St Leonards School to Launch First Postgraduate Programme in Scotland

St Leonards School, St Andrews’ premier International Baccalaureate boarding school, announced the launch of their pre-university Postgraduate (PG) Programme on 15 October, 2025. The programme will welcome its first matriculation year in August 2026.

The PG Programme is targeted towards high school graduates — aged seventeen to nineteen — looking for a smoother transition between school and university. The programme is the first of its kind in Scotland, designed to meet the growing demand of students applying to universities in the United States.

“Like a lot of independent schools in the UK, we’ve noticed — over the last few years — an increased interest [among] our students [to go to] the United States to study for [university],” Will Gaisford, Deputy Head (Academic) and Head of the Postgraduate Programme, told The Saint. “I’ve been teaching for sixteen to seventeen years in big boarding schools. When I first started, that was quite a rarity, whereas I think we’ve seen that pipeline to grow.”

Gaisford went on to explain that the programme is inspired by the rising popularity of similar PG years in the US: “The PG year in America is becoming more popular as [...] an opportunity to reflect, to regather, to potentially strengthen applications, both in terms of an academic application, but also quite likely, a sort of sporting athletic application, for those who are looking at aspiring to an athletic scholarship.”

Similar in nature to the American PG year, St Leonards School emphasises its opportunity for students to explore their passions whilst also preparing for the rigorous coursework of university education. “If we’ve got someone who is going to be a fantastic golfer and wants to come and play a lot of golf, then we will adapt our timetable and curriculum to accommodate that,” said Gaisford.

“It's not all golfers,” Grace Durnan, St Leonards’ Marketing Manager, added, “You can be an actor, you can be a musician. It’s about just what that passion is.”

Aligned with St Leonards’ values as an International Baccalaureate school, the PG year will combine elements of the IB Career and Diploma programmes. In addition to PG-specific courses, students will have the opportunity to complete a Theory of Knowledge course and an Extended Essay. Grounding the programme in real-world applications, St Leonards also endeavours to integrate travel with education, with potential trips to Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Rome, Gaisford told The Saint. St Leonards School emphasises, however, that this structure does not replace a high school or IB diploma. 

Despite the programme’s US inspiration, St Leonards highlights the fact that the school’s global emphasis prepares students for a variety of university curriculums. “Just because [the PG] feeds well into the US college application system, doesn't mean it’s viewed in any way negatively by other college application systems,” Durnan told The Saint. “We’re preparing students from anywhere to really go anywhere.” 

 Durnan added, “It’s more than a gap year. It’s a launch pad.”

Image by Maria Ebrahim