Harry Potter has helped ensure modern boarding schools are now very popular. According to the Boarding Education Alliance, the best-selling stories of the boy who lives in an exciting school for wizards, have helped to re-invent the image of boarding schools.

"The books have probably done more for boarding than anything else we could have imagined," says Ann Williamson, campaign director of the BEA, which represents 170 boarding schools.

The Harry Potter books, which have sold in large numbers in the United States and the United Kingdom, are set in an adventure filled boarding school where pupils learn magic and play games on broomsticks. Ann Williamson believes that the favourable publicity from the Potter series has lead to the sharp increase in parents and children now choosing the boarding option.