One-to-one preparation for the adaptive online tests and the written English task Brentwood School sets at Year 7 entry
Book a Free ConsultationBrentwood School is an independent day and boarding school in Essex whose Year 7 assessment is sat online: GL Assessment's Adaptive Admissions Tests in Mathematics and English, followed by a written English task taken at the school on Saturday 28 November 2026. Leading Tuition prepares children for that exact combination. We hold an Excellent Trustpilot rating of 4.8 out of 5 from 54 reviews, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
The first thing we do with a new Brentwood family is close the past-paper folder. Brentwood School's own admissions page states that candidates “will sit GL Assessment's Adaptive Admissions Tests (AAT) online assessments in Mathematics and English”, and the two familiarisation tests it links for parents both run inside GL's Testwise player. There is no printed Brentwood paper for a child to work through, because the assessment is not a printed paper.
That single fact reorganises a preparation plan. An adaptive test chooses each question in light of the answers already given, so two children sitting in the same room see different questions, and a child who is doing well is steadily pushed into harder material. The experience is not the reassuring one of a paper that gets easier towards the end. It is the unfamiliar one of a test that keeps feeling hard however well you are doing, and a child who reads that feeling as failure can lose fifteen minutes to it.
So our early sessions do two things at once. We build the underlying Maths and English so the adaptive engine has somewhere to climb, and we rehearse the specific experience of being stretched on screen: no going back to change an answer once the test has moved on, no skimming ahead to see how many questions are left, no paper to annotate. Children who have only ever practised on print find the first mock uncomfortable. That discomfort is the point of having it early rather than in November. Our wider explanation of how GL's assessments behave sits in our GL Assessment 11+ parent guide.
Search for a Brentwood School tutor and you will be sold non-verbal reasoning. The top organic result offers a paid “11 Plus Non Verbal Reasoning Pack 1” branded specifically for the school. The only other page on the first two pages of results that is genuinely about Brentwood School lists the assessment as “English, Maths, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning — sat in January for September entry”.
Both halves of that are wrong against what the school publishes. Brentwood School's admissions page names Mathematics and English, and nothing else, and dates the written element to 28 November 2026 rather than January. We say so plainly because a family that buys a term of non-verbal reasoning has bought a term they cannot spend twice.
We do not teach verbal or non-verbal reasoning to a child whose only target is Brentwood School. If a family is also entering the Essex state selective system, that is a different conversation and a genuinely different exam, which we cover in our CSSE exam guide for the Essex grammar schools. A child sitting both needs a plan that keeps the two apart in their head, and a tutor who knows which paper is which.
| Component | Why it resists ordinary preparation | What our lessons do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Adaptive Maths | No fixed paper exists to practise on, and difficulty rises as the child succeeds | Depth over drill: we push topic mastery past the comfortable middle so the engine has room to climb |
| Adaptive English | Comprehension and vocabulary questions arrive without warning and cannot be revisited | Timed on-screen work with no back-button, plus deliberate vocabulary building from real texts |
| Written English task | Marked by a person, not a machine, and the only component where voice shows | Weekly writing under timed conditions, marked line by line against what a reader notices |
| Individual Candidate Meeting | It is a conversation, not a test, so it cannot be revised for | Rehearsed talk about the child's own reading and interests until it sounds like them |
Not sure whether your child needs Maths, English or both? A free consultation gets you a straight answer rather than a package. We look at where your child is now, what Brentwood School asks for, and how many weeks are left before the written task.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppBrentwood School says the entrance exam “will also include an English Writing task”, sat at the school itself. It is the one component a machine does not mark, and in our experience it is the component that separates candidates whose adaptive scores sit close together.
Most Year 5 and Year 6 writing preparation goes wrong in the same way. A child is taught to reach for effects — a simile in the opening line, a short sentence for drama, a semicolon somewhere — and produces a paragraph that reads like a checklist rather than a person. A teacher who has read four hundred of them recognises the pattern in a sentence and a half.
Our writing sessions run the other way round. The child writes first, at length, on something they can actually picture, and the tutor marks what a reader would notice: where attention drifted, where a sentence promised something the next one did not deliver, where a word was doing no work. Technique is introduced only where the writing has already asked for it. Over ten or twelve weeks that produces prose with a recognisable voice, which is what a person marking by hand is looking for. Our detailed method for this sits in our guide to creative writing for the 11+.
We also plan around handwriting stamina. A child who has spent a year answering questions on a tablet may not have written continuously for forty minutes since Year 4, and cramp does more damage to a script than weak vocabulary does.
