Private schools in Norfolk: fees, boarding and the nearest school to each town

Norfolk has ten independent schools that any family can apply to, and nine of them are in or near Norwich or on the north Norfolk coast. The tenth is Glebe House at Hunstanton. If you are moving to the south-west of the county and want a fee-paying school, plan on a long drive or on boarding: Thetford Grammar, the only one in that corner, closed on 31 August 2026.

Five of the ten are in the city: Norwich School, Norwich High School for Girls, Town Close, Notre Dame and Norwich Steiner. Langley runs its prep school at Taverham, north-west of the city, and its senior school near Loddon, to the south-east. On the coast there are Gresham’s at Holt and Beeston Hall at West Runton, near Cromer. An eleventh school on the Department for Education register, OneSchool Global at Swaffham, teaches the children of one church.

Fees have carried VAT at 20 per cent since 1 January 2025, and in April 2025 schools in England lost the charitable business rates relief that had cut their premises bills. Seven Norfolk independent schools have closed since 2018 and none has opened. Nursery places for children below school age are outside VAT, which is why the nursery fees at Norwich High and Gresham’s are quoted without it.

Every independent school in Norfolk

The eleven schools on the DfE register, by area. Pupil numbers are from the January 2024 school census, so a school’s roll today may differ. The last column gives the latest routine inspection.

Since September 2023 the Independent Schools Inspectorate no longer grades schools. Its reports say whether each set of standards is met, and every school in this guide met all of them at its latest inspection. The useful part of a report is the short list of recommended next steps, which tells you what the inspectors wanted the school to fix. We give them for each school below.

Norwich School

Norwich School is the largest independent school in the county, with 1,112 pupils at the census. It took three-year-olds for the first time in September 2025, after ISI inspected the change in April 2025 and recommended it. It is a day school only. A senior place costs £8,406 a term and Reception £5,064, with senior lunches extra at £1,037.50 a year. Lower school fees include care from 8am to 5pm, and the school has held them at the same level for a second year.

At the routine inspection of 14 to 16 November 2023, ISI asked for clearer expectations of teaching in every subject and better feedback so that pupils know what to work on next. The school’s main entry points are at 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 16, so a family in or near Norwich can choose it once and stay to 18.

Norwich High School for Girls

The only girls’ school in this guide, on Newmarket Road, taking girls from 3 to 18. It belongs to the Girls’ Day School Trust and had 574 pupils at the census. The senior fee, Years 7 to 13, is £7,272 a term, about £1,100 less than Norwich School; lunch adds £300 a term in Years 7 to 10. A third daughter at the school at the same time as her sisters gets 20 per cent off, as does any after her.

ISI inspected from 30 April to 2 May 2024. Its main recommendation was that support for pupils with special educational needs should be more consistent, particularly in the senior school, which is the question to ask if it applies to your daughter.

Town Close School

A prep school on Ipswich Road for children from 2 to 14, with 428 pupils at the census. Pupils stay to the end of Year 8 and then move on, and Norwich School is one of the senior schools with an entry point at 13. Town Close is the one school we found paying part of the VAT for parents. It is absorbing half of it on fees charged in 2026 and a quarter in 2027, so for Years 5 to 8 the autumn 2026 term costs £6,872 and each term from January 2027 costs £7,186, against a fee of £6,248 before VAT.

ISI’s routine inspection on 17 to 19 June 2025 named the school’s culture of care and respect as a significant strength. Its one recommendation concerned the pre-prep, where it wants subjects taught as well as they are in the prep department.

Notre Dame Prep, Dereham Road

A Roman Catholic prep for ages 2 to 11 at 147 Dereham Road, west of the city centre, with 114 pupils at the census. It is by some distance the cheapest school in this guide: £3,334 a term at the top of the school, including VAT, on the 2025/26 list. On 24 September 2026 the school had still not published fees for 2026/27; its fees page says parents are told of increases a term in advance. Children leave at 11, so a family choosing Notre Dame also needs a plan for secondary school.

ISI inspected on 14 to 16 January 2025 and made one recommendation: that pupils be taught to understand and respect cultures other than their own.

