A Parent’s Guide to the 11+ in London

If you are reading this, your daughter is most likely in Year 5, and the conversation about senior schools is beginning to feel real. The 11+ in London is one of the most competitive entry points in UK education, but with the right information and the right approach at home, it doesn’t need to be as stressful as people suggest.

This guide is written from our perspective as an independent school in London for girls, and reflects the conversations we have with parents most often. Where it helps, we have linked through to the relevant pages on our site.

What is the 11+, and how does it work in London?

The 11+ is the term used for the entrance assessment system at the main 11+ (Year 7) entry point into senior schools. In London, the 11+ is run often individually by each school rather than centrally, which means tests, formats and dates vary. Most assessments are sat between November and January of Year 6 for entry the following September. Almost all London independent senior schools follow the same broad pattern: a written assessment, followed by an interview or group task and obtaining a reference from the child’s primary school, with a decision shared with families in February.

Channing is part of the London 11+ Consortium and as such we have an agreed and co-ordinated approach to the 11+ examination. When you apply to Channing, you inform us on the application form where your daughter will sit the 11+ assessment, this is very important. We prefer that your daughter sit the assessment in her primary school if they are able to host it. If they cannot, your daughter can sit the assessment in any of the London 11+ Consortium schools that you have applied to, including Channing.

The assessment goes beyond testing cognitive ability alone and seeks to discover a child’s potential in creative and critical thinking, analysis, synthesis and problem-solving. This test will be 100 minutes in total, there is a break in the middle.

We recommend you practice the London 11+ Consortium Familiarisation Test to understand the six different areas of the assessment. The six different areas of the assessment are: Maths; Non Verbal Reasoning; English; Verbal Reasoning; Puzzles and Problem Solving and Comprehension.

When should we start thinking about the 11+?

Most families find the process much more manageable once they can see the shape of it. The 11+ journey realistically starts in Year 5, with the heavier work landing in Year 6.

Year 5 – getting started

Autumn term: begin attending Open Days at a small shortlist of senior schools.

Spring term: narrow the shortlist. Check entry routes, registration deadlines and any familiarisation tests offered by the schools you are most interested in.

Summer term: if you intend to support practice at home, keep it light. Reading, writing and mental arithmetic are far more useful than repeated tests. A child that is thriving at her primary school, engaged in her learning and keeping up with homework is already in a good position.

Year 6 – assessment

September: registrations close at most schools by mid-October to early November. Diarise these dates well in advance.

November – January: written assessments take place. Many schools also invite shortlisted pupils to interviews or group tasks. Additional scholarship tests, trials or auditions also take place at this time.

February: offer letters are released. Families typically have a short window – between one to three weeks – to accept their place.

March onwards: transition begins. Pupils visit their new school, meet future classmates, choose subjects (for example, at Channing, what language they will learn in Year 7) and prepare for the move.

What does the 11+ exam actually test?

There is no single national 11+ paper, but the assessments used by the leading independent schools in London tend to cover the same broad areas.

• English: comprehension based on an unseen text, vocabulary, and a piece of creative or persuasive writing.
• Mathematics: numeracy, problem-solving and the application of Key Stage 2 concepts, often with one or two stretch questions.
• Reasoning: a cognitive ability test that may include verbal, non-verbal and quantitative reasoning.
• Interview or group task: a chance for the school to see how a pupil thinks, listens, contributes and responds to new ideas.

Schools look for potential, not polish. They are deliberately interested in the pupil behind the paper – how she explains her thinking, how she handles a question she has never seen, how she responds in an unfamiliar setting.

How much tutoring does a child really need for the 11+?

Please don’t tutor your child! In our view tutoring has two serious distorting effects, both of which have a long term impact on the wellbeing of students when they move into senior school.

Firstly, tutoring coaches children who then achieve far more highly in the 11+ tests than they might have done naturally and are offered places in schools for which they are not academically suited. On arrival in these schools they don’t perform at the pace or standard required of the school and two further things happen – one, they are miserable because they are not achieving, they can feel stupid by comparison to their peers and this can impact their self-esteem, self-confidence and mental health. Two, they then need more tutoring outside school (especially in the first few years) to feel able to get through the curriculum.

