City of London School 16+ Entry: 2026-27 Sixth Form Admissions Guide

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City of London School's Sixth Form (16+) entry for 2026-27 requires six full-course GCSE or IGCSE passes at grade A*/9-8 (including subjects related to your chosen A-levels), plus grade A/9-7 in English Language and Mathematics unless you're studying them at A-level. Candidates sit a roughly 75-minute online CAT4 cognitive ability test alongside three 45-minute written papers in their proposed A-level subjects, then attend a 20-minute interview if shortlisted. This is the school's Sixth Form entry point at age 16 — a separate admissions process from 11+ entry into the main school, with its own exam, its own deadlines and its own (much smaller) intake.

This guide covers exactly what's involved in applying to CLS Sixth Form as an external 16+ candidate, how the process compares with internal progression from the school's own Year 11, and what our specialist tutors do to help boys prepare for the subject-specific written papers and interview.

How Does 16+ Entry to City of London School Work?

City of London School, on Queen Victoria Street beside the Millennium Bridge in the City of London, is a selective independent day school for boys aged 10 to 18. Its Sixth Form currently has 318 pupils out of a total school roll of 1,041, according to the Good Schools Guide's 2025 review. External 16+ candidates join a highly competitive process because CLS Sixth Form places are shared between boys already at the school (who move up from Year 11) and a small number of external applicants recruited specifically at 16+.

The process runs in two stages. Stage one is the written assessment day, which combines the GL CAT4 cognitive ability test with subject-specific papers in the three A-level subjects a candidate wishes to study. Stage two is an interview, offered only to candidates who perform strongly enough at stage one. Offers are then made subject to GCSE results, with unconditional confirmation following results day in August.

What Does the CLS 16+ Entrance Assessment Involve?

The written assessment day has two components, both confirmed on the school's own admissions page. The first is a computer-based CAT4 test lasting around 75 minutes, assessing verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial reasoning — the same underlying test format GL Assessment supplies to many UK selective schools, though CLS sets its own pass threshold and weighting for 16+ candidates. The second is a set of subject-specific written papers: 45 minutes per subject, sat in three of the A-level subjects the candidate intends to study from September.

CLS offers 21 A-level subjects for Sixth Form study: Art, Biology, Chemistry, Classical Civilisation, Classical Greek, Drama, Economics, English Literature, French, Geography, German, History, Latin, Mandarin, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy and Theology, Physics, Politics, Russian and Spanish. All modern and classical languages are taught to non-native speakers, so a candidate proposing French A-level, for example, sits a French subject paper designed for that route rather than a native-speaker paper. Because the papers are subject-specific rather than generic verbal/non-verbal reasoning tests, preparation has to be built around the actual A-level specification a candidate is applying for — which is where our specialist tutors focus most of their 16+ preparation work, rather than generic exam-technique drilling.

What GCSE Grades Do You Need to Apply for City of London School Sixth Form?

The official entry requirement, published on the school's 16+ admissions page, is six full-course GCSE or IGCSE passes at grade A* or 8/9, to include the candidate's chosen or related Sixth Form subjects. English Language and Mathematics must be at grade A or 9-7, unless the candidate is proposing to study either subject at A-level (in which case the higher A*/8-9 threshold applies to that subject too, as part of the "chosen subjects" rule). In practice this means a candidate applying for Maths, Further Maths and Physics A-levels would need A*/8-9 in GCSE Maths and Physics specifically, alongside five other full passes at the same top grade band.

This bar is set higher than many comparable London day schools' published 16+ thresholds, reflecting the fact that CLS Sixth Form results regularly place it among the strongest cohorts nationally — in 2025, 75% of all A-level grades awarded were A* or A, and 93% were A*-B, against England-wide averages of roughly 24% and 47% respectively (Good Schools Guide, 2025 review). A candidate sitting the 16+ exam in November 2026 is, in effect, being assessed for their ability to sustain that standard for two more years at A-level, not just to meet a minimum grade threshold.

How Many External Places Are Available, and How Does That Compare With Internal Year 11 Progression?

This is the question CLS's own admissions page doesn't directly answer, and it's the detail external applicants most need to understand. The school does not publish an official annual figure for external 16+ places on its admissions site. Specialist 16+ preparation providers who work with CLS applicants each year, including PretestPlus, put the number at up to 20 external places annually — small relative to a Sixth Form that totals 318 pupils across both year groups (roughly 159 per year group).

What the school's own published context does confirm is why that number is so small. The Good Schools Guide's review of City of London School notes that pupil retention after GCSEs is "vanishingly rare" except by choice — meaning the overwhelming majority of the school's own Year 11 boys move up into the Sixth Form automatically, subject to meeting the same GCSE grade thresholds as external candidates. If a Year 11 cohort of roughly 140-150 boys is feeding into a Sixth Form year group of around 159, external 16+ offers are filling only the small remainder — a mathematical squeeze that explains why 16+ is consistently described as the most competitive of the school's three entry points (10+, 11+ and 16+), even though the raw number of places looks modest next to the 11+ intake.

