Bryanston School 13+ Tutoring — CAT4 & IMAGINE Day Preparation 2026

Bryanston School, located in Blandford Forum, Dorset, is one of England's most distinctive co-educational independent boarding schools. Entry to Year 9 (13+) does not follow the standard ISEB Pre-Test or Common Entrance route used by many boarding schools — Bryanston instead uses the CAT4 (Cognitive Abilities Test, 4th edition) combined with its unique IMAGINE Day group assessment. With approximately 135 places available across boys and girls each year and a process that rewards genuine potential alongside academic ability, preparation needs to be targeted, timely and well planned. Bryanston recommends registering before the Autumn term of Year 6 to be included in the first round of offers.

What Are the Key Facts and Dates for Bryanston 13+ Entry 2026?

The table below sets out the essential facts about Bryanston School and its Year 9 admissions process, based on information published on the school's official admissions pages.

One of the most important things families researching Bryanston need to know is that the school does not use the ISEB Common Pre-Test and does not require Common Entrance. As Bryanston's own admissions page states: "Applicants do not sit a pre-test for Bryanston." This is a deliberate reflection of the school's philosophy — assessing cognitive potential rather than curriculum attainment alone. Preparation should be focused on the CAT4 and on developing the wider characteristics that the IMAGINE Day process is designed to reveal.

What Is the CAT4 Assessment and How Should Pupils Prepare?

The CAT4 (Cognitive Abilities Test, 4th edition) is a computer-based assessment created by GL Assessment that measures reasoning ability across four domains. It is widely used by independent schools as a potential-based alternative to pre-tests that lean heavily on curriculum knowledge, and Bryanston uses it as a central element of its Year 9 admissions decision-making.

The four sections of the CAT4 are as follows:

Because the CAT4 measures developed reasoning ability rather than learned content, preparation cannot be reduced to memorising facts. However, practice does make a meaningful difference — particularly in Spatial Reasoning, which is the component most children have had least exposure to before secondary school, and in Verbal Reasoning, where vocabulary depth and pattern recognition improve significantly with structured exposure over time.

Pupils who sit the CAT4 for Bryanston in Year 6 will be taking the test at Level D (the appropriate level for 12 to 13-year-old ability ranges). The test is adaptive in some respects and is administered in sections. Most pupils sit it at their current prep school, but it can also be taken at an official GL Assessment test centre or at Bryanston itself. The window for Year 6 testing runs from September through to April — giving families who register early the most flexibility in choosing when their child sits.

Effective CAT4 preparation in Years 5 and 6 should address all four sections systematically rather than focusing exclusively on the areas that look most like school maths or English. Spatial Reasoning in particular benefits from consistent practice with shape rotation and mental folding tasks. Quantitative Reasoning, while it uses numbers, is distinct from school maths — it focuses on spotting numerical patterns and relationships rather than executing standard algorithms. Our specialist tutors build structured programmes that cover all four sections progressively, moving from understanding question types to timed practice at an appropriate level of difficulty.

What Is the Bryanston IMAGINE Day and How Should Pupils Prepare for It?

The IMAGINE Day is Bryanston's most distinctive admissions element and represents what sets Bryanston's process apart from virtually every other leading boarding school. It replaces the traditional one-to-one interview entirely, substituting a group assessment afternoon that gives assessors a richer, more natural picture of how a child thinks and relates to others.

IMAGINE Days are held on afternoons during the Autumn and Spring terms of Year 6. Pupils attend with other candidates, are divided into small groups and take part in a series of creative challenges and reflection activities. The school's admissions team describes the event as designed to "spark the chemistry between your child and us" — allowing children to experience the school's culture and energy while giving staff the opportunity to observe character, imagination, resilience and interpersonal skills in action.

Specifically, assessors at the IMAGINE Day are looking for evidence of the following characteristics in candidates: interpersonal skills — how a child engages, listens and responds with their peers; resilience — how they respond to an unfamiliar challenge; innovation — whether they bring original thinking to a problem rather than defaulting to the obvious answer; and reflection — whether they can assess their own thinking and develop their ideas. These are qualities that Bryanston's distinctive teaching method, known as the Bryanston Method, places at the heart of the educational experience.

Preparing for the IMAGINE Day is therefore not about academic revision. It is about helping a child become comfortable expressing their thinking in group settings, approaching open-ended problems with curiosity and confidence, and learning to listen and build on others' ideas. Relevant preparation activities include: debating and discussion practice, creative problem-solving challenges, role-play exercises that put children in unfamiliar scenarios, and reflection conversations where they are asked to explain their reasoning. Leading Tuition's tutors work with pupils on precisely these skills in the months before their IMAGINE Day, building the confidence and fluency that allows genuine character to come through.

How Many Places Are Available and What Does Entry to Bryanston Involve?

Bryanston admits approximately 80 boys and 55 girls into Year 9 each year — around 135 places in total. While this is a meaningful number and the school does not describe itself as attempting to be as narrowly selective as schools such as Eton or Winchester, competition for places is real and growing as the school's reputation for its distinctive approach draws families from a wider catchment area, including internationally.