Secondly, intensive tutoring places such a significant emphasis on the importance of the 11+ as a ‘do or die’ moment, where passing and failing are the only two possibilities, that it changes the child’s view of all testing from then on. At senior school we then spend 5 years undoing their fear of testing and fear of failure so that they are able to approach their public examinations at 16 and 18 with a sense of confidence and perspective. At Channing our drive to develop Fearless Learners stems from exactly this – and the pupils tell us themselves that the experience of the 11+ has permanently affected their view of what failure means. Spending a considerable amount of time preparing for the 11+ in Years 5 and 6, also narrows the child’s outlook, saying no to other extra-curricular experiences – or even the fun of being with friends and family – because more time is channeled towards 11+ preparation.

What helps?

• Reading widely and out of choice. A daughter who reads regularly will have a stronger vocabulary, faster comprehension and richer ideas to draw on. Range matters more than difficulty.
• Conversation at home. Asking for her opinion, discussing the news in age-appropriate ways, and listening to her reasoning all build the kind of thinking schools want to see.
• Steady, age-appropriate maths practice. Quick mental arithmetic and an instinct for problem solving make a measurable difference.
• Familiarisation rather than tutoring. Working through a small number of past or sample papers helps her feel comfortable with the format.
• Plenty of sleep, time outside, and time to be a child. The 11+ is part of her year, not the whole of it.

What should I look for at an 11+ Open Day?

Open Days are the single most useful thing a family can do in the 11+ year. Websites and prospectuses tell you what a school says; an Open Day tells you what a school feels like. Visit early in Year 5 if you can, and try to visit at least twice if the school is on your final shortlist. Channing’s Open Days run several times a year for the Senior School.

Questions worth asking

• How would my daughter spend a normal day here?
• What support is available if she finds a subject difficult?
• How is pastoral care organised, and how would I hear from school if there was a problem?
• What is the school’s approach to academic stretch and challenge?
• What did recent leavers go on to do?
• What does the co-curricular week actually look like, in practice?

Signs the school will suit her well

• Pupils who speak with genuine warmth about their teachers and their school.
• Visible kindness in corridors and classrooms – pupils holding doors, including new visitors in conversation.
• A Head and Senior Team whose answers are specific and human, not rehearsed.
• A sense, more than anything else, that you can imagine her being herself here.

What happens in an 11+ interview?

Many independent senior schools in London follow the written assessment with a short interview. Some schools select purely on the basis of the assessment, others (like Channing) interview every girl who applies because we know every girl is more than her test scores. The interview usually lasts between fifteen and thirty minutes and is designed to be a friendly, exploratory chat rather than a test.

Typical themes

• A discussion of something she has read recently.
• A few open questions about her interests, hobbies or favourite subject.
• A short problem to think through aloud – sometimes mathematical, sometimes a reasoning puzzle, sometimes philosophical, sometimes a picture or piece of writing to discuss.
• A chance for her to ask questions of her own.

Schools are not looking for a polished performance. They are looking for a pupil who is interested in ideas, willing to think aloud, comfortable being unsure and curious about the answer. Honest answers, given calmly, almost always make the best impression.

When do 11+ offers come out, and what should we do next?

Offer day in February is a moment of real relief – and, for some families, a fresh round of decisions. If she has been offered places at more than one school, take a little time to revisit each. Many schools schedule offer-holder events or taster lessons. Re-read your notes from Open Days. Speak to your daughter about how each school made her feel. Trust the school that fits your child, not the one with the loudest reputation. Every year there are families who fall in love with a school they had not expected to choose.

Are there scholarships or bursaries available at 11+?

Yes. Like many leading independent schools in London, Channing offers a range of scholarships and awards, as well as means-tested bursaries to help make a Channing education accessible to a broad range of families.

How Channing welcomes pupils at 11+

Joining Channing at 11+ places your daughter at the heart of one of North London’s most sought-after senior schools and within a community that has welcomed girls into Year 7 since 1885. Our 11+ process is designed to see each pupil for who she is, not just how she performs on a single morning.

To find out more about life at Channing, please visit the Senior School section of our site, read a welcome from our Headmistress, or join us at an Open Day. We would love to meet you.

Useful links

• Senior School – an introduction to life at Channing from Year 7.
• Joining the Senior School – the 11+ entry route in full.
• Open Days – upcoming dates and how to book.
• Scholarships & Awards.
• Fees – current fee schedule.
• Welcome from the Headmistress – a personal introduction to Channing.