This guide is written for international families considering Lancing College（兰辛学院）. Every figure and rule below was checked against the official Lancing College website (lancingcollege.co.uk) and its published 2026/27 financial information on 5 August 2026. Fees are quoted in pounds sterling and are inclusive of VAT where the school says so; always re-check the official pages before you commit to anything, because prices and dates do change.
About Lancing College
Lancing College is a co-educational boarding and day school for 13 to 16 year olds, with a Sixth Form for 16 to 18 year olds, set high on the South Downs in West Sussex on the south coast of England. The official website describes the College as “perched high on the South Downs”, looking out across both land and sea, surrounded by several hundred acres of English countryside. It is the senior school of the Lancing family of schools, which the group describes as running from nursery to eighteen years. Pupils at Lancing College come from across the South East, from London and from around the world, and the school has a long tradition of welcoming boarders whose parents live overseas.
Lancing College was founded in 1848 by Nathaniel Woodard, and today it describes itself as the senior school of Woodard Schools, the largest group of independent Church of England schools in England and Wales. The College’s Chapel, whose foundation stone was laid in 1868, remains a central part of school life, and the community is founded on Christian values. The current Head Master is Dr Scott Crawford. Around 170 new pupils join the College every year, and the school deliberately grows in the Sixth Form, adding roughly 50 new pupils to the existing cohort each year.
Academic Programmes: GCSE, A Levels and the Pre-Sixth Form Year
Lancing College runs a five-year Senior School structure. In the Third Form (Year 9) pupils follow a tailored programme designed to build study skills and a core understanding of every subject before GCSE choices. In the Fourth Form (Year 10) all pupils continue the core subjects of English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, the Sciences and Religious Studies, and select four optional GCSE subjects to complete their programme. Pupils whose first language is English must choose at least one language — French, Spanish, German or Latin — among their options, and top-set mathematicians also take the OCR Additional Mathematics course. Sciences can be taken as three separate GCSEs (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) or as Combined Science.
In the Sixth Form (Year 12), Lancing College asks pupils to make a free choice of three A Level subjects without restrictions, then arranges the timetable around those selections. The subject list published on the official website spans Art, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Classics, Computer Science, Design and Technology, Drama, Economics, English, Geography, History, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages, Music, Photography, Physics, Politics, Psychology, Religious Studies, Science, Spanish and Sport, alongside the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). Subject choices are discussed with tutors from the Fifth Form onwards and finalised after GCSE results.
For international pupils whose English is good but not yet fluent enough for A Level study, Lancing College launched a One Year Pre-Sixth Form Programme in September 2026 for pupils joining in Year 11. It is a one-year GCSE course with significant EAL (English as an Additional Language) support, and students are entered for 5 to 8 GCSEs at the end of the year. Pupils must be aged between 15 and 16 on entry, and the course is designed as a preparatory year leading into the Lancing College Sixth Form.
International Entry Requirements and Assessment
Lancing College welcomes international pupils in the Third Form (Year 9), the Fourth Form (Year 10, when places are available) and the Sixth Form (Year 12). International applications for Third Form entry can be received up to three years before the year of entry; for Sixth Form entry, up to one year before. For entry to Year 10 or 11, the official website asks families to contact the Admissions Department first to check space and suitability.
The published application steps are the same for all international families: submit the applicant’s two most recent school reports, translated into English if necessary; the Director of Admissions advises whether to proceed; then complete the online Registration Form with a non-refundable registration fee of £240. Entrance assessments can be taken remotely and typically consist of an online cognitive ability test (CAT4), a handwritten essay in English, and an interview with the Director of Admissions. A reference is then requested from the pupil’s current school, and successful applicants are offered a place. The offer requires an Entrance Deposit of one term’s fees for international families, refunded when the pupil leaves the College.
For Sixth Form entry specifically, the official website says assessment is based on references from the current school, academic interviews, an online CAT4 and a written task. Offers are subject to the normal GCSE qualifications for Sixth Form entry: a minimum of five Grade 6s, usually including English and Mathematics, with some subjects requiring Grade 7 or above. The website does not publish a single uniform English test minimum for standard entry — language ability is assessed through the process itself — while the Pre-Sixth Form Programme states a minimum of IELTS 5 in its entry criteria. For visa purposes, international students requiring a visa may apply 6 months before the start of their studies; Lancing College appoints an external immigration compliance firm to run its student visa compliance, and pupils holding a Child Student Visa pay a termly compliance fee.
