11 Plus From Dubai to London: 2027 Entry for UAE Families

11+ entry from the UAE is the set of London and Buckinghamshire routes that either let a child sit in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, or require a flight or a UK address first. Buckinghamshire says it will not test a child who lives abroad until they return to the UK, and Sutton’s test on 15 September 2026 has no overseas provision. James Allen’s Girls’ and Alleyn’s allow candidates to sit abroad, James Allen’s only for families relocating to the UK.

How does Leading Tuition prepare a child who sits from the UAE?

The programme starts from the sitting, not the syllabus. Every route in this guide ends in one of three situations: the child sits an invigilated paper in the UAE, the child flies to London for a date the school or council has fixed, or the child cannot be tested until the family is in the UK. Our expert 11+ tutors work out which of the three applies to the target school at the outset, because it decides what the child rehearses and by when. Families outside the UK can take the whole programme online.

For a sitting abroad, the preparation includes the room. ISEB says children take its Common Pre-Tests “at an approved invigilation centre”, which can include a prep school, a senior school, a maintained school and “British Councils worldwide”, and that parents “should always confirm” the centre can host the child before selecting it at registration. A parent cannot add a venue of their own: ISEB’s answer is that a parent or guardian “cannot add a venue as a new invigilation centre”, and a school that wants to host applies to become one. For a Dubai or Abu Dhabi family, the first practical question is therefore whether the child’s own school will host. The tests themselves can be taken between August and May of each academic year.

Clocks and calendars are separate problems. The UAE keeps a fixed UTC+4 offset with no daylight-saving rule, and UK clocks go back on 25 October 2026 and forward on 28 March 2027. Between those dates London is on GMT and the UAE is four hours ahead, so a 9am start in London is 1pm in the UAE; either side of those dates the gap is three hours. The calendar is the harder problem, and the sections below set each route’s rule, in the words of the school or council that makes it, against the 2026-27 UAE school year.

Which routes can a child sit from Dubai or Abu Dhabi?

The answer divides four ways, and the division matters more than the content of the test, because it decides whether a family needs an invigilation venue, a flight, a UK address or simply more time.

A UAE school’s year label does not decide the cohort. For September 2027 entry, Kent’s cohort is children “born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016”; for September 2028 entry, Buckinghamshire’s cohort is children born between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017. Check the child’s date of birth against the cohort of the entry year, rather than the year group the UAE school uses.

Which grammar areas cannot be sat from the UAE?

Buckinghamshire. The council’s registration page is direct: “If your child currently lives abroad, we will not be able to test them until they return to the UK. You should then contact us.” For 2027 entry, registration ran from 1 May to 2 June 2026 (3pm); the test is on 10 September 2026, results day is 9 October 2026 and the application deadline is 31 October 2026. For 2028 entry the council publishes “May to June 2027” for registration. How the test works is covered on our Buckinghamshire grammar schools page.

Sutton. Sutton Grammar School’s admissions FAQ says: “There is no overseas provision; in order to sit the test, your child must be present at one of the participating schools.” Asked whether a child at school abroad can sit the Selective Eligibility Test at the current school, it answers: “No. We do not provide any form of overseas testing and all candidates will be expected to travel to the UK to sit the SET at one of the Sutton school test centres.” For 2027 entry the test is on Tuesday 15 September 2026, registration closes at midnight on Friday 31 July 2026 and no late registrations are accepted, and the second-stage tests, for children who pass the SET, are on Saturday 26 September 2026 (girls: Nonsuch High School for Girls and Wallington High School for Girls) and Saturday 3 October 2026 (boys: Sutton Grammar, Wallington County Grammar and Wilson’s). A boy who passes the SET therefore needs a second UK date, 18 days after the first. There are no alternative dates except where a child is unfit on the day. More on the borough is on our Sutton 11+ page.

Kingston. Tiffin School’s FAQ for 2027 entry says of the admissions tests: “There is no provision to sit the tests at any other location.” Tiffin Girls’ says it does “not offer the option to sit the tests at alternative locations”. Tiffin School’s Stage One tests are on 2 October 2026 and Stage Two on 12 November 2026. Tiffin Girls’ Stage One is on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 October 2026 and Stage Two on Saturday 7 November 2026; its registration closes at noon on Tuesday 1 September 2026 and no late registrations are accepted. See Kingston 11+ for the tests themselves.

Kent. Kent County Council opens Kent Test registration to “parents of children resident in England”, and to the children of UK service personnel with a confirmed posting to the UK and Crown servants returning from overseas. Registration for 2027 entry closes on 1 July 2026. Kent grammar places are covered on our Kent 11+ page.

Redbridge. The council’s 11 plus page sets a residence condition before registration: “Your child needs to live in the blue lined area on the map.” For 2027 entry, registration closes before 5pm on Monday 15 June 2026 and the test is on Friday 18 September 2026.

Which London independents test in the UAE, and who books the room?

For entry at 13+ (Year 9) to a UK boarding school, see 13+ and UK boarding entry from the UAE.

A school’s own page is the only authority on whether it will test abroad, and several name the venue: the child’s current school, the British Council or an approved centre. Each row below quotes the school and gives its registration date for September 2027 entry. The wording is the school’s own: Alleyn’s and Emanuel allow a sitting abroad “by prior arrangement”, and Godolphin and Latymer “by prior agreement”.

Three further points come from the schools’ own pages. South Hampstead High School’s FAQ on the London 11+ Consortium exam says: “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 that 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”, and that the exam is on Friday 27 November, Tuesday 1 December or Thursday 3 December 2026. Godolphin and Latymer’s admissions policy says international candidates “can usually (by prior agreement) make arrangements with their current school or the British Council to administer the entrance assessment”, and adds: “Candidates may not sit the entrance assessment at home.” Haberdashers’ Boys’ says it can “facilitate assessments in your country of residence” and will work with a chosen invigilator.

