Admissions Process

We love welcoming prospective families to Cranleigh. We have open events for children wanting to start their Cranleigh journey at our Prep School in Year 7 and then move up to Cranleigh School in Year 9. These are held throughout the year but also see families for personal visits at any time. During your tour, we’ll show you our facilities at Cranleigh Prep School, including boarding houses, and introduce you to our friendly pupils and staff.

Book a visit

After a successful visit, parents should register their child on the online portal and pay the £200 fee. We recommend that families register as early as possible, ideally in Year 4 or 5.

Registration for 11+ entry for September 2026 will open at the beginning of the Autumn Term.

Register Now

We are not a ruthlessly selective school, but we want to ensure that Cranleigh will be a good match for your son or daughter. We ask all registered applicants to sit an ISEB Pre-Test at their current school between October and November of Year 6. This gives us an idea of academic attainment. We invite all applicants to an assessment day in November of Year 6, which will include an interview with a senior member of staff, a discussion group, a creative writing paper and fun team building activities.

After we have reviewed performance in the ISEB Pre-Test, Holistic Assessment Day and received a positive recommendation from your child’s current school, we may make an unconditional offer. This is a 7 year offer of entry to Year 7 at Cranleigh Prep School, with an expectation that your child will move up to Cranleigh School in Year 9. We are in the fortunate position of receiving more applications than we have places, so we make offers to those we feel will thrive academically and make a positive contribution to the wider Cranleigh community.

We make the majority of our offers by December of Year 6. For those we feel unable to make an offer straight away, we operate a waiting list system. We are open and transparent about our waiting lists and keep parents and schools informed of movement. We are happy to accept late applications, subject to the length of the waiting list at that time.

We reward excellence with Scholarships and Exhibitions. To be successful in gaining an award, candidates should demonstrate an exceptional level of performance and great potential.

Scholarships

All pupils will join the Prep School for 2 years during which time there will be numerous linked events with the Senior School, getting them ready to join in Year 9

All pupils in our Prep school will take end of year exams. The results will be shared with the Senior school. This is used for setting purposes. The Prep school will decide on the type of examination.