Costs for the 2026-27 Academic Year
Lancing College publishes the same 2026/27 fee structure for the Senior School and the Sixth Form, per term and inclusive of VAT where applicable: full boarding £19,180; flexi-boarding £16,115 per term, subject to availability; and day £13,110 per term, with occasional overnight stays charged at £96 per night. Each younger sibling receives a 10% discount while an older sibling is at the College. The termly fees include academic books, all meals, usual laundry (excluding dry cleaning) and personal accident insurance.
Deposits are set out in the official financial information: a UK deposit of £2,000, a non-UK deposit of one term’s fees, and a UK Advance Programme deposit of £1,300, all refunded when the pupil leaves or, for the Advance deposit, on the first termly invoice. Additional charges billed alongside the fees include music lessons at £446 per instrument per term, EAL lessons at £71 per session, learning support at £74 per session, a visa compliance fee of £519 per term for Child Student Visa pupils, Lancing Society membership at £55 per term for Third Form starters or £137.50 per term for Sixth Form starters, house accounts, an NHS doctors’ registration fee of £36 per term for boarders, plus examination fees, transport, school trips and materials for Design and Technology. Payment options are cheque, bank transfer, direct debit (UK bank accounts only, not available for the first term) and UK debit cards; overseas parents can pay online through the school’s secure payment facility, and a Fees in Advance Scheme is available from the Bursar.
Key Dates and Deadlines
For Lancing College 2027 Third Form entry, scholarship applications open in September 2026 and the deadline for scholarship applications and supporting documentation is 29 November 2026; scholarship assessment days run from 18 January to 3 February 2027 across academic, music, art, sport, drama and design technology awards. For families on the Advance Pre-Test Programme route, the assessment and familiarisation day for 2029 entry takes place on 12 January 2027, with registration due by 27 October 2026. For 2027 Sixth Form entry, the registration deadline is 16 October 2026, and assessments take place on 6 November 2026 for international students (remotely) and 7 November 2026 for UK students. Outside these fixed routes, international applications are assessed individually with no single closing date published — the website says places are offered after individual assessments, so the practical guidance is to start the enquiry as early as possible, and up to three years ahead for Year 9 entry.
Campus, Boarding and Term Dates
Boarding is at the heart of Lancing College: pupils join one of ten Houses on arrival, and the House becomes their base for their whole time at the school. Nine Houses are single sex; Saints’ House, opened in September 2018, is the first co-educational day House, and three Houses are assigned to day pupils while the rest mix boarding and day pupils. All Houses span the five year groups, so younger pupils are mentored by older ones. The co-curricular programme includes over 120 activities, and the school’s Chapel, library, health centre and sports facilities sit within the same campus.
For the 2026-27 academic year, the official calendar shows the Advent Term opening in early September 2026 (pupils arrive between 2 and 4 September), with half term 16 October to 1 November and the term ending 10 December 2026. The Lent Term begins on 4 January 2027 and ends on 24 March 2027; the Trinity Term ends on 25 June 2027.
Results and University Support
Lancing College publishes its 2025 examination results on the official website: at A Level, 24% of grades were A*, 52% were A*/A, 79% were A* to B, with a 99.6% pass rate; 32 pupils achieved at least one A*, 70 pupils — 55% of the year group — achieved only A grades or above, and every pupil who completed an EPQ scored an A or A*. At GCSE, 41% of grades were 8 or 9, 62% of entries were 7-9, and the average grade across the cohort was a 7. The school reports 2025 university destinations including Warwick, Exeter, Nottingham, Bath, Bristol, UCL and Imperial College London. These figures are the school’s own published claims and should not be read as a basis for comparing schools. UCAS preparation at Lancing College starts in the Lower Sixth, supported by the My Future programme, a dedicated higher education applications team, a Scholars’ programme and a separate Oxbridge group with practice interviews.
Planning an Application to Lancing College
Lancing College suits families who want a boarding environment on the English south coast with a broad GCSE and A Level curriculum, structured international entry points from Year 9, and published 2026/27 costs that are high but inclusive of most routine charges. The official website is the authoritative source for everything in this guide — it was the only source used here, and it should be re-checked before applying, as fees, dates and requirements change. Every family’s situation is different, so for help working out which entry point and timetable fit your child’s year group, English level and budget, talk to our consultants about your specific case before starting the registration process.