Not every school ends the process abroad. Westminster Under School says its January written papers “can only be taken at Westminster Under School”, and St Paul’s Girls’ requires the written papers on site. Dulwich College’s overseas registration deadline for Year 7 entry in September 2027 is Friday 2 October 2026, a month before its UK deadline of Monday 2 November 2026; it is recorded here as a fact about the 2027 cycle. City of London School for Girls publishes a separate registration link for overseas applicants to Year 7, with registration closing on Friday 30 October 2026, and says interviews “may be conducted remotely, and we will try to schedule them to a convenient time for your time zone”.

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What does a UAE address do to a child’s priority?

Where a school ranks applicants by catchment or distance, the date on which the address is judged can matter more than the test date. The national rule lets a family apply from abroad, and ties the effect on priority to evidence of a return. gov.uk guidance says that 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 that an authority “should not refuse an application made from overseas” because the applicant does not currently live in its area. It then adds 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)”, an authority could apply a catchment or distance tie-break using the parents’ place of residence, and that 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”. It also warns that an offer can be removed if the child “does not attend school on the first day of term”.

Councils and schools apply that rule differently:

• Barnet. For transfer to secondary school in September 2027 a family needs to be “living in Barnet or have a link Barnet address”. A family still abroad at the time of application has its “overseas address” used for home-to-school distance calculations; the council says this “will determine your child’s position on the waiting list for oversubscribed schools that give priority to children who live the closest”, and that the distance “will be recalculated to your UK address once you have arrived and taken up residence locally”. Our Barnet 11+ page covers the five separate tests.
• Buckinghamshire. For most grammar schools, 1 September 2026 is the cut-off date for the home address used in the main allocation for 2027 entry, and for 2028 entry it is 1 September 2027. The council advises: “you should check each grammar school’s Admissions Policy to make sure. Some have an earlier date.” If the address changes after the cut-off date, “your previous address will be used until a later allocation round”.
• Kingston. Tiffin School states that places “have only been offered to those who live within 10km of the School”, and that the permanent residence is the address “where the boy is living at the time of submission of the common application form”, on the closing date of 31 October 2026.
• Sutton. Applicants living outside England “may only submit an application if they have a linked address within an English Local Authority area”, with documentary evidence “to show you will return to the address prior to September in the year of entry”.
• Independent schools. St Paul’s Girls’ says all students “must live in London with their parents”; Westminster Under School accepts overseas applications “if at least one parent is resident at all times in London and the child is able to commute daily from their home to School”; James Allen’s Girls’ “can only accept applications on behalf of candidates who are relocating with their families to the UK”.

The guides on returning to a UK grammar school as an expat and on relocating mid-cycle cover the evidence councils ask for; service families can read the forces families guide.

How does the 2026-27 UAE school year line up with the sitting dates?

The UAE Ministry of Education’s 2026-27 calendar and the tables on KHDA’s academic calendar page give the fixed points. KHDA states that the calendar “is issued by the UAE Government and all private schools in Dubai must abide by” it, and sets a minimum of 185 school days for schools starting in September; it publishes a separate table for April-start schools. Abu Dhabi families should check their own school’s calendar. The official weekend of the UAE federal government sector is Saturday and Sunday, according to u.ae; whether a Saturday sitting costs any lessons depends on the child’s own school week.

Two patterns follow. Most of the grammar-area sittings crowd into the first five weeks of the UAE year (Tiffin’s Stage Two tests come in November), and registration closes earlier still: Kent on 1 July, Sutton on 31 July and Tiffin Girls’ on 1 September 2026. The independents are spread from November to January, around a winter break that none of the dated sittings on this page falls inside.

What if the move comes after registration closes?

• Buckinghamshire. “Families who move into Buckinghamshire by 18 June 2027 will be offered late testing for their child, as long as they can provide evidence that they have moved.” That date is two weeks before the UAE school year ends on 2 July 2027. Our guide for expats returning to a UK grammar school sets the rule out; the separate Buckinghamshire late-transfer guide covers a different route, the Year 8 and Year 9 Late Transfer Test.
• Bexley. Bexley says its test “is open to all children, regardless of where they live”. “If you move into the area while your child is in Year 6 and you did not register from your previous address before 31 March 2026, your child can be tested for the first time in secondary school.” See Bexley 11+ for the detail.
• Kent. Registration closes on 1 July 2026, but a family that has not registered for September 2027 entry can email the admissions team with the child’s name, date of birth, full address and current school.
• Sutton and Kingston. Sutton accepts no late registrations under any circumstances; Tiffin School and Tiffin Girls’ say the same.

On in-year applications gov.uk says authorities “must consider all in-year applications”; our guide to in-year grammar school admissions covers them.

What if the family’s passports are not British?

Parents are responsible for checking eligibility: gov.uk says foreign national children living outside the UK will normally need “a right of abode” or “an immigration status which otherwise permits them to enter the UK to study at a school”. A Child Student visa is for ages 4 to 17 at an independent school only, and its holders “cannot lawfully” study at a state-funded school, so a grammar place and a Child Student visa never go together. Sponsorship varies by school: James Allen’s Girls’ says “we do not sponsor overseas applicants for visas”, and Haberdashers’ Boys’ says it is “not a licensed Child Student sponsor”. Check each school’s own statement before registering.

Frequently Asked Questions

Reviewed 3 October 2026 against each council’s and school’s own pages and the UAE calendars.