City of London Freemen's School

"Learn, Lead, Make a Difference" runs the motto at City of London Freemen's School, and the three verbs capture an institution that pairs sharp academic results with an unusually deliberate focus on wellbeing. Founded by the City of London Corporation in 1854, originally to educate the orphaned children of the City's Freemen, the school moved to the Ashtead Park estate in Surrey in 1926 and now teaches around 943 pupils and students aged 7 to 18 across a junior school, a senior school, and a sixth form. It is co-educational, mainly a day school, with boarding from Year 9 and flexi-boarding from Year 7. Roland Martin has been Headmaster since 2015. At GCSE and A-level the school ranks first in Surrey and sits among the strongest in England, and the most recent ISI inspection, in October 2025, judged every Independent School Standard met.

Freemen's is an all-through school that behaves like three connected communities rather than one undifferentiated block. The junior school takes pupils from Year 3, the senior school runs from Year 7, and the sixth form occupies the refurbished Main House, a Grade II listed Georgian mansion at the centre of the park. That layout matters: children can grow up on a single wooded estate from age 7 to 18, moving through progressively more independent surroundings without changing schools.

The tone is academically ambitious but noticeably humane. Emotional wellbeing is treated here as a strategic priority rather than a bolt-on, and it is a standout feature of the school, an unusual balance to strike in a place that also produces results at this level. Pupils are confident to take intellectual risks, which points to a classroom culture where getting something wrong is treated as part of learning rather than a failure to hide.

Three houses, Gresham, Hale and Whittington, named for figures woven into the City of London's own history, organise much of daily life beyond lessons, competing in music, drama, sport, debating and photography. The charitable roots show in the school's civic instincts: community service runs through the ethos, with pupils regularly volunteering, supporting local primary schools and visiting nursing homes. It is a school with a clear inheritance from the City that founded it, and it wears that inheritance lightly rather than pompously.

Because Freemen's spans several phases, its results are best read phase by phase. As an independent school it does not sit England's Key Stage 2 league tables, so there is no primary ranking to report; the story starts at GCSE.

At GCSE the school is 99th of 3,895 schools in England for results, placing it in the top 2.5% and among the highest-performing in England (ranked against all schools in England with published GCSE results, state and independent). On the proprietary FindMySchool overall ranking, which blends results with an inspection-quality score, it sits 79th of 3,887, and it is ranked first of all secondary schools in Surrey. These are FindMySchool rankings built from official data. The underlying grades bear the position out: 67.6% of GCSE entries were awarded a grade 9 or 8 (the old A*), and 86.3% reached grade 7 or above, so more than four in five results land in the top three grades. Results here cluster at the very top of the grade range rather than at a comfortable pass.

The sixth form is comparably strong. At A-level the school is 66th of 2,562 schools in England for results, in the top 2.6% and well above the England average (ranked against all schools in England with published A-level results, state and independent). Its FindMySchool overall position is 58th of 2,561, again first in Surrey. In the most recent A-level series, 71.5% of entries were graded A* or A against an England average of 23.6%, and 92.2% reached A* to B against an England average of 47.2%. Nearly a third of all entries, 30.8%, were the very top A* grade. In other words, the typical Freemen's A-level result is roughly three times more likely to be an A* or A than the England norm. For families weighing schools side by side, the local hub comparison tool lets you line up these figures against nearby alternatives.

Teaching at Freemen's is built on teachers knowing their pupils well and planning from that knowledge. Lessons are adapted carefully to individual needs, with effective feedback and support both inside and outside the classroom, and progress is driven by skilful questioning rather than drill. That last point is worth dwelling on: questioning is how a teacher checks understanding in real time and pushes a confident answer further, and it is the engine of the intellectual risk-taking the school prizes.

The curriculum is coherent and methodical, with subject leaders collaborating so that knowledge builds in a logical sequence across the years rather than in disconnected topics. Subject knowledge is a particular strength in the sixth form, where teachers stretch students beyond the syllabus and expect them to extend their own understanding independently.

Learning support is properly resourced rather than an afterthought. A SENCo-led team, including several teaching assistants and apprentice assistants, supports the roughly one in six pupils on the school's special educational needs register, through a mix of in-class differentiation, small-group withdrawal and one-to-one work. English as an additional language support is available for international pupils, which matters in a school with boarders from overseas, and the effect is that a wide span of learners is planned for rather than left to keep up.

For a school of this size the exit routes are clear and well supported. At the end of Year 6, junior pupils move up into the senior school, and Year 11 students continue into the sixth form provided they meet the entry requirements, so the great majority of the roll progresses internally at each stage while the school also recruits externally at its main entry points.

