11 Plus Singapore: Sitting UK Entry Tests for 2027

The 11 plus from Singapore is how a child in Singapore sits a UK school’s entry test for Year 7 in September 2027, for children born from 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016. MOE’s 2 January cut-off puts that cohort in Primary 5 and Primary 4 in 2026 (working below). Leading Tuition prepares children for UK 11+ entry from abroad: tuition can be one to one, and families outside the UK can take the whole programme online.

Which Singapore class is the 2027 entry cohort in?

Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) says on its Primary 1 registration page: “You can register your child in the 2026 P1 Registration Exercise if your child is born between 2 January 2020 and 1 January 2021 (both dates inclusive).” It describes registration as “a process to register your child for mainstream primary schools in the following year”, so that window is the Primary 1 class that starts on Monday 4 January 2027, the first day of the school year in MOE’s 2027 calendar.

England cuts the year on a different date. The Department for Education uses “normal age group” to mean “the year group a child would have been in had they entered school in the September following their fourth birthday”, and paragraph 2.17 of the School Admissions Code says: “Admission authorities must provide for the admission of all children in the September following their fourth birthday.” Reception in September 2020 is therefore children born 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016; they are in Year 6 in 2026-27 and start Year 7 in September 2027. Table 1 puts the two cut-offs side by side.

Table 1. England’s 1 September cut-off against MOE’s 2 January cut-off, for the cohort entering Year 7 in September 2027

Source: MOE for the 2020-21 window; DfE and the Admissions Code for the England dates. Working: MOE’s registration page gives the window for the 2026 exercise. We moved it back five years (Primary 1 in 2022) and four years (Primary 1 in 2023), assuming it did not change, so the last two columns are our arithmetic, not MOE’s. The full table, with Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, is on the which UK year group page.

The four-month group is the Primary 6 class of 2027, the year of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). MOE’s calendar listed the 2026 written papers for Thursday 24 September to Wednesday 30 September 2026 and the release of results, tentatively, for Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 November 2026; check MOE’s calendar for the 2027 dates. Year 7 entry is September 2027, and MOE’s 2027 Term IV starts on Monday 13 September 2027, so a family weighing a September 2027 place for this group is deciding in a year in which the PSLE falls. Which entry year a school will consider for a child is the school’s decision: ask each one in writing.

In which year do England and MOE place the Year 5 maths topics?

Two bodies say what their maths covers. ISEB, which sets the Common Pre-Tests, says: “Mathematics: Questions are based on the National Curriculum for Mathematics until the end of Year 5.” The London 11+ Consortium, whose assessment for September 2027 entry is dated in Table 3, says: “The questions are based on the National Curriculum for Year 5 and we do not test anything on the Year 6 curriculum.” A school that sets its own paper describes it on its own admissions page.

Table 2 sets the England programme of study beside MOE’s syllabus for the same topic, quoting the England line at the year where it sits. It records where each published document places a topic. It says nothing about what any child has or has not been taught, and each school’s own paper and scheme of work may differ.

Table 2. Where the England programme and the MOE syllabus place the same topic

Source: DfE, National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study; MOE, Mathematics Syllabus Primary One to Six, updated October 2025. MOE’s PDF prints each level label at the foot of the page, so the lines above a label belong to that level.

Read across the rows. Rows 3 and 5 pair an England Year 5 line with a Primary 5 line, and in Table 1 the eight-month group’s class in 2026 is Primary 4 on our projection, the year before MOE lists those items. Row 6 runs the other way: MOE’s Primary 4 line comes a year before England’s Year 5 line. Rows 1, 4 and 7 pair a Primary 5 item with an England Year 6 line, and the Consortium says it does not test Year 6 content; in row 1 MOE’s Primary 4 limit of 100 000 also sits below England’s Year 5 limit of 1,000,000. Row 2 sets both England lines against MOE’s three Primary 5 items without pairing them one to one. MOE’s syllabus notes that “The 2021 mathematics syllabus will be applicable to Primary 6 from 2026 onwards”, so Primary 4 and Primary 5 classes in 2026-27 are both on the document in Table 2.