Norwich Steiner School

The smallest school on the register, with 92 pupils, on Hospital Lane, for ages 3 to 19. It follows the Steiner curriculum. Because it does not belong to one of the associations that ISI inspects, Ofsted inspects it instead, and rated it Good after an inspection on 28 November 2023, as it had in 2019. Fees are charged by the year: £14,200 in the upper school and £13,700 in the lower school from January 2026, including VAT. It suits families who want a Steiner education in particular, and its upper school fee is the lowest published fee of any school here that teaches to 18.

Langley Preparatory School at Taverham Hall

Langley’s prep school is in Taverham Park, north-west of Norwich. It has a nursery from six months, runs to Year 8, and had 288 pupils at the census. It is day only. Years 5 to 8 cost £6,942 a term and Reception £3,611, both including VAT. Pupils can move on to the senior school at Loddon from Year 6 or go elsewhere. For families in Taverham, Drayton and Costessey it is the nearest prep of any kind.

ISI inspected on 8 to 10 May 2024. It asked for the school’s support for pupils with special needs to be fully embedded across all subjects, and that personal, social and health education be planned around what pupils have already learned.

Langley School

The senior school, at Langley Park near Loddon, takes pupils from 10 to 18 and is the only independent senior school south-east of Norwich. It had 356 pupils at the census. Day fees are £7,620 a term for Years 6 to 8 and £8,124 from Year 9. It boards from age 10: full boarding is £15,594 a term, weekly boarding (Sunday or Monday to Thursday nights) adds £2,700 to the day fee, and flexi boarding adds £1,362 a term for two nights a week or £1,938 for three.

At the ISI inspection of 19 to 21 March 2024, the school had identified 174 of its 428 pupils as having special educational needs or disabilities, about four in ten, the highest share of any ISI-inspected school in this guide. The inspectors asked for more academic challenge in lessons, better standards of behaviour, and more for boarders to do at weekends. Langley suits a family south-east of Norwich, or one that wants a day place with a few nights’ boarding added.

Gresham’s School

Gresham’s, on Cromer Road in Holt, is the largest boarding school in Norfolk. At its April 2026 inspection it had 887 pupils aged 2 to 18, of whom 282 boarded, across eight boarding houses. It is also the most expensive school in the county. A senior day place attached to a boarding house costs £12,255 a term and senior boarding £17,560. Sixth-form day pupils who join Arkell House pay £8,710 a term instead. The prep school charges £7,390 a term in Years 3 and 4 and £9,085 from Year 5, or £12,730 to board, and every prep pupil can board full-time, weekly or one to five nights a week. The pre-prep starts at £5,040 a term.

ISI inspected on 14 to 16 April 2026 and called the creative arts curriculum a significant strength. Its one recommendation was more direct experience of the workplace for pupils in Years 9 to 11. In September 2027 the prep school is due to move to a new £40 million campus on an 86-acre site next to the senior school. For a family on the north Norfolk coast, or one that wants full boarding from age 7, Gresham’s is the only independent school in the county that boards from prep to sixth form.

Beeston Hall School

A prep school at West Runton, between Cromer and Sheringham, on a 30-acre site, with 135 pupils at the census. Since September 2025 it has been overseen by St Peter’s College, Radley, after the Prep Schools Trust merged with Radley. In June 2026 ISI inspected a plan to lower the starting age from 4 to 2 for a new nursery and raise the roll limit from 180 to 220, and recommended that it be approved. The 2026/27 fee list prices a nursery place at £4,400 a term for five full days.

Day fees are £4,950 a term in the pre-prep, £6,790 in Year 3 and £9,900 in Years 4 to 8. Boarding in Years 4 to 8 is £13,210 a term, and flexi boarding £72 a night. At the last routine inspection, on 11 to 13 June 2024, ISI asked the school to keep its records, including the admissions register and boarding paperwork, more systematically, and to improve careers education for its oldest pupils. Children leave at 13, so Beeston suits a family on the north coast who want boarding at prep age and will choose a senior school later.

Glebe House School

Glebe House, founded in 1874, is at 2 Cromer Road in Hunstanton and takes children from six months to 13; it had 117 pupils at the census. It is the only independent school in west Norfolk. From King’s Lynn it is 18 miles by road, and the alternatives are over the Cambridgeshire border, such as Wisbech Grammar, or boarding further away. The senior prep fee is £7,433.60 a term including VAT, and it covers more than most: meals, supervised care from 8am to 6pm (7pm in the prep school), books and materials. Boarding is for prep pupils and charged by the night, £13 for a regular night and £25 for an occasional one. A few pupils board Monday to Thursday and more board on odd nights.

