This guide is written for families applying to St Mary’s School, Cambridge（圣玛丽学校（剑桥））from overseas. It covers the school’s programs, entry requirements, fees and the support available to international applicants. All facts were verified on pages of the school’s official website (stmaryscambridge.co.uk) visible on 5 August 2026; fees quoted are the published rates for the academic year starting September 2026.
St Mary’s School, Cambridge at a Glance
St Mary’s School, Cambridge is an independent girls’ day and boarding school in the centre of Cambridge, with its registered office on Bateman Street. The school describes itself as educating girls aged 3 to 18 across four stages: Preschool (age 3+), Junior School (Reception to Year 6), Senior School (Years 7-11) and Sixth Form (Years 12-13), with boarding available from Year 5 (around age 9) at Mary Ward House. Its own pages say roughly 20% of students come from overseas, representing more than 30 countries, and that boarding places are oversubscribed at every point, so international families are advised to apply as early as possible, ideally 12 months before the desired entry point. Published 2025 results on the school’s site show 54% of A Level grades at A*-A and 77% at A*-B, and 42% of GCSE grades at 9-8 with 80% at 9-6; the 2024 A Level results page reports 25% of grades at A*, with around 10% of Sixth Form leavers taking Oxbridge places. These figures are the school’s own claims, not a guarantee of future outcomes.
Programs: GCSE, A Levels and Beyond
St Mary’s School, Cambridge structures its Senior School around GCSE and IGCSE courses. Core subjects are Mathematics and Religious Studies, plus English Language and English Literature for students whose first language is English; for others, participation in English GCSE courses is decided by the Head of English and Head of EAL, with English as an Additional Language (EAL) as the alternative. Options span Art Craft & Design, Biology, Chemistry, Classical Civilisation, Computer Science, Drama, Design Technology, Food Preparation and Nutrition, Geography, History, Latin, Modern Foreign Languages (French, German, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish), Music, Physics, Science Double Award, Textiles, Physical Education and Dance. In the Sixth Form, students typically take three A Levels, choosing from roughly 25 subjects including Art and Design (Fine Art, Photography and Textile Design), Biology, Business, Chemistry, Chinese, Classical Civilisation, Classical Greek, Computer Science, Drama and Theatre Studies, Economics, English Literature, French, German, Geography, History, Latin, a Leiths Level 3 Extended Certificate in Professional Cookery, Mathematics and Further Mathematics, Music, PE, Physics, Psychology, Sociology, Spanish and Religious Studies. All Sixth Form students take a Philosophy, Ethics and Religion (PER) course, and an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is available to develop independent research skills.
Entry Requirements: Timing, Assessments and Pre-testing
St Mary’s School, Cambridge recommends starting the application process at least 12 months before joining, though later applications are considered while places remain and full year groups run a waiting list. Preschool and Junior School applications have no formal deadline and are welcomed all year round. For the Senior School (Years 7 and 9), applications are made online and the entrance assessment takes place on the last Saturday of January every year (31 January 2026 for September 2026 entry); UK scholarship applications for Years 7 and 9 close on 1 December 2025, with no scholarship deadline for international students. Sixth Form applicants are advised to apply online by 14 November 2025 for September 2026 entry. The application fee is £120 for a day place and £180 for a boarding place, non-refundable. Assessments are age-appropriate and deliberately relaxed: Preschool girls join a guided play session of about half an hour; Year 2 to 6 applicants come for a taster day with an online adaptive assessment (vocabulary, mathematics and non-verbal ability) plus a 20-25 minute creative writing paper and an informal interview; Year 7 applicants add a 30-minute creative writing paper and a Senior Leadership Team interview; Year 8 sits one-hour English and Mathematics papers; Year 9 takes the online assessment, a 30-minute persuasive writing paper and an interview; Year 10 is assessed in English, Mathematics and Science; and Lower Sixth applicants with GCSE or iGCSE results are offered places on predicted grades, with written assessments in each proposed A Level subject for everyone else. The school also offers Year 9 pre-testing: girls currently in Year 6 or Year 7 can sit the pre-tester assessment to secure their Year 9 place early.