How does Leading Tuition work with a family in Singapore?

Leading Tuition’s expert 11+ tutors prepare children for each independent school’s own papers or the ISEB Common Pre-Test, for the interview, and for the grammar tests. Families outside the UK can take the whole programme online, and tuition can be one to one. How Singapore’s clocks line up with UK clocks across the 2026-27 sittings is worked through on the online tuition and time zones page, and the hub page on 11 plus from overseas sets out each UK area’s own rule. See our 11+ tuition.

Do the 2027-entry sittings fall in Singapore term time?

MOE’s calendar has Term 4 of 2026 for primary schools running from Monday 14 September to Friday 20 November 2026, then school holidays from Saturday 21 November to Thursday 31 December 2026. For 2027 MOE says the school year “will start on Monday, 4 January 2027”, and “Primary 2 to 6 and Kindergarten 2 will start school on Tuesday, 5 January 2027”. MOE’s calendar governs MOE schools; a child at an international school should use that school’s own calendar. Table 3 sets each dated event for September 2027 entry against MOE’s calendar.

Table 3. Dated events for September 2027 entry against MOE’s calendar

Source: the school and body pages linked in the table; MOE’s academic calendar for 2026 and school terms and holidays for 2027.

Read down the last column. The Consortium’s three assessment dates, Dulwich College’s UK Year 7 date and the end of James Allen’s window all lie inside the 21 November to 31 December 2026 holidays. South Hampstead High School’s FAQ says for the Consortium exam: “It is expected that children will take the exam in their own schools.” Whether a given school is open and willing to host on a date in MOE’s holidays is for that school to say, so ask it in writing, and use the venues in the next section if it cannot. Alleyn’s overseas examination on Thursday 7 January 2027 falls after MOE’s year starts on Monday 4 January 2027, and Buckinghamshire’s date of Friday 18 June 2027 falls inside MOE’s holiday from Saturday 29 May to Sunday 27 June 2027.

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Which venues do ISEB and the schools name for Singapore?

ISEB says: “The tests can be taken by pupils in the UK and overseas.” Its registration guidance adds: “For overseas applicants, parents should ask the child’s current school if they can invigilate the ISEB Pre-Tests. If the pupil’s current school cannot accommodate the test, please contact ISEB for support in sourcing an approved non-school invigilation centre.” ISEB’s approved centres can include prep schools, senior schools, maintained schools, “British Councils worldwide” and registered governmental or educational locations. The invigilation-centre map on ISEB’s site, read on 4 October 2026, lists a Singapore centre: ExamPod Singapore, ExamPod, 271 Bukit Timah Road, #02-17 Balmoral plaza, Singapore, 259708, listed as an educational location. ISEB adds: “Parents and guardians should always confirm that their child can take the tests with the invigilation centre before selecting them during registration”, and “Unfortunately, a parent or guardian cannot add a venue as a new invigilation centre.”

For the Consortium exam, South Hampstead High School’s FAQ says: “Yes, it is possible for candidates to take the Consortium exam overseas. Please ask your daughter’s current school if they can invigilate the exam. If this is not possible, please contact the British Council in your country to see if they have suitable facilities nearby.” It adds: “The Consortium does not allow candidates to be tested at their home, a tutor’s house or anywhere which is not considered a professional venue.”

Dulwich College says testing “for boys living in other parts of the world will be held at either their nearest British Council office, a Dulwich College International school, or at the Hong Kong representative’s Office”. Dulwich’s page on its international schools lists Dulwich College (Singapore). Ask Dulwich which venue it would use for a candidate in Singapore. Alleyn’s says candidates “living abroad at the time of the entrance assessments may sit the assessments at another approved test centre by prior arrangement”, and James Allen’s Girls’ says on its 11+ page: “11+ Overseas applicants may apply and can sit their ISEB Common Pre-test abroad, along with the creative writing element of the Welcome Morning, rather than attending in person.” It adds: “Please note that we do not sponsor overseas applicants for visas.” School-by-school wording for more London schools is on the London independent schools from overseas page, and the test itself is on the ISEB Pre-Test page.

