Wymondham an Elite, Affordable Option for Boarding School

By Stuart Wilson

Parents in the Cayman Islands looking for the right boarding school for their children may have just found the perfect fit in Wymondham College in the United Kingdom.

The school is a State boarding school, which means it is more affordable than private boarding institutions, because State boarding schools provide free education but only charge fees for boarding.

Such schools also give priority to children who require boarding.

This unique designation means that the cost of attending Wymondham for boarding students is only £4,500 per term, which is considerably less than the £30,000 to £50,000 one might normally expect to pay for boarding school and traditional boarding school models. 

Add to that the fact that in the Cayman Islands, the British curriculum is not always offered in private secondary schools and Wymondham becomes an even more attractive option for persons seeking to have their children exposed to the British system at the secondary level in a highly competitive environment that is conducive to learning.

There are already Caymanian students attending the Wymondham boarding school and that number is steadily growing.

Wymondham Principal, Mrs. Zoe Fisher visited Grand Cayman along with her son Ethan, who is a student at the school, during the first week of March, 2024. Both she an Ethan were on a recruitment and promotional campaign for the school and spoke with the Caymanian Times about what parents in the Cayman Islands should know about all of their options when it comes to boarding schools, particularly those with  with the stellar reputation and attractive price point that Wymondham offers. 

“Wymondham is the first school to achieve an ‘outstanding’ designation in all 9 categories of the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED), Boarding and Education Inspection,” not Mrs. Fisher.

The school also represented the United Kingdom in the Model European Parliament Debate, among many other achievements in academia, sports and extracurricular activities.

Founded in 1952, Wymondham is located in rural Norfolk (2 hours outside London) on 83 acres of countryside and features top notch facilities for sports such as rugby, soccer, swimming and cricket, in addition to first class learning and educational spaces and living accommodations for boarding students such as gyms, reading rooms, restaurants, laundromats, and even a wellbeing garden.   

There is also a Jazz band, a wind and brass concert band at the school. 

“In October of last year (2023), we came to a boarding school fair here in the Cayman Islands and there was lots of interest,” Mrs. Fisher remarked, adding that her sister had lived in the Cayman Islands previously and so she always knew that Cayman was a unique and special place.

As fate would have it, Mrs. Fisher then became the principal at Wymondham and never lost sight of the fact that the school could be a well needed alternative to broaden parents’ options with regard to  boarding schools.

“Lots of people were overlooking the UK for the US,” she noted, explaining that interest in Wymondham is growing really quickly in the Cayman Islands and as a result she would be returning to Grand Cayman before the summer and again in November of this year.

“Choosing a boarding school is like buying a house. It has to feel right and I understand this from a personal point of view. In fact, I believe so much in the high quality of the school that my son is also a student at Wymondham,” said Mrs. Fisher, who added, “As a ‘Mum’ I understand this.

13-year-old, Ethan Fisher spoke about what it was like to attend the school for him as a 13-year-old:

“There are loads of opportunities. I enjoy the high standard of studies and I play sports like cricket, and rugby. I also do swimming and have recently joined the baking club,” he noted.

Boarding students at the secondary school range from ages 11 to 16 all live together, “so it feels like a family,” explained Mr. Fisher. She added that the school has many different nationalities, with 1400 students attending the school in total.

“It’s like living in a village, where children can become independent in a supervised setting. Their learning and development tends becomes synchronised as a result and they all want to do well,” said Mrs. Fisher.

Wymondham also has the largest Sixth Form in Europe, with over 400 students, of whom 200 are Boarding students and even features a cadet course with the largest contingency in England.

There are only two State boarding schools for prep school aged children and Wymondham is one of them, offering accommodation to students as young as 9 years of age.

Currently there are 30 students boarding in the Prep programme, with 400 Prep school student in total at the school.