Entrance Exams
Entrance Exams for September 2023 Entry
All candidates must be registered before sitting the entrance examinations. Registrations, bursary and scholarship applications must be received by the deadline of Friday 30 September 2022 to allow us to process the registration and contact schools for references.
Admissions Team
Our Registrar, Mrs Vanessa Rooney and her assistants, Miss Helen Morgan and
Mrs Catherine Rogers will be pleased to talk
you through the admissions process.
Please contact them on 01926 634201/262/297
scholarships and bursaries
There is a variety of Scholarships available for particularly able or talented candidates
ranging from Academic, Art and Music to All-Rounder.
Additionally for the Sixth Form there are Academic, Music, Art, Drama and Sports Scholarships available.
More information is available on our Scholarships and Bursaries page.
Format of the day
Candidates should wear comfortable, casual clothing and bring a coat. Candidates should bring a pen, two pencils, eraser and ruler. Candidates for Years 9 and 10 (13+ and 14+) should bring a calculator and protractor and the relevant language dictionary.
Candidates sit papers in English and Maths and for those looking at Year 9 and 10 a language paper. The papers vary in length from 45 minutes to 1 hour. All candidates also sit a 50 minute online assessment which includes Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Numerical Reasoning, appropriate to their age and year of entry.
The day is planned to give plenty of time between the exams for breaks, a hot lunch and time to play outside if the weather allows.
More information is available in our Admissions and Entrance Exams Booklet.
"He came out of the exams happy and relaxed and feeling
that he'd been able to do his best, huge thanks!"
Online assessment
The online assessment is provided by Durham University’s Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM). The test is designed to enable all children to demonstrate their academic potential without the need for excessive preparation.
For more information on the online assessment please visit the CEM website at;
https://plus.cem.org/cemselectfam/
(If you experience difficulties opening this link please try Internet Explorer.)
There are no practice papers available for the online assessment. CEM advises parents that children can best prepare for their online assessment by learning to work quietly on their own, completing homework set by their school, and by reading and making sure they understand all the words in any books they read. Children should also, wherever possible, be encouraged to try to solve problems by looking things up for themselves. Children should be familiar with using a keyboard and a mouse including the ability to click, drag and slide with a mouse.
access arrangements
All children with a SEND will need to be assessed by a member of our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Team prior to the entrance exams taking place. Please ensure the admissions team receive the registration form in good time, to enable this important appointment to take place.
Children with a special educational need or disability may be considered for access arrangements in the entrance examinations. Any access arrangements will usually be based on the child’s normal way of working in their current educational environment, for which evidence will be required.
offers made
After the entrance examinations are marked the Admissions Panel sits to discuss applications. The Panel will take into consideration the entrance examinations results, references from feeder schools and, for those with Special Educational Needs, the assessment by the Special Educational Needs professional prior to the entrance
examinations.
Those entering Years 8, 9 and 10 will also have their personal interviews considered. Exam results will be posted, first class, on Thursday 24 November 2022. No information will be available beforehand. For those offered a place in Years 8, 9 or 10 confirmation of acceptance with a £300 deposit is required to secure the place, by Thursday 12 December 2022. For those offered a place in Year 7 confirmation of acceptance with a £300 deposit is required to secure the place, by Thursday 2 March 2023. This deposit is refunded after the end of the final term which the pupil spends at Princethorpe.
The Year 7 acceptance deadline for places is, by a nationally agreed code of practice, the same for all independent schools, allowing parents and children time to review all their options, including those from the maintained sector, before making a final decision.
Once you have confirmed your acceptance of a place and sent your £300 deposit you will receive an acknowledgement and a receipt. A Joining Pack will then be sent to you during the Easter holidays, this will include various permission forms and essential information on school life.