Age range. 2–13.
Number of pupils. 410: 225 boys, 185 girls. (Nursery: 32 boys, 33 girls.)
Fees per term (2024-2025). Boarding: Weekly £9,345, Flexi £8,950–£9,120; Day: Years 5–8 £8,100, Year 4 £7,100, Year 3 £6,180, Year 2 £4,880, Year 1 £4,330, Reception £3,700 (£2,710 after free entitlement).
Cumnor House Sussex is one of the country’s leading independent day and flexible boarding schools for children from the ages of 2 to 13. Situated at the heart of the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, we provide an empowering education for active and ambitious boys and girls.
Cumnor is a School that lives by its motto of ‘Aim High, Be Kind and Dare to be Different’. It places the child at the centre of all it does, looking each day to help them become the very best version of themselves, in whatever area that might be. It aims to strike the balance between the modern and the traditional. It looks to include every member of its community, from the Nursery child through to its parents. It wants its children to be happy and to thrive.
Set in 60 acres of beautiful Sussex countryside, our award-winning Cumnor Nursery is a truly wonderful, bespoke space for young children to explore, investigate, create and discover through play. The Nursery is a caring, friendly and nurturing environment where children are encouraged to make the most of the joys of living and learning. We are the only independent school in Sussex offering truly flexible childcare from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm, 50 weeks of the year, for children aged 2 to 4, and offering up to 30 hours EYEE.
Cumnor House Pre-Prep provides a happy, safe and nurturing environment in which children can begin to develop a lifelong love of learning and interest in the world around them. Our self-contained Pre-Prep is the hub of Cumnor, with easy access to the Prep school’s wider facilities including Woodpeckers, the theatre, swimming pool, home economics, music barn, sports pitches and 60 acres of Sussex countryside to explore. Our dedicated, passionate and devoted teachers support and encourage pupils to become well-rounded, inspired and confident individuals who are kind, tenacious and eager to do their best.
We are focused on individuals and every child is known to us. The happiness and wellbeing of each child is of paramount importance and in all decision-making the impact on the child is considered first. We are ambitious for every child in our care and offer a fully rounded education within a community that nurtures childhood. We value kindness – to others and ourselves – above all else and believe this is central to enabling children to achieve their full potential while at school and to succeed in later life.
The breadth and depth of our curriculum is evident through our long-standing track record of academic achievement, scholarship success and an unrivalled range of destination senior schools. Our children consistently achieve impressive academic results, moving on to over 20 different senior schools, with over 50% in any one year doing so with an Award or Scholarship.
Cumnor is a warm, friendly community with family at its heart. We offer preparation for boarding life at senior school with flexible boarding options for children in Years 7 and 8 in a home-from-home environment where they can develop personally, socially and creatively alongside their friends.
At Cumnor, we believe passionately that what makes us stand out as a school community is the collective will to bring out the very best in each and every child in our care. Pastoral care is right at the heart of a Cumnor education, seeking out a child’s individual spark and being attentive in helping it burn brightly as they grow.
As part of this journey, we also acknowledge that there will be bumps along the way and sometimes pupils, teachers and parents need signposting as to how best to navigate these. The initiatives detailed in ‘The Next Chapter’ (The Cumnor Holistic Approach to Pastoral Thinking and Emotional Resilience) set out a number of additional tools designed to complement the work already undertaken by tutors, form takers, in assemblies and by all teachers across the curriculum.
Charitable status. Cumnor House School Trust is a Registered Charity, number 801924. It exists for the advancement of education.