The practical implication for external applicants: you are not simply competing against other external candidates for a fixed quota. You are competing for whatever places are left after internal progression, and that number varies from year to year depending on how many CLS Year 11 boys choose to leave (commonly to board elsewhere, study overseas, or attend a school with a subject CLS doesn't offer at A-level, such as vocational routes). Our specialist tutors factor this into how we advise families on timing and backup applications — a strong GCSE predicted-grade profile matters even more at 16+ than at 11+, precisely because there's less room for the school to make allowances.

What Happens at Interview, and What Comes After?

Interviews are held only for candidates who perform strongly enough in the written assessment day, and the school is explicit that no offer is made without both a positive interview and a reference from the candidate's current school. The interview itself lasts around 20 minutes and, per the school's own description, gives staff "an opportunity to get to know your child beyond the initial assessment results" — meaning it isn't a repeat academic test but a conversation about the subjects the candidate wants to study, their wider interests, and their fit with the school.

Candidates who receive an offer are made a conditional place, pending their actual GCSE results the following summer. Because the published grade thresholds (A*/8-9 in chosen subjects, A/9-7 in English and Maths) are demanding, a small number of conditional offers each year are not confirmed if results fall short — which is one reason families shouldn't treat a November/December offer as the end of the preparation process. Academic Prize consideration is automatic for all new joiners, and separate Music Scholarships are available via audition and interview for candidates with a strong musical background, alongside the school's Transformational Bursaries programme for families needing financial support.

Key Dates for 2026-27 Sixth Form Entry

The school's published 2026-27 admissions timeline for 16+ entry runs as follows. Families applying for September 2027 entry should register well before the deadline, since the £300 registration fee only becomes active once payment is confirmed and registration does not itself guarantee a candidate a place in the assessment.

What A-Levels Can You Study, and What Do CLS Leavers Go On To Achieve?

City of London School's Sixth Form offers 21 A-level subjects, most boys taking three or four A-levels or three A-levels plus an Extended Project Qualification. The subject range spans sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics), humanities (History, Geography, Philosophy and Theology, Politics, Economics), languages (French, German, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Latin, Classical Greek — all taught to non-native speakers) and creative subjects (Art, Drama, Music).

Outcomes are strong by national comparison. In 2025, City of London School's average A-level points score was 50.72, against an England average of 35.08 (Good Schools Guide, 2025 review). The school's own published 2025 university destinations data shows 31 confirmed places at Oxford and Cambridge, 92% of the year group accepted to a Russell Group or top-10 university, and 16 pupils admitted to overseas institutions including Harvard, Brown, Duke, Bocconi, McGill and Tsinghua. Of 167 leavers in 2025, 153 progressed directly to university that year.

Fees for 2026-27 are £9,848.40 per term (including VAT) for tuition, with optional individual music lessons charged separately at £429.60 per term. These figures apply school-wide rather than as a separate Sixth Form rate. Families considering 16+ entry should factor in that CLS's Transformational Bursaries scheme, referenced on the school's fees page, can cover a substantial proportion of fees for eligible applicants — but bursary consideration follows successful completion of the entrance assessment, so it isn't a route around the academic bar described above.

How Does City of London School 16+ Compare With Other Selective London Day Schools?

City of London School was founded in 1837 and sits on Queen Victoria Street on the north bank of the Thames, next to the Millennium Bridge and opposite Tate Modern — a City location that shapes its applicant pool, drawing heavily from boys already in London day schools rather than the wider commuter-belt catchment typical of grammar schools. Its neighbouring sister institution, City of London School for Girls, runs a parallel but separate 16+ process; families exploring both schools, or comparing CLS with the girls' school's own 11+ route, may find our City of London School for Girls 11+ guide useful for context, though it's important to note that is a different school, a different sex intake and a different admissions stage entirely from the CLS boys' 16+ process covered on this page.

Compared with other academically selective London day schools recruiting at 16+, CLS's combination of a CAT4 cognitive test with subject-specific written papers (rather than a single general-knowledge or verbal-reasoning-only test) is relatively demanding, because it requires genuine subject depth in each proposed A-level at the point of application, not just general academic aptitude. Boys applying from schools that haven't yet covered the full GCSE syllabus in a subject by November of Year 11 can be at a real disadvantage in the subject papers, which is a preparation gap our specialist tutors specifically work to close through targeted syllabus completion and past-paper practice in the months before the assessment day.

For wider context on how sixth form entry requirements compare across selective schools generally, our sixth form entry requirements guide covers the broader landscape, while our admissions test preparation hub and GCSE subject support pages cover the underlying skills candidates need before they reach a school-specific 16+ paper. Boys who go on to secure a CLS Sixth Form place and are aiming at Oxbridge two years later may also find our Oxbridge admissions preparation service relevant, given CLS's own 31 confirmed Oxbridge places in 2025.

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