Every applicant is seen in person before the written task. Brentwood School's scholarships page states that “all candidates will be invited to attend an ‘Individual Candidate Meeting’ during which we assess a student's intellectual curiosity, potential and flair for learning”, and the school schedules those meetings from 9 to 20 November 2026, ahead of the writing on 28 November. The same page notes that the Headteacher's reference from the child's current school also carries weight.
Almost no family arrives knowing this, and almost no tutoring offer prepares for it. It is not an interview in the sixth-form sense and it cannot be revised for. It is a conversation in which an experienced teacher tries to find out whether a child is interested in anything.
What we do is straightforward and takes very little of the timetable. We spend part of a session every few weeks talking to the child about what they are reading, what they built, what they argued with a friend about. Children who are used to being asked those questions by an adult who listens answer them naturally in November. Children who have only ever been asked comprehension questions freeze, then produce the answer they think is wanted. Our 11+ interview preparation guide sets out how we run those conversations without turning them into rehearsals.
One consequence is worth knowing: because every entrance-exam candidate is automatically considered for an Academic Scholarship with no separate application, the meeting and the assessment are doing two jobs at once. There is no second, harder route to prepare for.
Brentwood School describes its own structure in these terms: “Our boys and girls are taught separately from Year 7 until the Sixth Form, allowing us to encourage freedom of expression and create space for individual identity within the classroom whilst maintaining and developing social integration beyond it with what we call the Diamond Model.”
Parents reasonably ask whether that means boys and girls sit different assessments, or are judged against different cohorts. Nothing the school publishes says so. The tests, the written task and the candidate meeting are the same, and we prepare boys and girls identically.
Where the structure genuinely matters is the conversation you have with your child, not the one we have in lessons. A child who has been at a mixed primary school for seven years is being asked to picture single-sex classes with mixed break times, sport and clubs, and the honest thing to do is show them rather than describe it. That is an argument for a taster day and a tour, not for a different tutoring plan. We explain how the model works across the schools that use it in our guide to diamond, partially selective and bilateral schools.
Registration for Year 7 entry closes on 1 November of the preceding year, the candidate meetings run in the middle of that month, the written task follows on 28 November 2026, offers are communicated in mid-January 2027 and acceptances are due by 2 March 2027. Counting backwards from those dates is how we size a programme, and it is why we will sometimes tell a family they have left it late.
A twelve-month programme, starting in the autumn of Year 5, is the version we would choose if asked. It allows two terms of building Maths and English without reference to any exam, a spring and summer of extended writing, and an autumn of adaptive mocks and conversation practice. Children finish it without having spent a year being told they are being tested.
A six-month programme, starting after Easter of Year 5 or in the spring of Year 6, is the most common shape we actually run. It works, at the cost of running skill-building and exam practice in parallel rather than in sequence.
A short programme of eight to ten weeks is worth having when a family decides late, but we will say what it can and cannot do. It can fix exam behaviour, familiarise a child with adaptive delivery and improve a piece of writing markedly. It cannot rebuild two years of arithmetic fluency, and a tutor who tells you otherwise in September is selling you something. Most of our Brentwood families run weekly one-to-one sessions with a second short session added in the final six weeks.
Tell us when your child sits the assessment and we will tell you what is realistic. If the honest answer is that there is not enough time to do what you are asking, we will say so on the call rather than after you have paid for a term.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppBrentwood work is taken by our specialist tutors for independent-school entry: qualified teachers and experienced 11+ practitioners who have prepared children for adaptive online assessments and for written papers marked by hand. We match on the component, not on the postcode. A child whose Maths is secure and whose writing is thin is given an English specialist, and we say so even when the parent came to us asking for Maths.
Sessions run online across Essex and east London, or in person where a tutor covers the area. Online is not the compromise it once was, and for this assessment it has an advantage worth naming: a child practising on the same kind of screen they will be assessed on is rehearsing the real thing.
Every tutor is interviewed, reference-checked and DBS-checked before taking a child. You get the same tutor each week, a short written note after each session saying what was covered and what needs work, and a direct line to us if the match is not right. Changing tutor is a normal request, not a complaint, and it costs a family nothing.
Across all of our work, 91% of our students achieve their desired grades, and our Trustpilot rating stands at Excellent, 4.8 out of 5 from 54 reviews. You can see the full range of schools we prepare for on our 11+ preparation hub.
