Each of our 17 boarding residences differ in terms of size and layout. There are approx 495 boarding places currently available and of these most are single rooms with over 210 en suite rooms available for senior students. For the academic year 2020/21 all students are accommodated in single bedrooms. Each boarding house has at least one resident Lead Boarding Parent (LBP) and an assistant (ABP) who share the duties in terms of checking on student welfare at bedtime and waking students in the morning.

Students meet with their tutors for registration most weekday mornings unless they have assembly. Tutors also meet with individual tutees two or three times each term and monitor their academic progress (test scores and reports) as well as monitoring their welfare and involvement in our Enrichment (or extra-curricular) programme.

Right from the start, Prefects and returning students play an important part in encouraging new students to get involved and get the most out of their life and work at Concord. While staff monitor and encourage new pupils both inside and outside of the classroom, it is a strength of the College in that our returning students provide new arrivals with a sense of the high expectations set and the many opportunities which are on offer to help them to develop, flourish and get the most out of their time here.

There is a full induction programme of talks, tests, tours and ice-breaking activities for all new students who arrive in either September or January each year.

Boarding Parents and all staff are vigilant in looking for signs of homesickness and pairing up returning students with students new to life in a boarding school is the best way to get them to settle. Encouraging new students to join clubs and discover fellow students with similar interests is often the best way forward. Getting used to new routines, college food and UK weather is a common experience for the vast majority of our students. Sometimes it is a comfort to hear that they are not alone in needing a period of time to adjust to speaking and studying in English as well.

A team of nurses staffs the medical room in the main building and a large number of staff have First Aid training as well. At present, a female GP visits the College on Tuesday mornings to see students who have made appointments the day before and a male GP visits on Thursday mornings. All students are registered with the NHS and can access healthcare through the local GP surgery at Cressage and the hospital in Shrewsbury.

The College offers a comprehensive counselling and listening service with 1:1 appointments for students. An Independent Listener is also available if students would like to talk to someone outside the College community.

Students have tests on most Saturday mornings during term. There is a full programme of compulsory activities for students in Forms 3 & 4 at weekends. Form 5 and the Sixth Form have the option to choose activities from a variety of options including a free bus service  to travel to Shrewsbury for shopping on Saturday afternoon. A free bus to the cinema in Shrewsbury is also provided in the evening for Sixth Form students who are over 16. There is usually a disco on Saturday night on campus and there are many special events throughout the year (e.g. Hallowe’en, Divali, the Autumn Mooncake festival, Christmas, Valentine’s, Lunar New Year). Sunday is a quieter day of rest for many students. Some choose to take a bus to churches in Shrewsbury on Sunday morning. Other students have a later start and catch up on sleep and work. The Sports Hall is open and there is a timetable of different sports throughout the day. Trips off campus are also organised most weekends by our team of Pastoral Assistants.

Parents are welcome to visit at any time and we do not place any restrictions on how often parents visit. However it is our experience that new student settle in more quickly as boarders if their parents are not around.

Given Concord College’s rural location, some mobile ‘phone networks do not provide good coverage. O2 and EE probably offer the best mobile signal. Students have access to wi-fi in all boarding residences and teaching areas. (Please note that wi-fi is turned off between midnight and 6am to encourage students to get some sleep.) Skype, Facetime and other similar internet-based forms of communication are probably the best, & cheapest, means of direct communication.

No. In contrast to many UK boarding schools, the College remains open to boarders every weekend during term-time. Students can ask to leave the campus on exeat so long as parental permission is provided via e-mail and a form is filled in for Boarding Parents beforehand.

Free transfers are provided to and from Heathrow Terminal 3 at the beginnings and ends of terms. In contrast to many UK boarding schools, the College remains open to boarders during half-term holidays. The College also remains open to boarders during the Easter holiday for students in the sixth form and those in Form 5 who are over 16 years of age. From September 2019 a charge will be made for those students who choose to stay staying during the holidays. Students are required to register three times a day. All meals are provided and a trips and activities programme is offered.

We recommend parents arrange a guardian for their child for the duration of their studies at the college as may become a compulsory requirement of the UK government’s national minimum standards for boarding schools.  The Principal will no longer be able to act as educational guardian for our boarding students. Concord will continue to offer a range of support services such as airport pick-ups and staying in half term breaks and the Easter holiday for older students.

No. All bedding is provided by the College. If students wish to personalise their bedding, this is also possible. Single duvet covers and pillow cases can be placed in laundry bags with their other dirty clothes each week if students would prefer their own designs. If College bedding is used, beds will be changed by the domestic staff once a week.

Yes. The College does not provide any towels for student use. Once again, these can be washed by students placing them in their laundry bag each week.

Yes. More details about equipment required and laundry arrangements can be found in the Parent Handbook which is sent out to all parents in the months before they join the College.

The kitchen and dining room does its best to provide a range of meal options to suit: the dietary needs of vegetarians; those holding religious beliefs – such as Muslims requiring halal food; those who have allergies or intolerances to certain foods. There is a clear system of labelling of meat, dairy products and items containing shellfish and nuts in the dining room. Further individual arrangements and needs might be able to be catered for upon request. However, it should be kept in mind that the kitchen and dining room caters for nearly 600 students plus 150-200 staff at times. Food will be different from that which some students are used to consuming back home while trying to cater for a range of international tastes and appetites.

Students do enjoy cooking and all boarding residences are equipped with kitchenettes (equipped with microwave ovens, hotplates, toasters, kettles, a fridge) to enable snacks to be prepared. It should be noted that cooking is not allowed in bedrooms and hotplates are not permitted to be used in bedrooms for fire and safety reasons. For more serious cooking, a large student kitchen is located on the campus close to the main West End Common Room. It has hotplates and ovens. A number of students enjoy shopping for ingredients and cooking meals at weekends.