At 18, destinations are overwhelmingly academic. In the 2023/24 leaving cohort of 99 students, 88% went on to university, with a further 2% into other further education and a small number into employment. Most secure a first-choice place, and these are usually Russell Group universities, with Warwick, Nottingham, Bristol, UCL and Imperial among recent destinations. Oxbridge is part of the picture without dominating it: from 29 applications in the relevant cycle the school secured a Cambridge offer, which was taken up. Preparation for these routes is structured, with mock interviews and dedicated work on application technique, and the school is extending careers education lower down, in Years 7 to 10, as an area it is developing.

Freemen's admits at several points, and entry is competitive at each. The main gateways are 7+ into the junior school, then 11+, 13+ and 16+, with some flexibility for places that arise in between. Applications are made online through the school's own portal, and the process is assessment-based rather than first-come.

At 13+, for example, applicants sit tests in English, maths and non-verbal reasoning, alongside an interview and activity sessions designed to see how a child works with others, not only how they perform on paper. That mix signals what the school values: the tests screen for academic readiness, while the activities look for the temperament to thrive in a busy, participative community. Sixth-form entry requires a minimum of seven GCSEs at grade 7 or above, including maths and English, together with subject-specific requirements for chosen A-levels, so a place in Year 12 is earned rather than automatic even for existing students.

Scholarships are awarded at 11+, 13+ and 16+ across a broad spread of disciplines: Academic, Sport, Drama, Music, Art, and Design and Technology. These are merit awards, separate from the means-tested bursaries covered below, and families should note the bursary application timetable, which typically closes in the autumn of the year before entry. The FindMySchool map search can help you gauge travel time from a prospective home to Ashtead Park before you commit to the assessment process.

Wellbeing is where Freemen's most clearly distinguishes itself, and it is not a marketing line: the school's approach to emotional wellbeing is a defining strength, achieved alongside genuine academic demand rather than in place of it. Pupils develop high levels of emotional wellbeing while achieving high academic success, a combination many selective schools claim and fewer can evidence.

The infrastructure behind this is concrete. An Anglican Chaplain offers reflection, guidance and pastoral support to pupils of all faiths and none. A staffed Medical Centre operates through the school day in term time. And the school has invested heavily in mental health literacy, with more than 40 staff and 32 sixth-form students trained in Mental Health First Aid, so that students themselves can spot and support a struggling peer. Behaviour, meanwhile, is calm: staff promote respectful relationships, and pupils treat one another with courtesy, which is the day-to-day texture that makes an ambitious school feel safe rather than pressured. Inspectors judged safeguarding effective, with leaders maintaining a strong safeguarding culture, regular staff training, and clear routes for pupils to raise concerns.

With more than 150 clubs and activities running before school, at lunchtime and after hours, co-curricular life at Freemen's is genuinely broad, and four pillars stand out.

Music is a serious operation. Two whole-school orchestras sit alongside choirs, string and brass ensembles, jazz bands, chamber groups, acapella outfits and a musical theatre programme, and the school stages more than 26 concerts a year in an acoustically designed Recital Hall within its dedicated Music School. Take-up is high: roughly a third of pupils across the school have individual instrumental lessons, rising to about three-quarters in the junior school, and an annual Try Before You Buy Instrument Fair helps newcomers find an instrument that fits. That volume of participation is what turns a music department into a musical culture.

Drama matches it for ambition. Productions staged in the Ferndale Theatre range from large-scale musicals to experimental outdoor theatre, and Drama is offered right through to GCSE and A-level, so the performance programme feeds an examined academic pathway rather than sitting apart from it.

Sport is well-resourced and well-coached. Facilities include a RIBA award-winning 25m swimming pool opened in 2017, a large multi-purpose Sports Hall with a fitness suite and two squash courts, a floodlit astroturf pitch and tennis courts. The core sports of rugby, hockey, football, netball, cricket, athletics and tennis are supplemented in the senior years by options such as fencing, swimming, squash and rugby sevens, and the school brings in specialist coaching through partnerships including the Josh Evans Soccer School, Surrey Netball, Surrey Cricket and National Premier League hockey coaches. That external expertise raises the ceiling for the school's most committed sportspeople, while the choice between competitive and non-competitive activity keeps the less sporty engaged too.

Leadership and the outdoors complete the picture. A Combined Cadet Force, run in partnership with the nearby Glyn School and offering Army and RAF sections with weekend and holiday camps, develops fieldcraft, navigation, first aid and drill, while the Duke of Edinburgh's Award runs from Bronze through to a Gold level with its residential component. Both give pupils responsibility and challenge outside the exam-driven parts of school life, and both feed naturally from the community service that runs through the wider ethos.

