Cheltenham Ladies’ College

Focus

Pioneering and empowering academic excellence

Day fees 2025/26

$51,000

Boarding fees 2025/26

$81,000-$89,800

Term dates

• Term 1: 3 September to 12 December 2025
• Term 2: 12 January to 27 March 2026
• Term 3: 20 April to 4 July 2026

Ages

11-18

Pupil count

850

Spear’s Review

Joy might not be the first word you associate with school, but it is on the agenda at Cheltenham Ladies’ College (CLC), a day and boarding school for girls where curiosity, creativity and confidence are highly valued. Academically excellent – students’ GCSE, A-Level and IB results are impressive – CLC is also strong in sport and design. 

‘We unashamedly put the wellbeing of our girls on an equal footing with their academic achievements,’ executive principal Eve Jardine-Young has said. To this end, there are more than 150 co-curricular activities – including sports, performing arts, STEM and language clubs – on offer to help pupils thrive.

There is also a new Sixth Form Centre that is due to open in autumn 2026. With a focus on independent and self-directed learning, it will feature collaborative learning spaces, ‘employability suites’ that simulate real-world professional and academic contexts, pods for focused learning, and wellbeing and relaxation zones.

Academics

In 2025:

• 88 per cent of GCSE results were grades 7-9
• 70 per cent of A-Level results were A* or A
• Average IB score was 38.9

Head teacher

Eve Jardine-Young joined CLC as principal in 2011, and in 2025 was named executive principal, working alongside new head of college Jemima Edney. Raised in Malawi and originally trained as a structural engineer, Jardine-Young worked at Epsom College for 10 years and Blundell’s School for six years before joining CLC.

University and college destinations

Graduates attend a range of universities around the world. In the class of 2025, students went on to UK and US universities that include Bath, Berkley, Cambridge, Columbia, Durham, Johns Hopkins, LSE, Oxford and St Andrews, and schools in Asia such as NUS in Singapore and CUHK and HKU in China.

Admissions

According to the school, the admissions team looks beyond a student’s academic record for applicants ‘who have potential and a positive attitude to learning’. Entry is typically at 11+, 13+ and 16+, and all are required to take entrance exams and assessments, which take place at various times depending on the year of entry.

Notable alumnae

• Cicely Mayhew (first female British diplomat)
• Blaise Metreweli (first female chief of MI6)
  
• Dame Kristin Scott Thomas (actress)
  

Accessibility

Heathrow Airport: 2 hours

Location

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