Newcastle-under-Lyme School Year 9 Entry

Newcastle-under-Lyme School (NULS), an independent day school in Staffordshire, admits pupils into its Senior School at the start of Year 7, 8, 9 or 10 — but its own site never brands any of these routes "13+". A Year 9 candidate sits the same Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics, English and computer-based exam as Year 7, tested on 6 November 2026, offered a place only where one exists, and paying £6,620 per term for 2026-27.

What NULS Actually Calls Year 9 Entry

Search "Newcastle-under-Lyme School 13+" and the school's own website will not use that phrase back at you anywhere. Its Senior School admissions page states plainly: "Pupils are also welcome to join us at the start of Year 8, Year 9 or Year 10." That is the entire branding of the route — a year group, not an age-banded product name. Compare that with the neighbouring 11+ route, which NULS does name directly on the same page, and the gap is deliberate rather than an oversight: this school simply does not market a "13+" entry point the way many of the independent and boarding schools on our 13+ preparation hub do.

The term is not entirely absent from NULS's paperwork, though, and this is worth knowing precisely because it is easy to get wrong. The school's Admissions Policy (reviewed by governors in October 2025) states: "Scholarships are available for Academic, Musical and Sporting ability at 11+, 13+ with Drama and Art Scholarships also available at 16+." That single sentence is the only place "13+" appears anywhere in NULS's own published material, and it refers narrowly to when a scholarship assessment is run alongside the entrance exam — not to a distinct admissions process, a separate exam paper, or a branded intake year. A family who has only seen "13+" used elsewhere to mean a full ISEB Common Pre-Test and Common Entrance cycle — the system many boarding and larger day schools run, explained on our Common Entrance exam guide — needs to unlearn that expectation here. NULS runs neither ISEB Common Pre-Test nor Common Entrance at any entry point; it sets its own Senior School entrance examination, and Year 9 candidates sit the same one Year 7 candidates do.

Why the naming matters practically: a parent who searches "NULS 13+ dates" or "NULS 13+ syllabus" finds nothing, concludes the school does not take Year 9 entrants at all, and rules it out. The school's own FAQ page settles the point directly — "We take applications at all points during the year" — but only for a reader who has already found the FAQ page, which does not surface for a "13+" search.

The Senior School Entrance Examination Year 9 Candidates Sit

NULS's Admissions Policy sets out the assessment in a single sentence that applies to every Senior School entry point, Year 9 included: "The School's examination consists of a Verbal Reasoning Test, a Mathematics paper, an English paper and a computer based assessment." The school's own Senior School admissions page adds that the English component covers comprehension as well as writing. There is no separate "13+" paper, no interview requirement at this stage (interviews are reserved for Sixth Form entry), and no published pass mark — NULS, like most independent schools, does not release cut scores.

Extra time is available in the written papers for candidates who meet the school's accepted access criteria, and the Admissions Policy is explicit that special educational needs are taken into account before the assessment, not after: parents complete a section on the School Entrance Test Form, and where a report from an educational psychologist or specialist is supplied, staff make appropriate access arrangements ahead of the test itself. The policy also commits to a fixed turnaround once testing is complete — "This will normally be within two weeks of the initial assessment or interview" — so a Year 9 family is not left waiting indefinitely to plan a school move.

Source: Newcastle-under-Lyme School Admissions Policy, reviewed by governors October 2025, and NULS Open Events calendar.

Registering for Year 9 Entry: What's Different From the Fixed Year 7 Route

Where Year 7 entry runs to a public calendar — an Autumn Open Morning, a "How to do an Entrance Test" evening in early October and a single Year 7 Entrance Exam Day on 6 November 2026 — Year 9 entry has no equivalent fixed date on NULS's published Open Events list. The Admissions Policy describes entry to "other age groups" as being assessed "by individual arrangement" rather than on a set day, and the school's FAQ page confirms the practical effect: "We take applications at all points during the year." A family is not waiting for a single November sitting; they are asking the Registrar to arrange a test slot.

