For parents
Beyond the open day.
Every school will show you its new sports hall. We show you its accounts, its fee history and what the inspectors wrote, so you know what you’re committing to before you commit six figures.
Free to browse every school · £100 unlocks everything for a year · No auto-renewal
Is this school financially secure?
A plain-English health flag for every school, backed by five years of accounts: reserves, surplus or deficit, and how dependent the school is on fees.
If a school is running thin, you’ll see it, and see why.
Financial health
A simple green, amber or red rating summarising how financially secure a school looks, based on its published accounts. Green is reassuring; red suggests taking a closer look. It's an indicator, not a verdict.What triggered this
- Deficit in 3 consecutive years
An indicator, not a verdict. Source: Charity Commission / OSCR filed accounts.
What will the fees be by the time they leave?
Six years of day and boarding fees for every school, including the VAT jump. See which schools absorbed it and which passed it all on, then judge where fees are heading.
Fee history
How this school’s published fee has moved over the last six academic years.
darker points are the years private-school VAT applies (from January 2025); the dashed line marks its onset.
A blank is unknown, not zero. Compare only like stage, mode and year. Annualised or reconstructed figures are marked “derived” on hover, and VAT is only stated for 2025/26 onward.
Source: each school’s own published fee schedules and public web archives.
Is the school growing, or quietly shrinking?
A school’s roll tells you which way it’s heading. We show five years of pupil numbers — headcount and boarders — set against the wider sector, so you can see whether a school is growing, holding steady, or quietly shrinking before you commit.
Pupil roll
Total roll over the last five academic years.
492
Latest total
25/26
-3.7%
Change since 21/22
511 → 492
35
Boarders
7.1% of roll
For context, the median school in our dataset saw its roll change -4.5% over the same period (21/22–25/26, 404 schools).
Source: Department for Education, independent-schools pupil roll (2021/22–2025/26).
What did the inspectors really find?
The headline grade hides most of the report. We pull out the phrases that matter from ISI, Ofsted, Education Scotland and Estyn reports, so you can read the substance in minutes.
How do my shortlisted schools compare?
Put up to three schools side by side on everything: spend per pupil, bursary generosity, reinvestment in facilities, staff ratios, results and leavers’ destinations.
Sample report · three comparable schools
Real schools from the public record, shown under fictional names
| School A488 pupils | School B511 pupils | School C529 pupils | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial health | At risk | Healthy | Healthy |
| Reserves (months) | 8.9 | 16.3 | 6.2 |
| Fee dependency | 97% | 93% | 95% |
| Spend per pupil | £23.8k | £22.6k | £21.7k |
| Operating result | Deficit · 3yr | Surplus | Deficit |
Every figure links to source · Charity Commission / OSCR
Real, de-identified schools from the public record. Notice one school’s slower fee rise comes with far thinner reserves.
Also included
- Where leavers go, and which prep schools feed each senior school
- Staffing signals from recruitment adverts, including leadership vacancies
- Full co-curricular and academic data
- Unlimited shortlist with private notes
- Airport drive times
Independent, and staying that way.
Chapel & Tuck is not owned by or affiliated with any school, agency or consultancy. We carry no advertising and no sponsored listings. Every figure is traceable to a public filing.
Peace of mind for the price of a tuck box.
Shell
Get a feel for every school — free.
No card required
- Core profile: gender, ages, phase, boarding types, religious character
- ISI overall grade, inspection date and safeguarding flag
- Current-year full and weekly boarding fees
- Bursaries and scholarship types
- A-level pass rate and A*/A percentage
- Basic search, filters and airport drive times
Prefect
The full financial and academic picture.
Cancel anytime
Everything in Shell, plus
- Six-year fee history — how day & boarding fees have moved, with the VAT jump
- Where leavers go: prep-school destinations and the feeder-school network
- Five-year financial charts and income breakdown
- Spend per pupil, reserves months and staff-to-pupil ratio
- Reinvestment ratio and staff-cost share of fees
- Plain-English breakdown of the financial health flag
- Full co-curricular and academic data
- Recruitment & staffing — roles advertised on TES, leadership vacancies, and per-advert detail with sources
- ISI flagged phrases and website word clouds
- Save an unlimited shortlist and compare up to 3 schools side by side
- Private notes and annotations on any school profile
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