Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ Entry 2027

Cheltenham Ladies' College (CLC) is an independent day and boarding school for girls in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and entry at Year 7 (11+) is decided through a single Assessment Day rather than a separate written exam and interview. For September 2027 entry, the registration and exam form deadline is 21 September 2026, Assessment Days run on 1, 5 and 6 October 2026, and offers go out in November 2026. CLC is unusual among girls' independent schools in being predominantly a boarding school even at 11+ — a fact that changes how a family should read everything else on this page, from fees to the shape of the cohort your daughter would join. This guide covers the exact 2027 dates, the Lower College fee table, the scale of the Beale Award bursary, what the Assessment Day actually involves, the school's most recent ISI inspection finding and 2025 exam results, and which scholarships genuinely exist at 11+.

Is Cheltenham Ladies' College Day, Boarding, or Both at 11+ Entry?

Before anything else about the admissions process, it is worth understanding the shape of the school your daughter would be joining. CLC describes itself as having an 80:20 boarding:day mix across the whole college — meaning four in five pupils board. That pattern holds at Year 7 too: in LC1 (Lower College 1, the 11+ entry year), approximately 50 boarders and 25 day girls join each September. A day applicant is therefore joining a cohort where boarders significantly outnumber day pupils, even though day places are genuinely offered and actively encouraged.

This matters practically. CLC's weekend programme, pastoral structure and much of its co-curricular timetable are built around a boarding-first rhythm, because most of the school is there on Saturdays and Sundays. A day family should ask specifically, at an open event or registration stage, how day pupils are integrated into weekend activities and House life, since the school's own published information is written primarily with a boarding-majority community in mind. None of the tutoring sites that currently rank for Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ searches mention this ratio at all — most describe CLC generically as "day and boarding" without indicating which one actually predominates.

What Are Cheltenham Ladies' College's Lower College Fees for 2026/27?

CLC publishes exact termly fees on its own site, and the Lower College rate — which covers LC1 (Year 7, the 11+ entry point) and LC2 (Year 8) — is the figure a Year 7 family needs, not the higher rates quoted for Upper College or Sixth Form. All figures below apply to the 2026-27 academic year and are inclusive of VAT, charged termly in advance at the start of each term.

Three terms a year means a Year 7 boarder's annual fee works out to roughly three times the £20,400 termly boarding rate, and a day pupil's to roughly three times £12,840. CLC states that the published fees include teaching, core educational materials, pastoral care, Personal Accident Insurance, meals and snacks, and much of the co-curricular and weekend programme — but a full schedule of additional charges (trips, music lessons, some sport) is issued separately, so families should request it before budgeting precisely. None of the five results currently ranking for Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ searches publish this fee table; competitor guides either omit fees entirely or point families back to the school's website rather than quoting the figures. The figures above are drawn directly from CLC's own admissions and fees page.

How Much Bursary Support Does the Beale Award Actually Provide?

CLC's means-tested bursary is called the Beale Award, and it can cover from 1% to 100% of fees, for either a day or a boarding place, depending on a family's financial circumstances. Across the whole school, around 65 pupils receive Beale Award support, totalling approximately £1.6 million a year — a scale that no competing 11+ guide currently mentions, and one that gives a realistic sense of how many families successfully secure meaningful financial help at CLC each year.

The Beale Award timeline for Year 7 entry runs slightly differently from the standard admissions timetable. Families must register their interest with the Admissions Team well in advance — ideally during Year 5 for a Year 7 place — and there is a £12 registration fee for the bursary process, refunded in full if no place is offered. For 2027 entry, Beale Award registration closes in mid-September 2026, assessments take place in the first two weeks of October 2026, and a financial review follows the assessment results. Crucially, the final Beale Award outcome is not communicated until January 2027 — two months after standard admissions offers go out in November 2026. A bursary-seeking family should not expect certainty at the same time as everyone else, and should plan around the January date rather than November.

Beale Award applications are open only to families where the fee-paying parent or parents are UK taxpayers; CLC does not accept overseas bursary applications and does not offer a set fee reduction for military families specifically, directing them towards the same means-tested Beale Award process instead. Awards are reviewed annually, and the level of support can move up or down if a family's financial circumstances change.

What Are the Exact Key Dates for September 2027 Entry?

