Admissions

Your first step will be to contact the Admissions Team to arrange a visit to St Leonards to tour the campus and facilities. This can either be during one of our Open Mornings (held in May and October) or at a time to suit you and your family. We welcome individual visits throughout the year.

During your visit, you and your child will meet key members of staff and current pupils, including our Head, Mr Simon Brian or our Head of Junior School, Mrs Claire Robertson.

For Senior School applicants this visit includes your ‘informal interview’. This gives an opportunity to ask any questions you or your child may have about joining one of Scotland’s leading independent schools.

When you are ready, we encourage you to complete our online application and pay the application fee of £120, following your visit to St Leonards. The application reserves a space for your child while we complete the admissions process. This advances the process but does not yet guarantee a place at St Leonards.

At this stage, you will be required to provide copies of your child’s last two school or progress reports, along with a short, written personal statement detailing their interests, hobbies and any future aspirations.

Please note that there is high demand for spaces and some year groups have waiting lists in place.

After the application is submitted, we are then delighted to welcome your child for a Taster Day with us. This allows them to get a sense of what life is like at St Leonards and experience the day with their peers. We offer overnight tasters for those interested in boarding on a flexi, weekly or full-time basis.

Prospective pupils in Years 1-3 will be invited in for a Taster session in the Junior School and  there will be no formal assessment during their visit. For entry to Years 4-6, children will be invited for a Taster and to complete the Cognitive Abilities Test Fourth Edition (CAT4) during their visit. For entry to Years 7-13, all prospective pupils must complete the CAT4 assessment and will be invited for a Taster day or overnight stay for a boarding place.

For international families who are not able to visit us in person for this Taster Day, we are happy to support you with arranging alternative CAT4 assessment supervision.

Those seeking entry to Years 12 and 13 (Sixth Form) for whom English is not their first language are expected to have obtained a standard of English equivalent to the B2 First for Schools or IELTS 5.5 – 6.

What is the CAT4?

The CAT4 is an entrance test which assesses the following: reasoning with words; reasoning with numbers; reasoning with shapes and designs; thinking with and mentally manipulating precise shapes. It is not possible to revise or prepare for the CAT4 assessment. We use this to assess a prospective pupil’s core abilities relating to learning.

The final stage is for the School to make an offer of a place at St Leonards, based on the process outlined above. Each application is reviewed individually and successful applicants will receive an offer via email. At this stage, either an offer will be made or, in some situations, an application declined if it is decided that the School is either not able to support a child’s requirements or the child would not flourish in our school environment.

When an offer is made, the family is given a deadline by which they must accept or decline the offer. Once the offer has been accepted, we will be in touch with joining information and details of events and inductions.

Should you require any further information before making your decision or wish to discuss your offer further, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Once you have accepted your offer to join the St Leonards community, we will look forward to welcoming new pupils on their agreed arrival dates, whether it is at the start of a new term or at another point by arrangement.