Kingston 11+ for 2027 Entry: Registration Closes 1 September 2026

Both Kingston grammar schools close 11+ registration at 12.00 noon on Tuesday 1 September 2026 for September 2027 entry, and neither accepts a late application. What follows is a 2-stage test: Stage One in the first days of October 2026, then Stage Two in November for those invited. At Tiffin School, up to 10% of places now go on sporting or musical aptitude.

When Does Registration Close?

At noon on Tuesday 1 September 2026, at both schools, for entry in September 2027. Tiffin School: "Registration will close at 12 noon on Tuesday 1st September 2026. No late applications will be accepted." The Tiffin Girls' School: registration "will close at 12.00 noon on Tuesday 1 September 2026. No late registrations will be accepted."

That deadline sits before the autumn term begins. A family that plans to sort out secondary transfer when the new school year starts will find both Kingston grammar schools already closed to their child, and there is no appeal against a missed registration — it is not the local authority's deadline and the local authority cannot help.

Both schools also warn that their admissions departments do not work through the summer holiday. Tiffin Girls' asks families to complete registration and return medical or pupil premium paperwork before Friday 17 July, the end of the summer term. Tiffin School asks for all information from a child's primary school by the same date where access arrangements are needed, because after it the primary school is shut too.

What Do the Two Schools Actually Set?

A Stage One test, then a Stage Two test for those invited. Both schools publish the sequence, and the dates differ by a day or two rather than by design.

Our arithmetic on those two timetables rather than a claim either school makes: a child applying to both sits Stage One tests within a 2-day window at the start of October, and both schools decide who goes forward in the middle of that month — before the local authority form is even due on 31 October. So a family completes the Common Application Form already knowing whether their child reached Stage Two, which is unusual and genuinely useful.

Tiffin School publishes Illustrative Questions for both the English and the Maths tests, under Important Documents on its Year 7 Admissions page, alongside the determined admissions policy. Those are free, official, and a better guide to the format than any commercial approximation.

What Are the Aptitude Routes at Tiffin School?

This is the change most preparation advice has not caught up with. From September 2025 entry onwards Tiffin School introduced a Sporting Aptitude Assessment and a Music Aptitude Assessment, and up to 10% of places are awarded to boys who demonstrate an aptitude in Sport (5%) or Music (5%).

Our arithmetic on that split rather than a figure the school states: roughly 1 place in 10 at Tiffin School is now decided by an assessment that is not the academic Stage One or Stage Two test. For a boy with a genuine sporting or musical aptitude, that is a materially different route into the school, and it is one his academic preparation does not touch.

The catch is the calendar. Earlier deadlines apply: for 2027 entry the early application deadline for the aptitude assessments was 09:00 on 6 July 2026, with Music Aptitude Part One on 8 July and Part Two on 10 July, and Sports Aptitude assessments on 13 and 14 July. A family that discovers the route in September has missed it by two months, even though the academic registration is still open.

Does Where You Live Matter in Kingston?

At The Tiffin Girls' School, yes, and in a way that is easy to miss because the school is usually described as super-selective. It states that its catchment area is made up of an Inner Area and a Designated Area, and that girls living in those areas are given priority.

Above that sits a set of priorities for disadvantaged children. The school gives the highest priority in its oversubscription criteria to looked after and previously looked after children, to children in the catchment area eligible for means-tested free school meals, and to children in the catchment area registered as a service child at their current school. A family that qualifies under any of those heads should make sure the evidence reaches the school with the registration, not afterwards.

We have not set out an equivalent statement for Tiffin School here, because its Year 7 Admissions page does not carry one and we would rather leave a gap than fill it with an assumption. Its determined admissions policy is published on the same page, and that is the document to read before assuming the two schools treat geography the same way.

Why Does the Name of the Test Matter?

It matters because a family searching for the wrong thing finds the wrong material. A parent looking for "Kingston Grammar Test past papers" will not find any, because no such paper exists; a parent looking for Tiffin School's Illustrative Questions will find them free on the school's own site. The name determines what a search returns, and a wrong name sends a family to commercial approximations instead of the official material.

It also creates a real confusion locally. Kingston Grammar School is a separate independent school in the same town, with its own entrance process and its own dates. A family told their child is sitting the "Kingston Grammar Test" could reasonably conclude they are applying to Kingston Grammar School, which is not what the Tiffin schools run at all.

The correct vocabulary is the schools' own: register for the Stage One test, sit Stage One at the start of October, and, if invited, sit Stage Two in November. Using the schools' words is not pedantry — it is what makes the rest of the process findable.

What Should a Kingston Preparation Plan Look Like?

Two peaks rather than one. Stage One is at the very start of October and Stage Two follows in November for those invited, which means a child who does well in October has another assessment six weeks later, in the middle of the autumn term. Planning for a single push in September leaves nothing in reserve for the stage that actually decides the place.

Work backwards from 1 September for the paperwork and from early October for the academic preparation. Those are different tasks with different deadlines, and the paperwork one has no second chance. Registration takes a form, a photograph at Tiffin Girls', and any supporting evidence — all of which can be done in June, months before any preparation matters.

Then use what the schools publish. Tiffin School's Illustrative Questions for English and Maths show the shape of the papers, and both schools publish their determined admissions policies. Between them, a family can build a plan on documents rather than on what other parents believe, which in this borough has included a test name that does not exist.

One last practical point about Kingston that families from other boroughs find surprising. Both Tiffin schools sit within a short walk of each other in the same town, and both draw from across Surrey and south-west London, so the competition a child faces is not local in any meaningful sense. A family moving into the borough to be near the schools should read The Tiffin Girls' catchment definition carefully first, because an Inner Area and a Designated Area are not the same thing and only one of them is the address most people mean when they say "in catchment".

Reviewed August 2026: every date, deadline, test stage, aptitude route and catchment statement on this page was checked on 23 August 2026 against Tiffin School's and The Tiffin Girls' School's own Year 7 Admissions pages. Both schools set new dates each cycle, so confirm them with the school before you plan around them.

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