Sevenoaks, Oundle and Bedales each list Singapore dates this autumn. They are events, not sittings. Sevenoaks School lists an International Events entry for Singapore on Saturday 31 October 2026. Oundle School lists a Singapore Evening Reception on Friday 30 October 2026 at Shangri-La Singapore. Bedales School lists the Independent Schools Show in Singapore at the Shangri-La Hotel on Saturday 5 December 2026.

What does a Singapore address do to a UK application?

The Department for Education’s guidance on applications from overseas children says: “If an application is made from another country, local authorities should consider the application as adequate proof of an intention to move or return to the area and include it within the local authority co-ordinated process.” On the address it says that if a parent “is unable to provide evidence of a return to the area (before the new school year for applications made during the normal admissions round or for late applications, or by the start of the next term for in-year applications), admission authorities could apply a catchment area policy or distance tie-break, if they have such admission criteria, using the parents’ place of residence at the point the application is made. If this is in another country, it might give the child a lower priority for admission if the admission authority operates a catchment area or if the child is tied for the final place available with other applicants.”

Buckinghamshire’s registration page says: “If your child currently lives abroad, we will not be able to test them until they return to the UK.” Its key-dates page, headed “View the dates for entry in 2027”, gives 10 September 2026 for the Transfer Test; 1 September 2026 as “the cut-off date for the home address” for “most grammar schools” (“you should check each grammar school’s Admissions Policy to make sure. Some have an earlier date”); and 31 October 2026 as “The deadline to submit a secondary school application to your home local authority”.

The hub’s guides for Barnet, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Kingston and Tiffin, Redbridge and Sutton quote each area’s own wording. The general rules are on the pages for applying for Year 7 from abroad and whether foreign nationals can attend grammar schools, and our guides on returning to a UK grammar school and relocating to the UK mid-cycle cover a move that comes after a deadline.

What do the visa and MOE rules mean for a Singapore family?

On unaccompanied children, the DfE guidance says: “unaccompanied foreign national children and young people who are entering on a Child Student visa or Student visa must, when accessing education in England, study at the independent school, sixth form college or further education college which is a licensed student sponsor which has offered them an unconditional place on a course. They cannot lawfully, under their UK entry conditions, study at a state-funded school.” Table 4 gives the Home Office’s quarterly counts for the two most recent years ending June; it filters the dataset to visa subgroup Child Student, applicant type Main Applicant, outcome Issued and nationality Singapore. The notes sheet of the Home Office dataset (Excel file, downloads) says “Data from Q1 2026 onwards are provisional”, so the 2026 Q1 and Q2 cells are marked provisional.

Table 4. Child Student visas issued to Singapore nationals, Home Office, by quarter

Source: Home Office, immigration system statistics data tables, entry clearance visa applications and outcomes, year ending June 2026, sheet Data_Vis_D02, filtered as described above, from the dataset (Excel file, downloads); Notes sheet for the provisional flag. Q3 is July to September.

For a visit, gov.uk’s visa checker, run for a Singapore passport and the reason “Tourism or visiting family and friends”, says you must apply for either “an electronic travel authorisation (ETA)” or “a Standard Visitor visa”. gov.uk sets out the ETA fee and how to apply. It says the ETA lets you travel “for up to 6 months”, and that “Each person travelling needs an ETA, including babies and children.” The checker asks for the reason for the visit, so run it for the reason that applies to your family.

MOE’s compulsory education page says: “All Singapore Citizens born after 1 January 1996 and living in Singapore must attend a national primary school unless an exemption is granted.” How that rule applies to a family planning to move abroad for a UK place is a question for MOE: write to MOE and keep the reply.

Frequently Asked Questions

Reviewed 4 October 2026 against the Ministry of Education, DfE, Home Office, ISEB, Consortium, council and school pages linked above.