Charterhouse Fees: Complete Cost Breakdown for 2026

Charterhouse's boarding fee places it among the leading co-educational boarding schools, and the headline figure is the main cost. Alongside it sit a registration fee, an acceptance deposit, and the usual variable extras that families should budget for from the start. This guide breaks down the published costs for 2026, explains the charges that sit outside the boarding fee, and covers the bursary route that can reduce fees substantially for families who need it.

The Charterhouse boarding fee

Charterhouse's published boarding fee for 2025/26 is £20,016 per term, inclusive of VAT, which comes to £60,048 across the three terms of the year. Because school fees are reviewed and published year by year, you should confirm the current figure directly with Charterhouse for your child's year of entry, but this gives a clear sense of the level. It places Charterhouse among the leading co-educational boarding schools on cost. Charterhouse is both a boarding and a day school, so a day place comes at a lower fee than the full boarding figure. If you are considering the day option, confirm that fee separately, as the gap between day and boarding is significant.

Registration and deposit

Two charges sit outside the termly fee and fall early in the process. The first is the registration fee of £420, including VAT, which is non-refundable and payable when you register your child for assessment, covering the cost of processing the application and the entry assessment. The second is an acceptance deposit, payable when you accept a place to confirm it, which is typically credited against a later term's fees. Charterhouse does not publish its full schedule of one-off charges online, so it is worth asking the admissions office for the detailed fee schedule when you register, so there are no surprises. Neither charge is large set against the annual boarding fee, but both fall before your child has started, so it helps to have them in mind when you plan.

Extras to budget for

As at any senior boarding school, some costs sit outside the headline fee and vary from family to family. They include individual music lessons, some trips and expeditions, examination fees in the public-exam years, and personal spending, which Charterhouse invoices separately as they arise. None is large on its own, but across a year they add up, so it is sensible to leave headroom in your budget rather than planning to the exact figure of the boarding fee. For a sense of how Charterhouse's costs compare with other leading co-educational schools, our ranking of the best co-educational boarding schools in the UK puts the fees in context.

How fees are paid

Beyond the headline numbers, it is worth understanding the rhythm of paying for a Charterhouse education. Fees are billed termly, three times a year, and the variable extras are invoiced separately as they arise rather than bundled into the boarding fee, so the amount you pay each term moves a little depending on your child's activities. Many families spread the cost through a monthly payment scheme or a fees-in-advance arrangement, which can ease the cash-flow demands of three large termly bills, and the school's bursar or finance office can explain the options available for your year of entry. If you are weighing affordability over the full course of your child's time at the school, it helps to think in annual terms, the boarding fee plus a realistic allowance for extras, rather than reacting to each termly invoice in isolation.

Planning for fee increases

One mistake families make is budgeting only for the fee at entry. A child joining at 13+ in 2026 will be at Charterhouse for five years through to the end of the Sixth Form, and over that time the fee will rise. With independent school fees climbing faster than inflation in recent years, and VAT now applying, it is prudent to plan for annual increases rather than assume the entry figure holds. A sensible approach is to model the cost across all five years with a realistic annual rise built in, plus the variable extras, so the later years do not come as a shock. If that full picture looks stretching, it is far better to know at the outset, when the bursary route can be explored, than to find the fee unmanageable midway through.

Bursaries and scholarships

Charterhouse runs a means-tested bursary programme, and this is the route that matters most if affordability is your central concern. Bursaries are assessed on financial circumstances rather than talent, and they can reduce fees substantially for families who qualify. A strong candidate from a family that cannot meet the full fee should still apply. On the merit side, Charterhouse offers a range of scholarships at 13+, in academic work, music, art and textiles, drama, dance, performing arts, design engineering and sport. The scholarships are primarily a mark of distinction, and for families in need the larger help with fees usually comes through the bursary, which can be held alongside an award. Our guide to Charterhouse scholarships covers the awards in full, and our overview of school bursaries and scholarships explains the wider funding picture.

Is it worth it?

Whether £60,048 a year represents value is a judgment only your family can make, but it helps to know what the fee buys. Charterhouse offers a strong academic record, a co-educational community on a 250-acre campus in Surrey, and the breadth of activity that a large boarding school makes possible. Set against that, the fee is high, as it is at all the leading boarding schools. The honest position is that Charterhouse is an expensive school and a strong one, and the decision turns on how those two facts weigh against each other for your family, and on whether the bursary route brings the cost within reach.