School report
The Purcell School
England · Co-educational · Ages 7–18 · Day & boarding · 195 pupils
Notes
The Purcell School is a specialist music school and one of the Government's Music and Dance Scheme schools. Its RED health flag comes from a run of operating deficits, but its balance sheet is solid — a 'strong' resilience rating and around 15 months of free reserves absorb those deficits. The fee-based operating metrics read worse than the school's underlying position; the reserves and balance-sheet figures are the ones to weigh here.
At a glance
Latest income
PrefectReserves
PrefectFee dependency
PrefectFinancial security
ScholarInspection
A colour summarising the school's most recent inspection outcome. Different inspectorates (ISI, Ofsted, and the Scottish and Welsh bodies) use different systems, so results from different inspectorates aren't directly comparable.Green
ISI · 2025-04-29
Roll (12 mo)
PrefectSetting
Setting
Campus on Aldenham Road, attached to the southern residential boundary of Bushey.
Getting there
Inspection & safeguarding
Latest outcome: all met
- Regulator
- ISI
- Band
- Green
- Report date
- 2025-04-29
- Report age
- 1.1 years
Inspectorates use different scales, so bands are shown only within their own regime, never cross-mapped.
Fees
Fees
What The Purcell School publishes for 2026/27 — the advertised price, before any bursary or scholarship.
| Day | Boarding | |
|---|---|---|
| Senior | £42,498 /yr ≈ £14,166/term | £54,262 /yr ≈ £18,087/term |
| Sixth Form | £42,498 /yr ≈ £14,166/term | £54,262 /yr ≈ £18,087/term |
Termly figures are the annual fee ÷ 3. Source: the school's fee page ↗
Fee history
Full boarding fees have risen +58.7% since 2021/22 — from £34,188 to £54,262 in 2026/27. Latest figure includes VAT. See the full six-year trend below.
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Finances
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Peer-group benchmarking
Available on Scholar.
See plans →Academic results
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Curriculum & activities
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Language & character
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Pupil body
Pupil body
The current roll at a glance.
91 boys · 101 girls · 192 on roll
Source: Department for Education, Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics 2025/26 (England).
Age profile
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Pupil roll
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Recruitment & staffing
Recruitment & staffing
Available on Prefect and Scholar.
See plans →Catchment
Available on Scholar.
See plans →Data & sources
Where these figures come from, and how complete they are.
- Financial source
- Charity Commission (England & Wales)
- Detail level
- Parsed from full accounts
- Latest accounts
- 2024-08-31
- Years on record
- 5
- Accounts age
- 21 months
- Pupil numbers
- 195 (inspection:ISI)
- Components
- Income components reconcile
- Entity scope
- This school
Pupil–teacher ratio: not published — independent schools aren’t in the DfE workforce census, and filed accounts don’t separate teaching staff.
Capital trend: only one year of capital spend is on record, so a multi-year under-investment signal can’t be computed yet.
Computed 2026-06-20 · pipeline ct-derived-1.0.0. Indicators, not verdicts — each is traceable to its source.
Your notes
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Sign inPrototype — figures derive from public records (Charity Commission, OSCR, ISI/Ofsted/Education Scotland/Estyn, ONS Census). Some fields (pupil–teacher ratios) are not yet in the dataset and are omitted rather than estimated.