The paperwork itself is the same regardless of year group. An official Registration Form has to be completed and returned before any assessment is set, and the school "will ask for a copy of the child's birth certificate." Parents are also expected to tell their child's current head teacher that an application is underway, since NULS "may request reports from a child's current school." For a family moving into the area at short notice, the policy allows a supplementary assessment to be arranged later in the year — but only "at the discretion of the Headmaster ... should a place be available," which returns to the constraint the next section covers directly.

Whether a Year 9 Place Is Actually Available

This is the constraint NULS's admissions marketing understates and its own governance document states outright. The Admissions Policy's founding clause on entry restrictions reads: "The only restrictions we place on entry are those of ability, suitability, numbers and availability of finance ... this is not always possible when demand exceeds the number of places available." The clause covering non-Year-7 entry specifically is more direct still: "Entrance to the Senior School (Years 7 to 11) is usually by examination at 11+ each year. Entrance to other age groups where places are available is by a similar age-related examination." Year 9 is one of those "other age groups" — a candidate who passes the assessment is not automatically offered a place; a vacant seat has to exist first.

In practice this works two ways. Where demand for a Year 9 place outstrips supply, NULS keeps "a short list of reserves," and those families are told "a place could be offered at a later date were another parent to withdraw a previous acceptance." And even where a place exists, an offer is not unconditional on academic performance alone: the policy states that "an essential aspect of the school issuing and honouring school offers is the acquiring of a satisfactory behavioural record from the child's previous school," and that "should any information on behaviour or academic attributes not meet with the schools approval, places will not be offered or can be withdrawn" — a clause that applies to internal transfers from the NULS Prep School as much as external Year 9 applicants.

Senior School Fees, Bursaries and Scholarships for a Year 9 Entrant

NULS publishes its current fee on the Senior School admissions page rather than leaving families to ask: "Our termly fees for Senior School are £6,620 per term (inclusive of VAT)," with lunches billed separately at "£360 per term." Both figures apply identically to a Year 9 entrant and a Year 7 entrant — there is no separate Year 9 fee band.

Source: Newcastle-under-Lyme School Senior School admissions page and Admissions Policy, September/October 2025.

That scholarships row is where the "13+" language genuinely does appear on NULS's own paperwork — but strictly as a marker for when a scholarship assessment sits alongside the entrance exam, not as the name of the entry route itself. A Year 9 candidate who wants to be considered for a scholarship needs to raise it with the Admissions team ahead of the assessment, since the policy directs further detail requests to the Registrar rather than publishing a self-service scholarship syllabus.

How Leading Tuition Prepares a Year 9 Candidate for NULS

The exam content a Year 9 candidate sits at NULS is, component for component, the same one an 11+ candidate sits — Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics, an English paper and a computer-based assessment — but the candidate is two academic years older, working from a Year 8 curriculum base rather than a Year 6 one. Our preparation for a Year 9 NULS applicant is built around that gap: Mathematics work pitched at Key Stage 3 problem-solving rather than KS2 arithmetic, an English paper that expects more developed comprehension and extended writing, and Verbal Reasoning practice calibrated to the vocabulary and question complexity a 13-year-old candidate meets, not a watered-down repeat of our Year 7 materials.

Because NULS sets no fixed calendar date for Year 9 entry, we build each family's preparation timeline around the date the Registrar actually offers, rather than a fixed November countdown — some families arrange assessment within a few weeks of first contacting the school, others plan a full term ahead. Our tutors for this route have direct experience of independent school entrance examinations set by schools that write their own papers rather than buying in ISEB content, which matters here specifically because NULS's test is bespoke to the school and does not appear in generic 13+ or Common Entrance practice material.

If Year 7 entry is the route you are actually weighing, our dedicated Newcastle-under-Lyme School 11+ preparation page covers that process in full — the November exam day, the Autumn Open Morning and the standard Year 7 admissions cycle — and is the right starting point rather than this one.

Frequently Asked Questions