Queen's College has a long-standing reputation for educating children from military families and is delighted to offer a Service Family Package to run alongside the MOD’s Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA).

Forces’ Families on this package currently pay a maximum termly fee* of £823 (Senior) and and £649.44 (Junior) per term, per child in addition to the CEA, which includes meals, laundry and trips.

Our co-educational, non-selective independent school set in 36 acres of beautiful grounds provides the perfect home-from-home combined with top-class schooling.

We understand that military life can add emotional pressure to the upbringing of a child, linked with what can be a series of educational moves. Queen’s works very hard to empathise with the unique needs of our military families, and provide consistent family support.

We have a dedicated Forces Liaison Officer – with experience of life in the military – and he ensures our students from Forces families are cared for and also come together regularly to share their experiences.

We also offer:

• Co-educational, non-selective independent school set in 36 acres of beautiful grounds on the edge of Taunton – giving the best of town and country
• Supportive family boarding environment from 7-18 years
• Broad and balanced curriculum with wide-ranging co-curricular activities
• Extensive subject choices and combinations through to GCSE and A Levels
• Caring, supportive, inspirational staff and boarding house-parents
• Strong tutor network with reassuring communication between home and school
• Superb facilities for academic, sport, music, creative and performing arts including theatre, dance studio and swimming pool
• Flexibility for pupils to join their families at times of POTL and R&R

For further support and information, please contact admissions@queenscollege.org.uk

* Please note: Fees change in line with CEA funding.

STUART Bartlett - a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy - and his wife Elizabeth have twin daughters, Eleanor and Caitlin, in Year 11. Here he tells why they chose Queen's College ...

As my Service career was reasonably stable – having been based at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset – for many years boarding school was not the path we expected to take regarding our twin girls’ education. With excellent schools on our doorstep everything seemed set for a smooth passage through the education system. However the demise of the Harrier necessitated a move and no stable base area. 

Remembering colleagues’ academic and emotional turmoil associated with multiple school movements, we started researching our options regarding boarding schools with some trepidation. The plethora of available schools can seem overwhelming – how to make, for all, what is an extremely important and consequential decision.

Queen’s was the first school we visited. From the minute we arrived on open day we were made to feel welcome and any questions we had were answered open and honestly. Everyone expects a school to be at its best on an open day but, looking beyond this, we could see a family values run school, where pupils were championed to excel in their own fields. Yes, the facilities were impressive but also the welfare of the child seemed paramount to all.

However to ensure we covered all aspects of our children’s educational needs, a comprehensive visitation of regional schools followed. Every school exceeded our expectations, each proclaiming its exam results and excellences. In truth, this made our decision even harder now we had gone beyond the mountains of information and data available and seen the schools first-hand.

Such was our length of deliberation that a new round of open days had arrived and so a second visit was required to a small shortlist. Once we had listed all our requirements we, as a family, consistently determined that Queen’s was the one.

Next step was a taster session – not a showcasing opportunity just the occasion to partake in normal school life. Our girls didn’t want to come home afterwards, embracing the new school life from the start. Originally planning to start boarding for Year 6, our girls insisted that they wanted to join earlier, an indication of their wholehearted approval. Cue frantic labelling of uniform and constant reassurance to each other that we had done the right thing. I don’t know who was the most apprehensive or tearful when packing their suitcases for their first term – me or my wife, it certainly wasn’t our girls.

While not a military boarding school, Queen’s has a significant service boarding community. The school therefore understands the unique situation of service life and both its challenges and rewards. The pastoral system is fully embedded, with the school ensuring boarders have the opportunity for stimulating and fun clubs and activities and are not left to amuse themselves.

Their school parents (our children’s words not our’s) are always available to overcome any problems which, while seeming trivial at first, can easily magnify to excess when mum and dad are not around to placate or rectify. As our girls have progressed through Senior School, slowly but surely more freedom has been granted and therefore some degree of autonomy, especially regarding time and work management. Without realising it, they are gaining life skills we could only dream of at that age.

Did we feel guilty sending them to a boarding school? Of course we did. Saying goodbye to them on a Sunday night followed by a long drive home was a distressing evolution at first. Fear of the unknown, how were they coping, who would give them a hug was sometimes overwhelming.

While we never experienced catastrophic emotional breakdowns over the phone, the calls would sometimes be tearful and the length of hugs prior to our departure extensive. In time though, the calls have steadily drifted from tearful to happy to a rarity, all as a result of the extensive care and attention imparted from staff and matrons to ensure a happy boarding school life.

Receiving a hectic and frantic Facetime call as they can only spare us ten minutes before rushing off to do something else exciting at school or in their dorm is now bizarrely a strange reassurance. While they appreciate their home life, the camaraderie they have with fellow boarders is a mimic of service life and something to be treasured long into adulthood.

The comprehensive and honest feedback from the school regarding their academic progress, combined with the maturity we have seen over a few short years, has fully vindicated our decision. The final indication of ultimate approval surely must be – would we do this all over again? The answer from all the family is a most positive: yes..