The current live admissions cycle for Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ is September 2027 entry, assessed during the autumn term of Year 6. Two of the five results currently ranking for Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ searches still show a registration deadline of "the start of July of Year 5" — that was correct for an earlier cycle, but it is not the current deadline, and a family relying on it risks registering too early or misjudging how much time is left.

A candidate can sit her Assessment Day in the UK, and CLC also runs an assessment day at a test centre in Hong Kong on a fixed October date for international families — see the next section. Families who miss the registration window are not automatically shut out: CLC states it can "occasionally" fast-track a late application through its Admissions Portal, though a place is never guaranteed once the standard deadline has passed.

What Happens on the CLC Assessment Day, and Can My Daughter Sit It Overseas?

Cheltenham Ladies' College does not run a separate written exam followed by a separate interview. Instead, everything happens on a single Assessment Day, which includes written and adaptive online tests in Maths, English and Verbal Reasoning, together with group discussions and activities. The group element gives staff a chance to see how a candidate communicates, listens and works with her peers, alongside her performance on the academic components. A reference from the candidate's current Head Teacher also feeds into the final, holistic decision, rather than the exam result alone determining the outcome.

For international families, CLC does not require every candidate to travel to Cheltenham. The school runs an overseas assessment day at a test centre in Hong Kong on a fixed date each October, alongside the UK dates. This detail does not appear on any of the five results currently ranking for Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ searches, despite being directly relevant to families based in Asia who are weighing up whether an in-person UK visit is necessary before results day.

Because the online components are adaptive, there is no single fixed paper that every candidate answers in the same order or at the same difficulty — question difficulty adjusts to each child's responses in real time. Preparing broadly across Maths reasoning, verbal and non-verbal skills, and comprehension is a more reliable strategy than practising a single fixed past paper, since no two candidates necessarily see an identical set of questions.

How Academically Strong Is CLC, According to Its Most Recent ISI Report and 2025 Results?

Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent school, so it is inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) rather than Ofsted. Its most recent inspection took place in December 2025, and the school was found fully compliant with the Independent School Standards in every area. It also received a Significant Strength — a distinction ISI gives sparingly — specifically for how well CLC coordinates its curricular, co-curricular and pastoral care programmes and the contribution this makes to pupils' development.

On examination results, CLC's own published 2025 figures show 74% of GCSE/IGCSE grades at the top 9/8/A* band, rising to 88% at grade 9-7/A*-A, across 1,373 entries. At A Level in 2025, 35% of grades were A* and 70% were A*-A, across 456 entries. In the same year, CLC students secured 120 places at Oxbridge, Russell Group and Ivy League universities, including offers from UCL, LSE, Durham, Imperial, Cambridge, Oxford and Bath. One of the five current top-ranking results for Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ searches quotes a GCSE figure from an earlier year rather than the school's own more recent 2025 results, which is worth bearing in mind when comparing sources.

What Scholarships Can a Year 7 Applicant Actually Apply For?

At 11+, CLC offers exactly two scholarship categories: Academic and Music. Every candidate is automatically considered for an Academic Scholarship as part of the ordinary Assessment Day process — there is no separate application — and the strongest performers are invited to further assessment and interview in February of Year 6. Music Scholarship candidates apply separately by submitting a form, with auditions also held in February of Year 6; the school indicates that successful 11+/Year 7 Music Scholars are typically working at around Grade 4 or above (ABRSM) in their principal study, though there is no strict published minimum.

Art, Drama and Sport scholarships are not available at 11+ — CLC only opens these categories from 13+ entry onwards, with an internal route available at the end of Lower College for pupils already at the school. This is a distinction that several competitor guides blur, describing "academic and music scholarships" generically without making clear that the other three categories simply do not exist for a Year 7 applicant. None of CLC's scholarships carry fee remission; for financial assistance a family needs to apply for a means-tested Beale Award instead, as covered above.

For families comparing CLC against other leading girls' schools, Leading Tuition also covers Francis Holland School's 11+ entry process, and for CLC applicants looking ahead, our guides to CLC 13+ entry and CLC Sixth Form entry cover the school's later entry points. See also our 11+ tuition services and our Cheltenham tutoring page for local support options.

Frequently Asked Questions About Cheltenham Ladies' College 11+ Entry