The full cost stack, the real assessment format and the 2025 inspection outcome for Haileybury's Lower School One entry point
Book a Free ConsultationHaileybury, at Hertford Heath in Hertfordshire, admits around 60 pupils each year into Lower School One — the school's name for 11+ entry at Year 7. Every applicant sits Haileybury's own Maths and English papers, a group reading and discussion task, and an interview; there is no external CAT4 reasoning test, whatever one competing guide claims. Fees for 2026-27 run from £28,605 a year for a day place to £37,725 a year for boarding, on top of a £240 registration fee and a £3,000–£8,000 acceptance deposit. Registration for September 2027 entry closes on Monday 9 November 2026, with the entrance assessment on 27 and 28 November 2026. This guide brings the cost stack, the assessment format, the dates, the odds and the school's most recent inspection outcome onto one page, all verified against Haileybury's own admissions pages.
Haileybury markets five separate entry points on its own website — 11+ into Lower School One (Year 7), 13+ into the Removes (Year 9), 14+ into GCSEs (Year 10), 15+ into the Pre-Diploma (Year 11) and 16+ into A Levels or the International Baccalaureate Diploma (Year 12) — so the first thing worth confirming is that 11+ is the route this page covers, and that it is a genuine, standalone intake with its own assessment and its own place count, not a feeder stage into a later exam. Haileybury admits around 60 pupils each year into Lower School One, its Year 7 cohort, making 11+ the smaller of the school's two main entry points (13+ Common Entrance into the Removes is the larger and more traditional route for a school of Haileybury's type).
Haileybury was founded in 1862 by Royal Charter and sits on a 500-acre site at Hertford Heath, between Hertford and Broxbourne. It is a co-educational day and boarding school, and Lower School One pupils join a site with facilities built for a much larger senior school — something worth weighing against the smaller Year 7 cohort size when comparing Haileybury to schools that admit their whole intake at 11+. Families choosing between Haileybury's own entry points, rather than between Haileybury and another school, should note that 13+ Common Entrance carries a different assessment format entirely; see our Haileybury 13+ Common Entrance guide if Year 9 entry is also under consideration.
Because Haileybury is fee-paying — unlike the selective grammar schools that dominate most 11+ searches — cost is usually the first practical question, and it is scattered across three separate pages on Haileybury's own site. The table below brings registration, deposit and termly fees onto one page.
| Cost item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Registration fee | £240 (payable on registration, non-refundable) |
| Acceptance deposit — UK residents | £3,000 (payable on acceptance, non-refundable) |
| Acceptance deposit — overseas residents | £8,000 (payable on acceptance, non-refundable) |
| Lower School Day fees, 2026-27 | £9,535 per term / £28,605 per year |
| Lower School Boarding fees, 2026-27 | £12,575 per term / £37,725 per year |
Neither the registration fee nor the acceptance deposit is deducted from the first term's invoice — both are additional payments, due at registration and offer stage respectively, before the first termly bill for Lower School Day or Lower School Boarding fees arrives. Families should also read the scholarships and bursaries section below before assuming the day-fee or boarding-fee figure is fixed: means-tested bursary support can materially change what a family actually pays.
One widely read third-party guide to Haileybury's 11+ exam states that the format is Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning under exam board "CAT4". This does not match what Haileybury itself publishes. According to Haileybury's own admissions page, all applicants sit Haileybury papers in Maths and English to assess their fundamental understanding of the two core subjects — papers set and marked in-house, not an externally supplied CAT4 reasoning battery. A family preparing on the assumption that verbal and non-verbal reasoning make up the exam would be preparing for a test Haileybury does not set.
Beyond the Maths and English papers, the assessment has two further elements: a group reading and discussion task, built around a short play extract, which lets staff observe how a child engages with unfamiliar text and with other candidates in a small-group setting; and an interview with a member of staff, given to every applicant rather than a shortlisted subset. Together, these four components — Maths paper, English paper, reading and discussion task, interview — make up the complete 11+ assessment, and all four are weighed together when offers are decided (see the section below on how the assessment is scored).
Preparing for the right exam matters. Because Haileybury's 11+ is its own Maths and English assessment rather than a CAT4 reasoning test, effective preparation looks like strong core-subject work and comprehension practice, not generic reasoning drilling. Leading Tuition's 11+ tutors build a plan around the actual format your child will sit.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppOnce a family has confirmed they are applying to the right entry point, can meet the cost, and know what the assessment covers, the dates are what turns intent into an application. For entry in September 2027, Haileybury's published timetable is as follows:
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Registration deadline | Monday 9 November 2026 |
| Music and Art Scholarship Day | Monday 16 November 2026 |
| Sports Scholarship Day | Thursday 19 November 2026 |
| Entrance assessment days | Friday 27 and Saturday 28 November 2026 |
| Results notified | Thursday 10 December 2026 |
| Acceptance deadline | Monday 1 March 2027 |
Note that the scholarship assessment days fall before the main entrance assessment, in mid-November — families intending to put a child forward for a scholarship need to register in good time to be included in those separate sittings. Registrations are accepted at any point up to the 9 November deadline; there is no advantage to registering at the earliest possible date beyond avoiding the risk of missing the cut-off.
With around 60 places available each year into Lower School One, Haileybury's 11+ is a genuinely selective process, but the school does not publish a pass mark, and no equivalent competitor page states one either — because none exists as a fixed number. Offers are made by a Decisions Committee, which considers the Maths paper, the English paper, the reading and discussion task and the interview together, rather than ranking candidates purely against a numerical threshold. This is a meaningfully different scoring model from grammar schools with a published qualifying score, and it means a single weak paper does not necessarily rule a child out if the other three elements are strong.