Freemen's charges by term and by year group, and its 2026/27 day fees rise with age: from roughly £6,553 to £7,864 a term in the junior years (Years 3 to 6), through £7,280 to £8,736 in Years 7 and 8 and £8,797 to £10,556 in Years 9 to 11, up to £9,192 to £11,030 a term in the sixth form. Boarding is charged on top of tuition: full boarding in Years 9 to 11 runs from about £16,674 to £20,009 a term, weekly boarding from £14,992 to £17,990, and flexi-boarding at £75 per night. A non-refundable registration fee of £200 and a deposit apply on entry.

Crucially, cost is not the whole story. Means-tested bursaries, assessed on family income, expenditure and assets by an independent administrator, can reduce fees substantially for families who qualify, and scholarships worth a proportion of fees are awarded on merit at 11+, 13+ and 16+ in Academic, Sport, Drama, Music, Art and Design and Technology. Bursaries are the route for families for whom fees would otherwise be out of reach; scholarships recognise talent. Families should confirm current figures and the bursary deadline directly with the school, as awards are finite and time-limited.

Boarding at Freemen's is a supporting option rather than the school's centre of gravity. Around 70 boarders, drawn from both the UK and overseas, live in Walbrook House, arranged in small pods with shared social areas, and the provision is comfortable, with appropriate facilities, secure storage and positive, supportive relationships between boarders and house staff. Full and weekly boarding are available from Year 9, and weekly boarders typically return on Sunday evening or Monday morning and go home on Friday or Saturday, which suits families within reach who want a settled midweek routine without full-time residence. Flexi-boarding, at a per-night rate, is open to day pupils from Year 7 upward, offering an occasional overnight stay around late fixtures, rehearsals or a busy parental week. Because most of the school is day-based, boarders join a community whose rhythms are shaped by day life, which appeals to families who want boarding's structure without a wholly residential environment.

The sixth form is the school at its most distinctive. Based in the refurbished Main House, with bright study areas, café-style spaces and creative studios, it offers 24 A-level subjects, a wide menu for a school of this size, and its results place it in the top 2.6% in England as noted above. With that many subjects on offer, students can build combinations spanning sciences, humanities and creative disciplines rather than being funnelled into a narrow set of options. There is a dedicated Independent Living provision for Year 13 that eases the transition to university-style self-reliance, and teaching in these years is where the school's subject expertise shows most, stretching students beyond the specification.

Entry is selective: seven GCSEs at grade 7 including maths and English, plus subject requirements, so Year 12 is a genuine threshold rather than a formality. University preparation is thorough, from subject stretch to mock interviews and application coaching, and the destinations bear that out, with the great majority reaching Russell Group universities and Oxbridge represented among offers. For a sixth-former who wants breadth of subjects, a grown-up base and strong onward routes, it is a strong proposition.

The school day runs on the Ashtead Park estate, and much of the co-curricular programme sits before school, at lunchtime and after hours, with Saturday fixtures for older students, so families should expect some weekend commitment as children move up. Getting there is well organised for a semi-rural Surrey site. The school partners with Vectare to run a carbon-neutral coach service on a recently expanded set of routes, and Ashtead Station is about a 20-minute walk away, with a school shuttle linking the station and campus; train services also reach families from Cheam, Dorking, Wimbledon and Guildford. Wraparound arrangements around the junior day are best confirmed with the school directly, as timings vary by phase.

Entry is the obstacle, not the education. Freemen's assesses at every entry point, and with results this strong across a broad age range, places are contested. Families should prepare for genuine selection at 7+, 11+, 13+ and 16+, and plan the bursary or scholarship timetable well ahead.

Fees climb with age, and boarding adds materially. Day fees increase year on year and the sixth form is the most expensive day tier, while boarding roughly doubles the annual outlay. Model the full cost to Year 13, factoring in the finite bursary and scholarship provision, before committing.

Careers education lower down is still being strengthened. Careers guidance in Years 7 to 10 is an area the school is developing, so younger pupils learn more about future options earlier. It is a recognised area for development, and families of younger children may want to ask how that work is progressing.

Weekend and travel commitment is real. Saturday fixtures for older students and a semi-rural location mean transport and weekend logistics need planning, particularly for day families living further out.

City of London Freemen's School is an academically outstanding all-through independent that has managed something genuinely difficult: results in the top 2.5% of England at GCSE and the top 2.6% at A-level, first in Surrey on both counts, held together with a wellbeing culture that is a genuine, recognised strength rather than a slogan. Its breadth is real too, from a serious music programme and a RIBA award-winning pool to a Combined Cadet Force and 24 A-level subjects. It is best suited to families who want high academic expectations for a child aged 7 to 18 on a single wooded estate, with the option of flexi or weekly boarding and the reassurance of strong pastoral support. The main caveat is straightforward: entry is selective at every stage and fees rise steadily with age, so securing a place, and funding it to Year 13, is the challenge. The education, once you are in, is not in doubt.