Sevenoaks School Fees: Complete Cost Breakdown for 2026

Sevenoaks School's fees place it among the leading independent schools, and at 11+ there is an important point to grasp from the start: entry is as a day pupil, so the relevant figure is the day fee rather than the full boarding fee. This guide breaks down what the fee covers at 11+, explains the one-off charges and the supplemental costs billed separately, sets out where boarding fits in higher up the school, and describes the means-tested bursary route for families who need help.

The day fee at 11+

Because Sevenoaks admits its 11+ pupils as day pupils, the fee that matters when your child joins Year 7 is the day fee, which is lower than the full boarding fee. Sevenoaks reviews and publishes its fees year by year, and confirms the figures for later years of entry each spring, so you should confirm the current day fee for Year 7 directly with the school for your year of entry. As a reference point for the upper end of the school's costs, the published boarding fee for a Sixth Form boarder is around £22,383 per term, or roughly £67,149 across the three terms, but that full boarding figure does not apply to an 11+ day pupil. The key takeaway is to budget against the day fee at 11+, not the headline boarding number, and to confirm the exact figure with the school.

What the fee includes

One of the helpful features of Sevenoaks' fee is that it bundles in costs that some schools charge separately. The published fee includes lunch on every school day, including Saturdays, along with the textbooks and exercise books for timetabled subjects. This means that the everyday running costs of school life, the meals and the core learning materials, are covered within the fee rather than appearing as extras on the termly bill. When you compare Sevenoaks with other schools, it is worth bearing this in mind, since a fee that includes more leaves fewer surprises and makes the real cost easier to predict. It is always sensible to confirm exactly what is included for your year of entry, but Sevenoaks' approach folds many everyday costs into the headline figure.

What is charged separately

Some costs sit outside the headline fee and are billed separately as supplemental charges, priced by activity. These include additional tuition and clubs beyond the timetabled curriculum, such as individual music, drama, sport and language tuition, along with related equipment, clothing and stationery, which have been subject to VAT since January 2025. None is large on its own, but for a child who takes individual music lessons or several extras they add up across a year, so it is sensible to leave headroom in your budget rather than planning to the exact figure of the day fee. For a sense of how Sevenoaks' 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.

Boarding higher up the school

While 11+ entry is as a day pupil, boarding becomes available higher up the school, and many families whose children join at 11+ as day pupils later move to boarding. If boarding is part of your longer-term plan, it is worth understanding the boarding fee, which is significantly higher than the day fee, and thinking about the cost across the whole of your child's time at the school rather than just the early years. The published Sixth Form boarding fee of around £22,383 per term gives a sense of the level at the top of the school. Families set on boarding from the very start, rather than from a later year, may wish to consider the 13+ entry point, where boarding places are part of the intake.

Bursaries and scholarships

Sevenoaks runs a means-tested bursary programme for day pupils, 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 would not otherwise be able to consider Sevenoaks. A strong candidate from a family that cannot meet the full fee should still apply. It is important to understand how Sevenoaks handles scholarships, because the school states plainly that it no longer offers a financial element to its scholarships: the awards are honorary, with the sole exception that music scholars receive free tuition in one instrument. The financial help therefore comes through the bursary, not the scholarship. Our guide to Sevenoaks scholarships explains this in full, and our overview of school bursaries and scholarships covers the wider funding picture.

Is it worth it?

Whether the fee represents value is a judgment only your family can make, but it helps to know what it buys. Sevenoaks offers an exceptional academic record, a distinctive identity as an International Baccalaureate school, a co-educational community on a large campus in the centre of an attractive Kent town, and a fee that includes daily lunches and core materials. Set against that, the fee is high, as it is at all the leading independent schools. The honest position is that Sevenoaks 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.