International Applicants: English, Guardianship and Visas
International applicants to St Mary’s School, Cambridge take the St Mary’s Online Assessment, a cognitive ability test combining mathematics, verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and creative comprehension depending on age (7+ through 16+), plus an age-appropriate written assessment. The school does not require a formal English qualification before entry but publishes approximate reference levels: IELTS 4.0 for Year 7 and Year 8 entry, IELTS 5.0 for Year 9 and Year 10, and IELTS 6.0 for the Sixth Form. Applicants are interviewed by a member of the Senior Leadership Team in person or via Zoom, and the school requests the latest school report, with references from previous schools where relevant. English support is embedded in the curriculum at no additional cost: a Year 9 EAL Accelerator Programme serves multilingual students at the CEFR A2/B1 borderline with Cambridge Preliminary B1 level work across 14 lessons per fortnight, Senior School students can prepare for Cambridge English First (Year 10) and Advanced (Year 11), and Sixth Form international students take IELTS in Year 12 or 13. Every student without a family member in the UK must have a UK guardian living within 50 miles of the school, arranged through AEGIS-accredited providers or other routes; the school itself is a Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA) certified guardian. On visas, St Mary’s School, Cambridge is a UKVI-licensed Child Student Visa sponsor offering sponsorship for full boarders, and applicants requiring a visa must be under 18 on the first day of the school year in which they begin; the school also supports families arriving under the Hong Kong BN(O) route. Visa eligibility is ultimately set by UK government rules.
Costs: Fees from September 2026
St Mary’s School, Cambridge publishes termly fees for the academic year starting September 2026 (three terms per year), inclusive of taxes. Day fees are £5,200 per term for Preschool, £5,605 for Reception to Year 2, £7,340 for Years 3-4, £7,740 for Years 5-6 and £8,815 for Year 7 to Upper Sixth. Boarding fees are £17,760 per term for Years 5-6 full boarding and, for Years 7 to Upper Sixth, £15,800 for weekly boarding or £18,755 for full boarding; boarding fees include books, stationery, all meals and the cost of boarding trips, paid in three instalments at the start of each term. School lunches are charged separately for day students: £4.50 per day in Preschool, £265 per term in the Junior School and £6.00 per day in the Senior School and Sixth Form. Flexi boarding is available to day students from Year 5: currently £104 for one or two nights, or £99 per night when booking three nights in a single week. Successful applicants pay a deposit of £500 for a day place or the equivalent of one term’s fees for a boarding place, refunded or deducted from the final term’s bill once the student joins. Overseas families can pay through Flywire in more than 150 currencies, and UK families may spread payments monthly via the School Fee Plan (interest applies). A 5% sibling discount applies in the Preschool and Junior School. All figures are from the site version visible on 5 August 2026; fees are reviewed annually and parents are notified of the following year’s rates at the end of the spring term.
Timeline, Deadlines and Application Support
For September 2027 entry at St Mary’s School, Cambridge, a workable sequence is: visit an open event in spring or summer 2026 (the school’s Senior School and Sixth Form Open House is listed for Friday 15 May 2026 with 10.30am and 2pm slots, and Junior School open mornings are booked separately), submit the online application with the fee in autumn 2026, sit the entrance assessment on the last Saturday of January 2027, complete the interview and provide the latest school report and references, then pay the deposit on acceptance. Boarding families should plan guardianship and visa sponsorship in parallel, and international boarders arriving for the autumn term should note the published dates: new boarders arrive two days before term starts and existing boarders the day before. Term dates for 2026/27 run: autumn term from Friday 4 September 2026 to Friday 11 December 2026 (half term 23 October to 2 November); spring term from Tuesday 5 January to Wednesday 24 March 2027 (half term 15-19 February); and summer term from Tuesday 13 April to Wednesday 7 July 2027 (half term 31 May to 4 June). Deadlines and assessment dates are refreshed each year, so confirm every milestone against the school’s latest pages before acting.
Information Currency and Advice
The programs, entry requirements, fees and dates above were verified against St Mary’s School, Cambridge’s official website on 5 August 2026; fees, assessment dates and open events change by academic year, so always check the latest published version and any offer documents before acting. If you would like to turn your daughter’s age, English level and family budget into a concrete application plan covering course choice, assessment preparation, guardianship and visa timing, discuss your specific situation with this site’s advisers.