Hampton School 13+ Preparation

Hampton School is a selective independent day school for boys in Hampton, south-west London, that sets its own 13+ Pre-test rather than using the ISEB Common Pre-Test many comparable schools rely on. Boys sit it in Year 6 -- registration for September 2029 entry closes on 1 November 2026 -- roughly three years before they actually start at Hampton in Year 9. Leading Tuition prepares boys for both of Hampton's 13+ routes.

Hampton's 13+ Pre-test Is Not the ISEB Common Pre-Test -- What It Actually Involves

Most independent senior schools that admit boys at 13+ use the ISEB Common Pre-Test, a standardised online assessment set nationally and shared between dozens of schools. Hampton does not. Its own admissions page is explicit: the admissions process begins in Year 6 and entry runs "via our own 13+ Pre-test" -- a test written, marked and administered entirely by Hampton itself. One independent tutoring guide researched for this page goes further, noting that Hampton's pre-test "is not to be confused with the ISEB pre-test," which the school no longer uses at all. A family that starts preparing for the wrong exam wastes real time, so this distinction is worth getting right before anything else.

The Year 6 Pre-test itself is sat in a single day and comprises three timed papers: English -- Creative Writing and Comprehension (40 minutes), Words and Reasoning (40 minutes), and Maths (45 minutes) -- two hours and five minutes of testing in total. The English paper combines a creative or descriptive writing task with a short comprehension exercise; the Words and Reasoning paper tests vocabulary, verbal reasoning and some visual puzzles, often in multiple-choice form; and the Maths paper focuses on problem-solving and applied technique rather than pure recall, in line with what Hampton publishes about its entrance papers generally. If you are also weighing up Hampton at 11+, our separate Hampton School 11+ preparation guide covers that entirely different exam and timetable -- a boy may only register for one of the two entry points, never both.

Why Is There a Two-to-Three-Year Gap Between the Pre-Test and Starting at Hampton?

This is the detail that catches most families out, and it is the single most important thing to understand about Hampton's 13+ process. A boy who registers for the Year 6 Pre-test sits it in November while still at his current prep or primary school, in Year 6. If he is offered and accepts a place, he does not join Hampton that September, or even the September after -- he continues at his existing school through the whole of Year 7 and Year 8, and only actually starts at Hampton in Year 9, roughly three academic years after sitting the test that secured his place.

Notice how far apart results and the acceptance deadline sit for the Year 6 route: results arrive in February 2027, but the family does not have to confirm until January 2028 -- almost a full year later. That gap is not an oversight. Because the boy will not actually join Hampton until September 2029, there is no operational reason to force an early commitment, and Hampton gives families time to weigh the offer against other schools' own 13+ or Common Entrance processes, which run on different calendars. For families, the practical consequence is that "13+ preparation" for the Year 6 route really means two things: getting a boy ready for a single testing day roughly three years before he starts, and then managing nearly three years of a confirmed-but-distant place while he continues at his current school. Families should always confirm current-cycle dates directly on Hampton School's own admissions process page, since a school can amend a published calendar between our research and your application.

What Happens If a Boy Isn't Successful at the Year 6 Pre-test? The Year 7 Route

Hampton builds a genuine second chance into its process, and it is automatic rather than something a family has to apply for separately. The school's own wording is direct: boys who are not successful in the Year 6 Pre-test are automatically invited to sit the Year 7 Pre-test the following year, "similar in format to the Year 6 Pre-test but age adjusted." A boy does not need to reapply from scratch, gather a fresh reference, or explain himself twice -- Hampton carries his candidacy forward by a year.

The Year 7 route is not only a safety net, though. It is also the entry point for boys who were never in the Year 6 process at all -- Hampton's own admissions page states that Year 7 Pre-test assessments are "also open to boys who have not sat before and attend a prep school that finishes at the end of Year 8." That covers families whose sons are at schools with a Year 8 leaving age, or who simply were not ready, or were not aware of Hampton, when the Year 6 window closed. Because entry through this route lands in September 2028 rather than 2029, the total run-up is shorter -- around two years from sitting to starting, rather than three -- which changes how much preparation time a family actually has.

The Interview and Reference: What Changes at 13+ Compared with 10+?

Candidates who perform well in the written Pre-test are invited to interview, and the 13+ interview is a more substantial stage than Hampton's equivalent at 10+. At 13+, candidates meet two members of Hampton's teaching staff separately, for around 30 minutes in total; at 10+, by contrast, Hampton runs a single interview of around 20 minutes. Hampton describes the purpose of the 13+ interview as getting to know candidates "as people" and exploring not only academic and all-round potential but also fit with the school's ethos and values -- so it is not simply a second written test in spoken form.

A confidential reference is also requested directly from the boy's current school ahead of the entrance exam, for both the Year 6 and Year 7 routes. This runs alongside, not instead of, the written papers and the interview -- Hampton's own description of the process frames the reference, the Pre-test and the interview as three separate strands feeding into one decision, rather than a single gatekeeping hurdle.

Can a Boy Apply at Both 11+ and 13+ at Hampton?

