Welcome to Oakham School Admissions. We know that choosing the right school for your child is one of the most important decisions you will ever make, so my Admissions team and I are here to help support you and your family on your admissions journey every step of the way.
We warmly encourage you to visit us in person so that you can gain a sense of the vibrancy, friendliness, and energy of Oakham School and meet the people who will be caring for your child.
Your first point of contact will be a member of my Admissions team, who will be happy to guide you through each stage of the Oakham School admissions process, arrange for you to visit us and answer your questions about life at Oakham School.
You can apply to join Oakham School from the age of 10 (Year 6). The three main entry points are at age 10 & 11 (Year 6 & 7), age 13 (Year 9) and age 16 (Year 12). However, we welcome pupils at other stages if there are spaces available. There are five main stages in the admissions process to Oakham School.
Visit the School
The best way to get a feel for Oakham life and to see the School in action is to attend an Open Event. There is also the option to book an individual visit. These are great opportunities for you to discuss with us how the School can best cater for your child’s needs and help them thrive.
Register your child
Complete our registration form, along with a registration fee of £150. Parents are welcome to register their child with us at any time. We ask that registrations are received by the following dates in the year prior to intended entry:
Please also send the following:
Registering your child doesn’t imply any commitment; it just means we can keep in touch with you and let you know when you need to take further action.
Sit the entrance assessments
Oakham School is a selective school, so your child will need to sit our entrance assessments, appropriate to their age, and have an interview in order to join us. Our admissions process also requires a confidential reference from your child’s current school.
Offer and acceptance of place
Offers for 10/11+ and 13+ candidates are made in February. Offers for 16+ candidates are provisional based on your child achieving the required GCSE grades.
On acceptance, we will ask you to pay a deposit in order to secure the place. The deposit is returned at the end of your child’s time at the School.
Induction
Once we have confirmed your child’s place, we will send you a joining pack in the term before they start. This will include a wealth of information to help you prepare for your child’s start at Oakham School. In addition, we hold a Familiarisation Day in June and an Induction Day at the end of August/beginning of September to welcome your child and your family to the Oakham community and help you settle in.
We are proud of our diverse community of pupils, welcoming children of all ages from nearly 40 different countries. Around 19% of Oakham pupils are international students and we celebrate the different perspectives they bring to enrich our community.
We know that it can be a bit daunting to arrive at a new school in a different county, so we will do all we can to help you settle in, make friends and feel at home. You’ll join a Boarding House with pupils from the UK and other countries, and there’s plenty of support if English isn’t your first language (please ask about this when you enquire).
How to apply
Pupils from overseas can apply to the School directly or may come to us via an agent. We would strongly encourage families to visit the School in person at an Open Event or individual visit. You can also take a virtual tour of the campus
Entrance assessments
All pupils who would like to join Oakham School will sit entrance assessments and have an interview. They consist of online CAT4 verbal reasoning tests and written papers in Maths and English (or English as an Additional Language (EAL) for candidates whose first language is not English).
We will also request a confidential reference from the Headteacher of your child’s current school, which is taken into account.
If you are unable to sit the entrance assessments at Oakham School, we can arrange for candidates to sit the assessments abroad at an approved testing centre (such as the child’s current school or the British Council Office) and have an online interview.
Guardianship
A condition of entry to Oakham School is that all pupils coming from overseas have a Guardian based in the UK. This may be a relative or close family friend, but must be someone of more than 25 years of age, not living in student accommodation.
If you do not have a relative or close family friend who can fulfil this role, then you can find a list of accredited Guardians on the Association for the Education and Guardianship of International Students (AEGIS) website – www.aegisuk.net or the Boarding Schools Association (BSA) website – www.boarding.org.uk. All Guardians who are not relatives must be AEGIS or BSA accredited.
Visas
Any pupil who does not hold a British passport who wishes to study in the UK must have a visa to do so. Oakham School has a student sponsor licence and is able to provide a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) once a place has been accepted at the School. This CAS will be used to apply for a Child Student Visa. Further information may be obtained from the UK Government visas and Home Office websites. Oakham School reserves the right to use the services of Fragomen, a global immigration specialist, for the application process. This service comes at an additional cost to families.
Biometrical Residence Permits (BRPs)
Oakham School now has an Alternative Collection Location Code (ACL), which means that the BRP can be sent direct to the School for collection on your arrival when term commences if you have used this code on your visa application form.
The ACL code to have the BRP delivered to Oakham School is 3SC682.
If an applicant is using an agent to apply to the School, we would request the following information in the first instance:
Once the online registration form is complete, we will then organise for the papers to be sent out to the British Council or an approved testing centre for these to be carried out under exam conditions.
We ask for scanned copies of the papers to be forwarded to us once the student has sat the papers and the original scripts to be returned to us. We will also request a reference from the student’s current school and will want to arrange an online interview if the student has not visited Oakham School in person.
We will notify the agent as to whether we wish to offer a place to the student as quickly as possible after all parts of the assessment process are complete.
Commission will be paid to agents once we have received the first set of fees from the parent as a one-off payment.
Further details of our agent agreement and commission payable can be requested from the Admissions Office.
Agents wishing to introduce a student to us are asked to forward the information to admissions@oakham.rutland.sch.uk
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