London Independent Senior School entry 2026

[agatharaisins]

Hi everyone, I've been wading through similar threads from 2024 and 2025 entry and I can't find a thread for the 2026 cohort. I spotted a SW London thread this morning, but haven't seen anything more generalised - please do correct me if I'm wrong, because I'd love to find everyone else going through the process!

We've registered our DD for a (large) handful of schools and now await the exam period starting. We're moving to W London next summer so doing all of this from slightly further afield than I'd like - and not thrilled about tackling house move, school change, and scouting out a place for our 7 yr old DS too!

DD in the juniors of an independent through school where we live, so no 11+/entrance exam prep whatsoever in school. We've been going down the past papers/Atom learning route at home and would love to hear from anyone else going through the process!

Sounds like a good idea to have one for this coming year. We will be trying for 4 different schools. At the moment mainly focusing on daily Atom tasks and some creative writing.

Hi OP, I am the OP from the London private and grammar schools entry 2025 threads. Good luck, I hope things go really well for you (and everyone else applying).

Hello, also gearing up for 11+ in a few weeks - first time round for us so it’s all been quite a steep learning curve so far - and very much looking forward to it all being over! Hard to keep the little ones motivated for so long!

DS has interviews for Merchant Taylors' and Haberdashers' Boys' next week. Good luck to everyone with interviews in the next few weeks!

@spiritblackeye my DD has interviews for CLGS and SPGS xx

SPGS second round results/interview invitations are not out until Tuesday, no?

That's amazing - going luck to her! My DS just sat the stage 2 for St Paul's boys- waiting nervously for the result.

Anyone in SE heard from Colfes yet after the entrance exam?

@spiritblackeye thank you so much! Wish the best for you son🙏🏻

@Lovingeveryrainbow My daughter was going to take the Colfes exam too, as it’s close to us, but because of so many Stage 2 exams and interviews, we didn’t turn up. As far as I know, Colfes inform parents straight after the exam (within 10 days) if their child has not been selected for an interview. Good luck!

Thank you! Got an email today - DS is being considered for a full-fee paying place but isn't eligible for academic scholarship as he didn't rank in the top 15%. A bit of a bummer but we have an interview with St Dunstan's next week to prep for this weekend though, so are cracking on

Is anyone waiting to hear back from ucs?

That’s a shame. Good luck with St Dunstan’s.

@Lovingeveryrainbow Good luck with the interview! My DD had her CLSG interview today. I am so happy that its over 😂

By the way, does being invited to a scholarship assessment by JAGS mean that my child did well in the exam?

Yes! Well done to your DD!

Well done to your DD! Can I ask which type of scholarship it is?

If you are invited for an academic scholarship assessment with Jags, does that mean you are almost certainly in? I am a little confused. As in how can you be too 10 / 15 percent after ISEB and interviews but then still not get a place after academic scholarship interview? (Sorry if this is a silly question)

I guess there is a very small chance she wouldn’t end up with a space if they felt she wasn’t the right fit for the school. The private schools aren’t grammars so I guess they are taking into account the whole picture. That being said I think you would have a very good chance and huge congratulations to your daughter! (My first time through the process and no knowledge of JAGs etc)

Does anyone know whether JAGS ever invites the same child to two different scholarship assessments? For example, academic plus sport, or academic plus art? Has anyone actually seen this happen?

I don't know for JAGS but my kids have had offers from other London Day schools and for those schools, being invited for an academic scholarship interview basically meant they are planning on making you an offer but are checking out how much they want you to translate it into a scholarship (or none or an honorary one or an exhibition etc).

Did you all attend the interviews- did they acknowledge whose parents you were? Do you think it’s necessary to attend?
I’ve got important client meetings that would be hard to rearrange!

Unless they have a separate parent interview eg Whitgift I wouldn’t worry (even then only one of us is going due to work commitments) I don’t think they know who’s parent is who- Emanuel had a one parent policy and they definitely weren’t reviewing us as part of the process.

Anyone here 7+ at City or Dulwich?

Update for anyone reading in the future- my husband went to all the interviews and it was absolutely fine. He didn’t give his name in 2 of them and was just parents groups with a teacher, so didn’t matter. He had one on one ‘chats’ too and was fine- he said half were one parent only.