The admissions process for pupils registering in Year 6 proceeds in four stages. First, registration is completed online with the non-refundable fee of £300 — this should happen before the Autumn term of Year 6 to ensure inclusion in the first round. Second, the school requests a detailed reference from the head of the pupil's current school. Third, the pupil sits the CAT4 test at their current school between September and April of Year 6. Fourth, the pupil attends an IMAGINE Day at Bryanston, which takes place during the Autumn or Spring term of Year 6. Following these elements, the admissions team meets to discuss candidates, consulting with the Head, Director of Admissions, Head of Tutors, Houseparents and academic staff before making decisions.

For pupils applying later, the process adapts. Year 7 applicants complete the CAT4, attend an IMAGINE Day and provide a school reference. Year 8 applicants complete the CAT4 and are invited to an in-person or online interview rather than an IMAGINE Day, as the approach shifts slightly for older applicants. Year 8 entry is subject to availability, but Bryanston welcomes later applications when places exist.

Once a place is offered, an acceptance deposit of £1,000 is payable. A further confirmation deposit of £1,000 is due in the Spring term of Year 7. Both deposits are credited against fees — the first against the final term's account, the confirmation against the first term's fees. This two-stage deposit structure is unique to Bryanston and means that families have clear milestones at which to confirm their commitment. See the official Bryanston Year 9 admissions page for the most current process details.

What Are the Fees, Scholarships and Bursaries at Bryanston?

Bryanston's 2026/27 termly fees are set at £19,750 for full boarding, £16,195 for day pupils with a bed (who are integrated into boarding house life) and £13,555 for day pupils without a bed. These fees are inclusive of VAT. Boarding fees at Bryanston are broadly in line with the leading independent boarding school sector nationally, where full-boarding termly fees at comparable HMC schools typically range from £14,000 to £22,000 per term.

Scholarships at 13+ entry are available in several areas. The scholarship assessments take place during the Spring term of Year 8, meaning families need to have applied for scholarship consideration during the Autumn term of Year 8. Scholarship awards range from honorary recognition to a maximum fee remission of 10% of the fees per award, and a pupil can hold up to two scholarships simultaneously — giving a maximum possible scholarship reduction of 20% of fees. Scholarship categories at 13+ include Academic, Art, Music, Performing Arts and Sport. Families seeking scholarship consideration should confirm the specific categories and deadlines directly with the admissions office.

Bursaries at Bryanston are fully means-tested and can be awarded either alongside a scholarship or as a standalone award. The school is a registered charity and takes its bursary programme seriously as a means of widening access to the school. Bursary applications require detailed financial disclosure. Military families should note that Bryanston also offers specific support for Service families through its admissions process. Families coming from Bryanston's own Prep School receive a 5% fee remission in their first year in the senior school — a useful detail for families already connected to the Bryanston campus.

What Is Bryanston Like as a School, and What Does It Offer in Sixth Form?

Bryanston is a co-educational independent boarding and day school set in a magnificent Grade I listed country house on a 400-acre estate above the River Stour in Dorset, near Blandford Forum. It has around 800 pupils across the senior school, taking boys and girls from Year 9 through to the sixth form. The school became co-educational in 1972 and has some of the longest experience of co-educational boarding among British independent schools.

The school's educational philosophy is embodied in what it calls the Bryanston Method — a distinctive approach to learning that emphasises individual accountability, independence of thought and the development of character alongside academic achievement. Rather than relying primarily on formal class-based teaching and end-of-term examinations, the Bryanston Method gives pupils significant agency over their own learning, with regular one-to-one tutorials and a culture that encourages questioning and original thinking. This philosophy is also what lies behind the IMAGINE Day — Bryanston is assessing whether a child will thrive in this kind of environment, not just whether they can score well on a test.

Academically, Bryanston performs strongly. The school's GCSE and A-level results are consistently solid, with a high proportion of leavers progressing to Russell Group universities including Oxford and Cambridge. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) — the most respected body of independent school heads — and carries the motto Et Nova et Vetera: both the new and the old.

Co-curricular life at Bryanston is exceptionally broad. The 400-acre estate means that facilities for outdoor education, sport and creative activities are extensive. The school has a strong equestrian centre — one of very few boarding schools with an on-site riding facility — alongside strong programmes in music, drama, visual arts and a wide range of sports including rugby, cricket, tennis, rowing and swimming. More unusual activities such as beekeeping, archaeology and kayaking are also available. This breadth matters because Bryanston is genuinely interested in pupils who bring depth and passion to non-academic areas as well as academic ability.

In the sixth form, Bryanston offers three academic pathways: A-levels, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, and CTEC (a vocationally related qualification). This makes Bryanston one of a relatively small number of leading independent boarding schools to offer the IB alongside A-levels as a genuine, equally supported option. The IB at Bryanston includes the full core components — Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay and Creativity, Activity and Service — alongside six subject groups chosen from across disciplines. A-level pupils typically study three subjects. Both routes lead to strong university outcomes. Pupils entering Year 9 in 2026 will make their sixth form pathway choice in due course, typically during Year 10 or Year 11.

Families considering Bryanston alongside other leading Dorset and south-west boarding schools may also wish to read our guides to Sherborne School and Marlborough College. For a broader overview of what 13+ preparation involves across different school types and assessment routes, see our 13+ Preparation hub and our detailed guide to the ISEB Common Pre-Test — which Bryanston does not use but which applies to many other leading boarding schools.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bryanston 13+ Entry