ISI inspected on 6 to 8 January 2026. It asked for school policies to say how they apply to boarders, for past inspection reports to be made available consistently, and for more challenge in some teaching.

OneSchool Global UK, Swaffham

A day school for ages 7 to 18 on Turbine Way in Swaffham, with 80 pupils at the census. It serves families of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and is part of an international network whose campuses share online teaching. ISI inspected it on 21 to 23 January 2025. For families outside that church, south-west Norfolk has had no independent school since Thetford Grammar closed.

What the schools charge in 2026/27

Fees per term for 2026/27, for the most senior year at each school, including VAT unless the notes say otherwise. Younger years cost less; the school entries above give those fees.

A year at the top of Notre Dame costs about £10,002; a senior day year at Gresham’s costs £36,765, and boarding there £52,680. Our guide to boarding against the state schools sets that money against a free place at a state school rated Outstanding.

The boarding schools

Five schools in Norfolk board, and only two of them have boarders in large numbers. At their latest inspections Gresham’s had 282 boarders among 887 pupils and Beeston Hall 67 among 146. Langley had 45 boarders among 428 pupils in March 2024, so most of its pupils go home each night, and Glebe House counted four. Wymondham College is the state option, where the teaching is free and you pay for the boarding house.

The nearest independent school to every town

The nearest school of each kind by road from the 46 places we cover: the nearest co-educational senior school (Gresham’s, Norwich School or Langley), the nearest stand-alone prep, and the nearest school that boards. Distances are driving miles and minutes with no traffic, so a school run at half past eight takes longer. Norwich High School for Girls and Norwich Steiner are both within two miles of the centre of Norwich, so for anyone in or near the city they are as close as Norwich School.

From anywhere within ten miles of Norwich, every kind of school is within half an hour. On the north coast, Beeston Hall is the nearest prep and Gresham’s the nearest senior school from Cromer, Sheringham and Holt. From Downham Market, Swaffham, Thetford or Watton, every independent senior school is 40 minutes or more by car.

Wymondham College: the state boarding school

Wymondham College, at Morley south-west of Norwich, is a state academy, so there are no tuition fees and no VAT; you pay only for boarding. For 2026/27, full boarding costs £5,650 a term in Years 7 to 11 and £6,275 in the sixth form, and day boarding £1,450. Its prep school on the same site boards pupils in Years 5 and 6 at Underwood Hall, at £5,650 a term for full boarding or £2,725 for flexi, and places are limited. Ofsted rated the college Outstanding in every judgement after its inspection on 10 October 2023. A family that wants boarding without independent-school fees should look here first.

Schools that have closed

These are the seven closures since 2018. The schools still turn up in searches and old directories.

Independent special schools

Norfolk also has independent special schools for children with an education, health and care plan, and Red Balloon in Norwich, which teaches children who have been out of mainstream school. Places at these are almost always arranged and paid for by the council through the child’s plan, not bought privately. If your child has an EHC plan, start with Norfolk County Council, not the school’s admissions office.

Bursaries and getting a place

Norwich School’s bursaries can cover the whole fee, on a sliding scale set by household income and assets. The school says an award is unlikely where household income is more than four times the annual senior fee, which is £25,218 in 2026/27, or where net assets are more than 20 times it. Beeston Hall also offers means-tested bursaries. For the others, ask the school. Wymondham College is the other way to cut the cost of boarding.

Each school sets its own entry points and assessment dates. Norwich School, for example, also takes a few pupils at 12 and 14 on top of the main entry points listed above. If you are moving to the county, our timeline for lining up a school place with a house move sets out when to register, sit assessments and accept, so that a move does not cost a place.

Plan the move

How we produced this guide

The list of schools comes from the Department for Education’s Get Information about Schools register, filtered to independent schools in Norfolk and read on 12 September 2026. Pupil numbers are the register’s January 2024 census figures, used for every school so that the counts are comparable; boarder numbers are from each school’s latest ISI report. Fees were checked against each school’s own fees page, and inspection dates and recommendations against the ISI and Ofsted reports, on 24 September 2026. Where a school had not published its 2026/27 fees, we say so. Distances are road routes from each town centre to each school, calculated on OpenStreetMap data with no allowance for traffic.