Reviews left by families and students who have worked with our tutors. Our Trustpilot rating is Excellent, 4.8 out of 5 from 54 reviews.
My son was low in confidence after COVID and the gaps in learning were building up. Using this service helped plug those gaps, rebuild confidence, and improve his ability to learn properly again.
We arranged maths and English tuition ahead of GCSEs and both tutors were brilliant. My daughter's grades improved, and by results day she achieved two grades higher than in her mock exams.
I attended an English bootcamp with Leading Tuition and the experience was excellent. The teacher gave focused attention to the small group while keeping the lessons interactive and engaging.
Every figure on this page is taken from Brentwood School's own published material. You can read the school's account of the process on its admissions process page, and we would encourage you to check the current cycle's dates there before planning around them.
Brentwood School's admissions page states that candidates sit GL Assessment's Adaptive Admissions Tests online in Mathematics and English, and that the entrance exam also includes an English Writing task taken at the school. The written element for 2027 entry is dated Saturday 28 November 2026. The adaptive tests may be sat at the candidate's own school where that school offers them; otherwise registered candidates are invited to sit them at Brentwood. Every candidate also attends an Individual Candidate Meeting, held between 9 and 20 November 2026, before the written task.
Not for Brentwood School alone. The school lists Mathematics and English, and reasoning papers appear nowhere in its published assessment. Several tutoring sites sell non-verbal reasoning material branded for the school, and one widely read guide states the assessment as English, Maths, verbal and non-verbal reasoning sat in January, which does not match what the school publishes. We would rather spend those hours on writing and on adaptive practice. If your child is also entering the Essex state selective system through the CSSE, reasoning becomes relevant for that exam and we plan it separately.
Yes, where their current school offers them. Brentwood School states that the tests can be taken at the candidate's school if offered, and that registered candidates are otherwise invited to sit the exam at Brentwood School. In practice this means some children take the assessment in a familiar room with familiar staff and others travel to Brentwood for it. We prepare for both, because the difference matters on the day: a child sitting at an unfamiliar site benefits from having visited it, and from a rehearsed routine for the morning.
No. We looked across the school's admissions-process page, its scholarships page and its bursary information, and no score threshold, cut-off or standardised minimum is published anywhere. That is normal for independent schools and it is worth saying plainly rather than filling the gap with an estimate. What the school does say is that the top-performing candidates in the entrance examination are considered for an Academic Scholarship, and that the Headteacher's reference from the child's current school plays an important part in the decision. Any specific pass mark you find quoted online has not come from the school.
It is a conversation, held before the written task, in which the school assesses what it calls a student's intellectual curiosity, potential and flair for learning. Every candidate attends one. It cannot be revised for in any useful sense, and children who arrive with rehearsed answers tend to sound rehearsed. What helps is having spent months being asked open questions by an adult who listens: what you are reading, what you disagreed with, what you would change. We build that into sessions in small amounts rather than running mock interviews.
Registration closes on 1 November of the preceding year, so families are committed well before the assessment itself. Starting in the autumn of Year 5 gives twelve months and allows skill-building and exam practice to run in sequence rather than together. Starting after Easter of Year 5 gives roughly six months and is the shape we most often run. Eight to ten weeks can still change exam behaviour, familiarise a child with adaptive delivery and improve a piece of writing, but it will not rebuild years of arithmetic fluency, and we will tell you that on the call.
No. Brentwood School teaches boys and girls separately from Year 7 until the Sixth Form and calls this the Diamond Model, but nothing it publishes suggests the entrance assessment differs by sex. The adaptive tests, the written English task and the Individual Candidate Meeting are the same, and we prepare boys and girls identically. Where the structure does matter is in helping a child picture the school they are applying to, particularly one who has spent seven years in mixed classes. A taster day answers that better than any amount of explanation from a tutor.
We build a programme around the three things the school actually assesses: adaptive Maths and English delivered on screen, a written English task marked by a person, and a conversation with an experienced teacher. You get a specialist tutor matched to the component your child needs, weekly one-to-one sessions, a written note after each one, and a mock schedule timed against the November dates. We are rated Excellent on Trustpilot, 4.8 out of 5 from 54 reviews, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades. Book a free consultation and we will tell you what is realistic.
Tell us where your child is now and when they sit the assessment. We will tell you what a realistic programme looks like, and say so if there is not enough time to do it properly.
Rated Excellent on Trustpilot — 4.8 out of 5 from 54 reviews. See the schools we prepare for on our 11+ hub, or read our GL Assessment parent guide.
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