Greek tragedies were renowned. Bradfield’s academic reputation (it offers the IB) increases all the time and there’s an impressive roster of visiting lecturers, plus the Bradfield Diploma, designed to create well-rounded individuals.

• 780 pupils aged 13–18, co-ed, predominantly boarding
• £9,975–£12,468

Website: www.habsmonmouth.org

Address: MonmouthWALES

With playing fields running down to the River Wye and a mix of ancient and modern buildings, the school is very much part of the community of this small Welsh border town through rugby, music and the school theatre, the Blake. Founded some 400 years ago by a member of the Haberdashers’ Company, it’s part of a group that includes Monmouth School for Girls, with which it has a joint sixth form from this term. Former Government chief scientific advisor Sir John Beddington, Robin Herd, who led the Concorde project, Olympic showjumper David Broome and rower and politician Lord Moynihan are among the alumni. Sport is strong – many boys play rugby and cricket at county or national level.

• 500+ pupils, aged 11–18, plus junior school
• £5,272–£10,687 (service families only pay 10% of boarding fees)

Website: www.warwickschool.org

Address: WarwickWARKWICKSHIRE

The centrepieces of this driven, selective, academic school, which was founded by Edward the Confessor and is now housed in a neo-Tudor building beside the Avon, are the magnificent new science building on three floors, used by girls’ school Kings High and others, and the library, which contains more than 20,000 books and is housed in a building named after former pupil John Masefield. Music and drama are strong – another old boy is Country Life’s distinguished theatre critic, Michael Billington, who found the proximity of Stratford inspiring. Friday afternoons are now devoted to an extensive activity programme; choices include the BBC School Report, cooking for university, cyber-security, first aid and chamber music. The 50-plus boarders are mainly Chinese students. The recently-installed headmaster is Dr Deneal Smith, who comes from Westminster – he has a PhD in observational astronomy.

• 990 boys aged 11–18, mainly day (plus junior school)
• £4,398–£5,188

Website: www.seaford.org

Address: PetworthWEST SUSSEX

Seaford has one of the loveliest school settings, in the foothills of the South Downs – founded in the East Sussex town of Seaford in 1884, it moved to the market town of Petworth after the Second World War. A typical Seafordian will be ‘articulate, confident and well-rounded’, according to the headmaster, John Green, who is perceived to have upped the academic ante and smartened the look of this non-selective school, which ‘welcomes the very brilliant and those who find the examination culture a challenge’. There’s ongoing refurbishment this term of classrooms, plus a new library and sixth-form study and social areas. A-level subjects include photography, drama and theatre, textiles, politics and psychology; at the start of the lower-sixth year, all pupils go to North Wales for a bonding trip. Cricket is big, with a coaching staff of eight.

• 500+ pupils aged 11–18, co-ed, day and boarding (plus prep school)
• £5,710–£11,030

Website: http://po.st/p1URKl

Telephone: 01780 484400

Address: Stamford Junior School,Kettering Road,Stamford,Lincolnshire,PE9 2LR

Gender: MIxed