'I don't have to worry about the homework battle'

Linda Taylor lives in London but her 16-year-old daughter, Sky, has attended the state boarding school Hockerill Anglo-European College in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, since she was 11.

I’m a single parent and my working hours are horrendous; the thought of her coming home at 4pm and me coming home at 9pm was unthinkable. I thought she was also too old for an au pair at 11.

After Sky had been there for a year, I thought: this is like getting a private-school education for a third of the cost. I was paying £8,000 a year on childcare before and for £2,000 more I got boarding – and there was proper use of their time. I know so many mums who battle with their kids to do their homework and I never have to worry.