Charterhouse Scholarships: A Complete Guide for Parents

Charterhouse offers a wide range of awards at 13+, from its academic Foundation Scholarships to music, art and textiles, drama, dance, performing arts, design engineering and sport. Alongside these merit awards, Charterhouse runs a means-tested bursary programme that can reduce fees far more substantially for families who need it. Understanding which award fits your child, and how scholarships and bursaries work together, is the first step. This guide explains the awards, the assessments and the timing.

Scholarships at Charterhouse

Charterhouse awards scholarships to recognise children who show real talent, and the range at 13+ is broad: academic, music, art and textiles, drama, dance, performing arts, design engineering and sport. A Charterhouse scholarship is, first and foremost, a mark of distinction, awarded to children who stand out in Charterhouse's own assessments. The financial value of a scholarship tends to be modest, so for most families the larger help with fees comes through the means-tested bursary, which can be held alongside an award. Understanding that distinction, between recognition of talent and help with affordability, is the key to reading Charterhouse's system correctly.

Foundation Scholarships and Exhibitions

The academic awards are Charterhouse's Foundation Scholarships and Exhibitions, offered each year at 13+ to children who show a high level of academic attainment and intellectual curiosity in the school's own examinations and interview. Foundation Scholarships go to the strongest all-round academic candidates, while Exhibitions recognise special promise in a particular subject or area. The assessment takes place at the end of April of Year 8, prior to entry the following September, and it is demanding. Candidates sit Charterhouse papers in English, Mathematics, a modern language in French or Spanish, and Science, plus two further papers chosen from Geography, History, Latin, Additional Mathematics and Greek, and they are also assessed by interview. This is a fuller and more searching set of papers than the standard entry assessment, so academic scholarship candidates need to be both strong and well prepared.

Music, sport and the other awards

The other awards each recognise talent in their particular field, and most are assessed in January of Year 8. Music scholarships and exhibitions are assessed through a practical examination in which candidates perform two well-contrasted pieces on their chosen instrument plus a quick study piece, with a fifteen-minute preparation period beforehand; the standard expected is not below ABRSM Grade 5 on all instruments, and singers need to be exceptional with outstanding sight-singing. Sport scholarships are assessed through references, an interview and the chance to demonstrate sporting ability, with candidates generally expected to be performing at county level or above. The art and textiles, drama, dance, performing arts and design engineering awards each recognise genuine talent and potential in their field, assessed through portfolio, audition or practical tasks as appropriate, in January of Year 8. A child does not need to be exceptional across the board: each award looks for real strength in its particular area.

Bursaries and how they connect

Bursaries are quite different from scholarships, and for many families they matter more. A bursary is means-tested, awarded on the basis of financial need rather than a particular talent, and it can reduce fees substantially for families who would not otherwise be able to consider Charterhouse. Crucially, a bursary and a scholarship are not mutually exclusive: a talented child from a family that needs financial help can hold a scholarship and receive a bursary, with the bursary providing the bulk of the fee reduction. The scholarship recognises the talent, and the means-tested bursary addresses affordability. Our overview of school bursaries and scholarships explains how the two routes work together across UK schools.

Scholarship or bursary?

The distinction matters because the two awards answer different questions. A scholarship answers, "Is your child exceptionally talented in this area?" A bursary answers, "Does your family need financial help to afford the fees?" If your child is gifted academically, musically, in sport or in one of the other fields, a scholarship is worth pursuing for the recognition it brings. If affordability is the central issue, the bursary route is the one that matters, and it can reduce fees far more than a scholarship alone. Many families pursue both, and there is no contradiction in doing so. Build your plan around the bursary if affordability is the real question, and treat any scholarship as the welcome recognition it is meant to be.

How to apply

Scholarship applications are made through the admissions office, and each award has its own assessment and timing, with academic assessed in April of Year 8 and most others in January of Year 8. It is worth registering your interest early, so the school can tell you exactly what each assessment involves and when it takes place, particularly if your child is a candidate for more than one award. For a bursary, you apply through the school's means-tested process, which looks at your family's financial circumstances in confidence, and the two applications run in parallel, so a talented child from a family that needs support should pursue both at once. Our Charterhouse registration guide sets out where these assessments sit in the wider timeline, and our guide to getting into Charterhouse covers the whole process.