This episode is about the use of boarding education to support vulnerable children.  Buttle UK have been funding grants to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds to attend boarding school for nearly 70 years. The idea might seem counter intuitive, particularly to those who have a particular image of what a boarding school is like. However, the outcomes for children are impressive.  The GCSE results of the children Buttle UK supports are consistently above the national average, never mind those for comparative cohorts of vulnerable young people.

So, how and why does it work? And, as we emerge from the pandemic, is there anything it can teach us about how to address the  growing education gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers?

Joining writer, journalist and radio broadcaster Stig Abell is Julien Andre and Mark Alexander, previous students supported by Buttle UK, and Adam Williams, Head at Lord Wandsworth College, who have a long history of supporting these sort of bursary places.