Is Hogwarts the only magical school in the UK?

Question

Update: The plot thickens. We currently have exactly 2 answers, opposite each other.

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I couldn't find the answer on fandom, but this has been asked on quora and reddit. I wasn't able to find anything sourced.

https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/4c5syq/is_hogwarts_the_only_school_in_the_uk/

https://www.quora.com/Is-Hogwarts-the-only-school-of-Witchcraft-and-Wizardry-in-Britain

https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/3kkpyk/are_there_other_wizarding_schools_in_the_uk/

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FYI some context:

1. I'm asking this as like a lemma for my other question: Why wasn't the Daily Prophet reporting the attacks? If Hogwarts was the only magical school in the UK, then I'd think the daily prophet would be interested a series of blood purist magical attacks in hogwarts.

2. Also I'm wondering which schools invite(/accept) any given wizard/witch/sorcerer/sorceress/warlock. I could've sworn there was a question like this on reddit, quora or stackexchange, but I can't seem to find right now. (This isn't what I'm wondering. This is sort of.) If there are other magical schools in the UK, then I'd think they'd invite(/accept) Harry too. But maybe they just stayed out of Hogwarts' territory since Harry's parents attended Hogwarts. (Then I could generalise this to all magical schools on Earth like every single school sends a letter to every single 11 year old witch/wizard, regardless of region/territory and so for Harry they all stayed out of territory.) But anyway this is another question post. (btw, this is referred in (3) below.)

3. Also, I'm wondering about transfers. No need for another question to see if this is a thing this time because of these: reddit, se, fandom, se again. What I'm wondering here (ie/aka the part that is for another question post) is the practicality of transferring. Hell if I would let any witch/wizard kid or younger sibling of mine continue in Hogwarts after there's been this sorcerer's/philosopher's stone attack, basilisk attack, werewolf/dementor attack or whatever even if it would be a hassle to go to Ilvermorny. Plus 2 of the biggest (UK, but in this scenario I'm a UK parent. Bloody hell!) dark wizards actually attended this school, so probably I would forbid my kid/younger sibling from attending this school in favour of other schools (assuming any letters were given i guess...see (2) above. or maybe the letters aren't automatic. maybe you have to actually apply unlike with harry to hogwarts). Preferably, Hogwarts has competitors in the UK. Or maybe the lack of safety in Hogwarts IMPLIES it hasn't any competitors in the UK. But anyway, again, this is another question post.

Answer 1

I think it probably is.

In Deathly Hallows, Lupin says

"Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard,” he replied. “That was announced yesterday. It’s a change, because it was never obligatory before. Of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred.
Chapter 11 (The Bribe), Deathly Hallows

If there were another magical school in the UK he wouldn't have said this. He'd have said that parents previously had the option to send their children to another magical school in the UK.

The fact that "nearly every wizard and witch in Britain" has been educated there does make it sound like it's the only choice, other than sending them abroad or home-educating.

And logically, if there were more than one school, Voldemort's target of putting Death Eaters in as teachers wouldn't have been as easy if there were multiple schools he had to cover. I suppose he could have shut down smaller schools and made everybody go to Hogwarts, but again there's no indication of that.

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My own speculation: the location of Hogwarts is also a very long way from a lot of the wizarding settlements (Devon, Cornwall, the West Country). I would think that if there had been other options in the south or middle of England, they would have drawn a lot of pupils away from Hogwarts. (Especially before the Hogwarts Express when people had to arrange their own travel.)

Answer 2

Probably not

While none of the other named wizarding schools are in the UK, Rowling has said that there are countless smaller, less established, schools.

There are eleven long-established and prestigious wizarding schools worldwide, all of which are registered with the International Confederation of Wizards. Smaller and less well-regulated institutions have come and gone, are difficult to keep track of, and are rarely registered with the appropriate Ministry (in which case, I cannot vouch for the standard of education they might offer). Anyone wishing to know whether there is an approved magical school in their region should address an owl enquiry to the International Confederation of Wizards, Educational Office.
_{"Wizarding Schools" - Intro}

The UK has a large magic population and it's quite likely that they've had other schools at some point or another. Rowling has never named any of them though.

Answer 3

The Middle Way
Based on likely population figures of the world's wizarding population, it seems most likely that Hogwarts is the only middle school for wizarding children (the 11 to 17 set), if not the only school in an absolute sense. (I've often wondered if there isn't some school of advanced wizardry somewhere in the UK, as I simply can't buy the fact that the wizarding world operates on a high school education, but I digress.)

Reading what JKR said, and especially in the setting of "the appropriate Ministry", I think the best we can conclude there is that, taking the whole of planet Earth, there are more than the eleven big schools. We can not state with any certainty that any of those "smaller less well regulated" schools are in the UK or not. Of course, we could get picky and say there's a school in Jersey, but Jersey isn't in the United Kingdom even though it's part of Great Britain even though geologically it's part of France. Another possibility would be a school in the Isle of Man, which also is in the British Isles, but not part of the UK and also not part of France.

Therefore, I suggest the middle way answer as the true answer, and that is:

We just don't know.

Answer 4

You also have this quote from JKR herself hinting that all the wizards from UK should be sent to Hogwarts:

I sat down and I created 40 kids who enter Harry's year. [...] I never consciously thought, “That's it, that' s all the people in his year,” but that's kind of how it's worked out. Then I've been asked a few times how many people and because numbers are not my strong point, one part of my brain knew 40, and another part of my brain said, “Oh, about 600 sounds right.” Then people started working it out and saying, "Where are the other kids sleeping?" [...] But if you assume that all of the wizarding children are being sent to Hogwarts, then that's very few wizard-to-Muggle population, isn’t it? There will be the odd kid whose parents don't want them to go to Hogwarts, but 600 out of the whole of Britain is tiny.