Forces Families

Forces Community
With a deep understanding of Service life, we continue to enjoy long and excellent relationships with our armed forces families at Farleigh. We recognise how important it is for your children to have stability at school, particularly when a parent is deployed or overseas.

Of our 150 boarders, about a quarter are from military families. Alongside the teachers, each pupil is supported by our experienced boarding team who ensure that children have round-the-clock pastoral care.

Farleigh, near Andover, is situated close to some of the key bases in the South of England. Many of our staff have strong military connections, including our Director of Finance & Operations and one of our Governors, who is a recently retired senior officer.

Family Environment
An essential aspect of our provision is the well-established family feel we cultivate in the boarding houses. Warm in atmosphere, the majority of our boarding staff live on-site, often with their families, contributing significantly to the feeling of a home-away-from-home.

We realise that you may not always be able to attend events at school but we work closely with our parents and use the exeat and half-term pick-ups, for example, as an opportunity for you to meet other boarding parents and members of staff. Important talks and key events are often timetabled to be as convenient as possible for boarding parents should you wish to attend.

Transparent Fees
We understand the unique financial pressures that military families may face and the administrative complexity of applying for CEA. For those in receipt of CEA, we provide discounted boarding fees. Freezing the HMF boarding rate for Years 3 to 6 for a second year running, we are taking the cost ever closer to our target of CEA +10%. For Years 7 and 8, we also offer a significant discount and are in discussion with the MoD to ensure we remain as competitive as possible. Our boarding fees are inclusive of ALL weekend activities.

Travel & Transport
For those living further away, we can arrange taxis to local airports, including Southampton and London Heathrow. At exeat weekends and half-terms, we also offer an escorted train service to and from London Waterloo and a minibus service to Fleet Services.

Cash Those Vouchers
Parents frequently use their childcare vouchers to offset boarding fees, school fees (up to age 5), and out-of-school care expenses.

The Inside Track
You may well know other families at Farleigh and we value the support they offer. Please do also contact Sarah O’Rorke, our Registrar, Caroline Pryke, Director of Marketing & Communications, or Gareth Mawdsley, the Director of Finance & Operations, if you would like to discuss any aspect of our forces support, or if you would like to be linked with existing military parents for the inside track.