Frequently Asked Questions

We can receive registrations at any time. Registration is recommended by the end of Year 5 (but late registrations are usually possible). This enables your son to become fully involved in the Admissions programme of events.

Please request a link to the registration portal from the admissions team. Once completed you will also need to transfer a non-refundable registration fee of £300, inc VAT. Our bank account details will be provided to you at the time of completing the online registration.

We offer the option of testing in Year 6 or Year 7. We recommend you discuss the best time for your son to be assessed with his current Headteacher.

Please note that your son will need to sit his ISEB Common Pre-Test in the same academic year that he sits his entry assessments tasks for Sherborne.

Boys that are registered for a Third Form (Year 9) place are assessed for entry in January of Year 6 or 7.  Boys are required to sit the ISEB Common Pre-Test (which consists of multiple-choice questions in Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning, English and Maths) and they will also be invited to an assessment day where they will have an interview with a senior member of our academic staff and carry out further assessment tasks.  Boys' performances in each of these are then considered along with a confidential reference from the boy's current school.

The ISEB Common Pre-Test can be sat at your son's current school in the Michaelmas (Autumn) Term if they are in agreement, or it can be sat at Sherborne School. Once you have registered your son on the ISEB Guardian Portal, you will need to forward his Applicant ID to us.

We recommend you discuss the best time for your son to be assessed with his current Headteacher.

If you have not registered in time for the assessment day and we still have places available, we are happy to assess your son at a later date.

We use Common Entrance results to set pupils, but rely on our own assessments to offer places to the School. In a handful of cases, boys may be given an offer subject to their attainment of a certain level in Common Entrance. As a rule of thumb, we expect our pupils to achieve a minimum of 55 per cent in Common Entrance Level Two papers.

Once your son has been offered and you have accepted at place at Sherborne, you will be asked to complete a House Preference Form indicating four Houses that you would be happy for your son to join. These choices are always considered when allocating boys to Houses, but we can’t make guarantees and the School will make the final decision as to where boys are placed. Priority in House choice are given to children or grandsons of Old Shirburnians or those with siblings already in School.  House placements are finalised and confirmed during the Easter holiday of Year 8.

All uniform can be ordered online.  For further information on uniform including price lists and shop opening time, please visit our School Shop webpage.  The School Shop is onsite and is open to boys and families during term time and periodically over the holidays - please refer to the opening times on the School Shop website.

A 10% sibling discount is offered when you have three children at Sherborne Schools (comprising of Sherborne School and Sherborne Girls).  The discount applies to the third child and continues for the duration they are at the School, provided that the two older children have completed their full time education at one of the Schools - this usually means completing their Sixth Form education.  You will receive this in addition to the value of any Scholarship which is awarded. 

The fourth and subsequent children will receive a 15% discount.

A sibling discount also applies where families have a third child at Sherborne Prep School but this only applies for the duration the child is at Sherborne Prep.  If the third child then joins Sherborne School or Sherborne Girls, he or she will have the sibling discount and not the oldest child who had previously received it

We do not offer discounts to the children of OS, but the Old Shirburnian Society (OSS) operates a charitable trust to assist its members with school fees for attendance at Sherborne. An OSS bursary is means-tested, and awarded in addition to any further fee remission offered by the School. For more information, contact John Harden, OSS Secretary: [email protected].

We operate a Fees in Advance scheme. To find out more about it, please contact Penny Baker, Group Accountant: [email protected].

Sherborne is committed to supporting the children of parents serving in His Majesty's Armed Forces. We offer a 10% fee military discount (on either the day or the boarding fee) subject to terms and conditions. 

In addition, we have two scholarships available each year for entry to the Third Form. The Raban Award is available for the sons of serving or former officers in any of the armed services, while the Nutting Award is available for the sons of serving Royal Navy officers. Their value is up to 10 per cent of fees.

To qualify for the Raban Award, boys must also apply for at least one of our other Scholarships. For the Nutting Award, they must apply for an Academic Scholarship. All awards are sat in the February of Year 8.

Sherborne has a direct train to London Waterloo, which takes just over two hours.  Boys using this form of transport can easily walk to any of our eight boarding houses from the train station.

We believe that boys learn better in a single-sex classroom environment, but we are lucky to have Sherborne Girls School as a close neighbour, a few minutes walk away. This enables collaboration in several areas, especially in music and drama. Weekends are packed with a huge array of joint social events, from ‘Rock Soc’ to Combined Cadet Force (CCF), House dinners to film trips. Read more about our partnership with Sherborne Girls School.