No, and the rule is stated plainly on Hampton's own site: boys may only sit for entry at 11+ or 13+, not both, and offers made at one entry point are not transferable to the other. A First Year (11+) offer cannot later become a Third Year (13+) place, and a 13+ offer cannot be brought forward to First Year. In practice this means a family has to commit to a lane before registering -- if a boy is currently in Year 5, the decision is whether to pursue Hampton's 11+ process this year or wait and aim for the Year 6 Pre-test the following autumn, not both in parallel.

Hampton does allow forms to mix continuing pupils and new joiners smoothly once a 13+ boy actually arrives: at the start of the Third Year, forms are re-organised into entirely new groupings of both continuing First Year pupils and new Third Year arrivals, and new boys can express a friendship preference if they wish. Some setting by ability, in Mathematics and Modern Languages, also begins from the Third Year, so 13+ entrants are not simply dropped into classes that have already settled into fixed groupings two years earlier.

Scholarships and Bursaries for Third Year (13+) Entry

Hampton offers Academic, Art, Chess, Music, Performing Arts and Sport scholarships to boys joining the Third Year at 13+, on the same basis as at 11+. The one exception is Choral scholarships, which Hampton awards in conjunction with the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace and offers only at 11+, not at 13+ -- a distinction that matters if choral music is part of a family's reason for considering Hampton. Scholarship value typically involves a fee remission of between 5% and 10% of tuition fees, though Hampton is clear that the number and value of awards varies from year to year and scholarships are not means-tested, though they can be combined with a means-tested bursary.

Bursaries are a separate, larger programme: they are available to boys joining the Third Year at 13+ (as well as First Year and Sixth Form entry), are means-tested, and can reduce fees by anywhere from 10% up to a full 100%, depending on a family's financial circumstances. Free Places -- the 100% end of that range -- cover not just tuition but uniform, sports kit, coach travel, lunches, co-curricular activities such as music lessons, and school trips. Hampton currently has 96 pupils on completely free places school-wide, a number partly funded through its own Fitzwygram Foundation, alongside many more boys receiving partial bursary support.

What Are Hampton School's Fees From Year 9, and What Financial Help Exists?

Hampton's own fees page lists tuition at £9,972.00 per term, including VAT, plus a one-off £180.00 registration fee payable when you register your son and a £2,400 acceptance deposit once a Third Year place is formally offered and accepted. These figures are published directly by Hampton and sit apart from the bursary support described above, which can reduce the tuition figure itself rather than simply offsetting it with a separate award. Because acceptance for the Year 6 Pre-test route can fall as much as a year after results, families have unusually long notice to plan for these costs, or to begin a bursary conversation with Hampton's admissions team, well before the Third Year actually starts.

Hampton Says It Doesn't Recommend Tutoring -- What Should Parents Make of That?

Hampton's own admissions FAQ addresses tutoring head-on, and does not hedge: it states that the school does not recommend tutoring, because it is looking for naturally bright boys who will thrive and be happy at school. It is worth taking that seriously rather than explaining it away, because it reflects something real about what Hampton's own Pre-test is built to find -- problem-solving ability and reasoning skill, not memorised technique.

We do not read that statement as a reason to avoid preparation altogether, and we do not think Hampton intends it that way either. A programme built purely to drill exam technique in the final few weeks before a sitting is exactly the kind of tutoring that sits at odds with what a bespoke ability test like Hampton's is designed to filter out. But because most families have two to three years of genuine notice before the Year 6 sitting -- a much longer run-up than most 11+ or 13+ processes allow -- there is a real, honest alternative: using that time to build a boy's actual reading, reasoning and mathematical ability, and his confidence talking about his thinking in an interview, rather than compressing preparation into a short pre-exam sprint. That is a different kind of help from last-minute cramming, and it is the kind Hampton's own test rewards.

How Leading Tuition Prepares Boys for Hampton School's 13+ Pre-test

Leading Tuition builds a 13+ preparation programme around Hampton's actual test, on whichever timeline a family is working to -- the two-to-three-year run-up of the Year 6 route, or the shorter window before the Year 7 Pre-test. Because Hampton's own papers reward problem-solving over drilled recall, our tutors focus on the same three areas Hampton tests directly: extended Maths problem-solving rather than isolated arithmetic, Words and Reasoning practice covering verbal reasoning, vocabulary and visual puzzle types, and English work that develops a boy's creative writing and comprehension technique together, since Hampton's own English paper combines both in one 40-minute sitting. We also prepare boys for the two-member, 30-minute interview specifically, since it carries real weight in Hampton's decision and is a different skill from written exam performance.

If your son is not yet clear on which of Hampton's routes fits his current school year, or you are weighing Hampton's Year 6 Pre-test against the ISEB Common Pre-Test used by many other 13+ schools, or against other south-west London options such as Whitgift School's 13+ entry, we can talk through the differences on a free call. We are rated 4.8 out of 5 from 57 reviews on Trustpilot, read on 19 August 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades. Book a free consultation to discuss a plan built around your son's actual timeline, not a generic one.

What Parents Say

DP

Deborah Prior

★★★★★

Confidence and progress

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.

NI

Nicola

★★★★★

Amazing tutors!

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.

S

Saifan Khan

★★★★★

Great Teaching and Focused Learning

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.

Frequently Asked Questions About Hampton School 13+ Entry

Further reading: Hampton School 11+ Preparation | What Is the ISEB Common Pre-Test? | Whitgift School 13+ Preparation | Free 13+ Resources and Past Papers