For families used to the pass-mark culture of grammar-school 11+ preparation, the honest takeaway is that there is nothing to game here: a strong, rounded application across all four assessment elements is the only lever available, and no published score exists to target instead.
At 11+ entry, Haileybury offers scholarships in four categories: Academic, Art, Music and Sport. The Music and Art Scholarship Day is Monday 16 November 2026, and the Sports Scholarship Day is Thursday 19 November 2026 — both ahead of the main entrance assessment on 27 and 28 November, so candidates applying for a scholarship sit an additional, earlier assessment specific to their category. Academic scholarship candidates are assessed as part of the main 11+ process rather than on a separate day.
Separately from scholarships, which reward achievement or potential and typically reduce fees by a set percentage, Haileybury also offers means-tested bursaries. Parents seeking a bursary must complete a bursary application form by 1 October — a full month before the 9 November registration deadline for the entrance assessment itself, so bursary paperwork needs to be started earlier in the admissions timeline than the exam registration does. Given that Lower School Day fees run to £28,605 a year and Lower School Boarding to £37,725, a family for whom cost is the deciding factor should investigate bursary eligibility well before assuming the school is out of reach.
Admissions logistics only matter if the education on offer is good, and this is the one question no competing page in the search results addresses at all. Haileybury was inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate in October 2025, and met all standards in relation to the inspection framework; the report specifically recognised the school's co-curricular and academic enrichment programme as "a significant strength" — a notable finding given how much a boarding school's non-classroom offer factors into a family's decision at 11+.
On academic outcomes, Haileybury's 2025 A level results saw 53% of grades awarded at A*/A and 83% at A*-B — figures worth reading alongside the ISI inspection outcome rather than in isolation, since together they speak to both the regulatory standard the school meets and the results its senior pupils go on to achieve. A Lower School One place at 11+ is, in effect, a seven-year commitment through to those A Level results, which is a longer runway than the two-year GCSE-to-sixth-form commitment families make at some later entry points.
No competing result for this search mentions international sitting arrangements at all, despite this being a genuinely distinctive feature of Haileybury's admissions process and a decision-critical detail for the international families who make up a meaningful share of interest in a boarding school with Haileybury's profile. Haileybury offers a remote, online testing session for international pupils, who sit their entrance examinations from home under the invigilation of a member of Haileybury staff.
Where a family would prefer not to sit the assessment at home, or where remote invigilation is not practical, Haileybury also arranges alternative sittings at the offices of the British Council or a lawyers' office in the applicant's home country. This means a family based outside the UK does not need to travel to Hertford Heath purely to sit the 11+ entrance assessment, though a visit remains valuable for judging fit with the school's boarding community before accepting an offer. International families should raise sitting arrangements with Haileybury's admissions office at the point of registration, well ahead of the 9 November 2026 deadline, to allow time to confirm the remote or alternative sitting logistics.
No. Some third-party guides describe the Haileybury 11+ as a CAT4 verbal and non-verbal reasoning exam, but this does not match Haileybury's own admissions page. Every applicant sits Haileybury's own Maths and English papers, designed in-house to assess fundamental understanding of the two core subjects, plus a group reading and discussion task based on a short play extract and an interview with a member of staff. There is no external reasoning-test provider and no CAT4 component. Families preparing on the assumption that reasoning papers form part of the assessment are preparing for the wrong test, so it is worth confirming the exact format directly with Haileybury's admissions office before beginning preparation.
Haileybury admits around 60 pupils each year into Lower School One, which is the school's name for Year 7 entry. This is the school's only 11+ intake point; pupils who do not join at 11+ can still apply later at 13+ (Removes, Year 9), 14+ (GCSEs, Year 10) or 16+ (Sixth Form), which is why Haileybury advertises five separate entry routes on its admissions pages rather than one. No published pass mark exists for the 11+ assessment — offers are made by a Decisions Committee that weighs the Maths and English papers, the reading and discussion task and the interview together, rather than against a fixed numerical threshold.
Registering for the Haileybury 11+ assessment costs a non-refundable £240. If your child is offered and accepts a place, a further non-refundable acceptance deposit is due: £3,000 for families living in the United Kingdom, or £8,000 for families living overseas. Both fees are separate from termly fees and are not deducted from the first term's bill. Families should budget for these two payments at the registration and offer stages respectively, well before the first invoice for Lower School Day or Lower School Boarding fees arrives.
For the 2026-27 academic year, Lower School Day fees are £9,535 per term, which is £28,605 per year across three terms. Lower School Boarding fees are £12,575 per term, £37,725 per year. These figures are published on Haileybury's own fees page and are separate from the £240 registration fee and the £3,000 (UK) or £8,000 (overseas) acceptance deposit charged at earlier stages of the admissions process. Families should also check whether Academic, Art, Music or Sport scholarships, or a means-tested bursary, could reduce the termly figure before ruling the school out on cost alone.
For September 2027 entry, the registration deadline is Monday 9 November 2026. The 11+ assessment itself runs over two days, Friday 27 and Saturday 28 November 2026. Families are informed of the outcome on Thursday 10 December 2026, and the deadline to accept an offered place is Monday 1 March 2027. Scholarship assessment days sit inside this window too: the Music and Art Scholarship Day is Monday 16 November 2026, and the Sports Scholarship Day is Thursday 19 November 2026, both before the main entrance examination.
Yes. Haileybury offers a remote, online testing session for international applicants, who sit their entrance examinations from home under the invigilation of a member of Haileybury staff. Where a remote sitting is not suitable, the school also arranges alternative sittings at the offices of the British Council or a lawyers' office in the applicant's home country. This makes Haileybury's 11+ assessment genuinely accessible to boarding families applying from outside the UK, which fits the school's substantial international boarding cohort, without requiring travel to Hertford Heath purely for the entrance test.
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