Forest School 16+ Entry: 10-20 Places for September 2027

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5. Forest School 16+ Entry

Forest School's own Sixth Form Prospectus confirms that only 10-20 new students join the school's 16+ (Year 12) intake each September, a far smaller and proportionally more selective route than the roughly 120 external places Forest offers at 11+. For the 2026-27 admissions cycle (entry September 2027), candidates sit a 75-minute computer-based critical thinking assessment and a 45-minute written paper of two mini-essays, before progressing to interview. This guide sets out Forest School's verified 16+ places, grades, assessment format, dates and fees, and explains why families across Walthamstow, Chingford, Woodford and Epping increasingly treat Forest School as the realistic, co-educational alternative to some of North London's more famous — but no more transparently disclosed — Sixth Form entry routes.

How Many Places Does Forest School Offer at 16+ Entry for 2027?

Forest School's official 16+ Entry admissions page sets out the assessment process, but it is the school's own Sixth Form Prospectus that discloses the actual scale of the intake: "between 10-20 new students join Forest from a range of local (and not so local) schools" each September. That external intake joins a Year 13 cohort that the same prospectus records at 135 students in summer 2024, and feeds a combined Years 12-13 Sixth Form of 218 pupils (106 boys, 112 girls), according to the Independent Schools Council's published directory entry for the school.

Put that 10-20 figure against Forest's own 11+ admissions page, which states plainly that "approximately 120 places are available for external boys and girls" each September at Year 7 — and the contrast is stark. Roughly six times as many external places open up at 11+ as at 16+, even though 11+ is already regarded locally as competitive. None of the tutoring companies that write about Forest School's admissions routes — including the larger names covering North London day schools — currently publish this 10-20 figure or set it against the 11+ comparison, despite both numbers sitting in Forest School's own public documents.

What Does the Forest School 16+ Entrance Assessment Involve?

Forest School's 16+ entry page describes a two-part written assessment: a 75-minute computer-based critical thinking test, followed by a 45-minute written section requiring two mini-essays in response to set prompts. Candidates who progress from this stage are invited to interview, and the school also draws on a reference and recent academic reports from the candidate's current school in reaching a decision.

This is a deliberately different format from Forest's own 11+ assessment, which the school's 11+ page describes as a digital test (1 hour 10 minutes) covering maths, English, verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and puzzles, plus a 30-minute paper-based written English task. At 16+, Forest is not re-testing curriculum content candidates have already covered at GCSE — it is testing critical thinking and extended writing under time pressure, which rewards a different kind of preparation to straightforward subject revision. Our specialist tutors treat the two papers as distinct skills to train separately: timed, unfamiliar critical-reasoning material for the computer-based section, and structured, argument-led short-essay practice for the written section.

What GCSE Grades Do You Need for Forest School Sixth Form Entry?

Forest School's official 16+ page sets out minimum academic thresholds: at least three GCSEs (or I/GCSE equivalents) at grade 7 or above, at least three further GCSEs at grade 6 or above, and a minimum of grade 5 in both English and Maths, alongside whatever subject-specific grade a candidate needs for their chosen A-level subjects. These are stated minimums, not typical offer grades — with only 10-20 places available each year and Forest describing candidates from "a range of local (and not so local) schools," the practical bar for a competitive application tends to sit above the published floor, particularly for the most oversubscribed A-level subjects.

Forest offers 29 A-level subjects, including the three sciences, all three modern languages taught at GCSE (French, German, Spanish) plus Latin and Classical Greek, Economics, Politics, Psychology, Computer Science, Further Maths, and a strong creative and performing-arts offer through Fine Art, Photography, Textile Design, Music, Music Technology, and Drama & Theatre Studies. Because subject choice at 16+ effectively locks in a candidate's academic direction through to UCAS applications, we encourage families to think through their A-level combination — and how it will read on a university personal statement — before the October registration deadline, not after.

Is Forest School the Realistic Alternative to North London's Most Selective Sixth Forms?

Families searching for 16+ entry from Walthamstow, Chingford, Woodford or Epping frequently start by looking north and west, towards the small cluster of famous day and boarding schools that dominate independent-school conversation in London. What gets lost in that search is that many of those schools run 16+ cohorts every bit as small as Forest's — they simply do not disclose the number as plainly. Eton College, for instance, states on its own admissions page that it admits only around 10-15 boys a year at Sixth Form entry, a figure genuinely comparable to Forest's own disclosed 10-20 places. The difference is not that Forest is somehow "easier" — it is that Forest publishes the number candidly in its Sixth Form Prospectus, where several better-known schools leave families to estimate from indirect sources.

For a family based in the E17/E4/IG8/CM postcode corridor, there is also a practical dimension to this comparison. A place at a famous North London day school in Highgate or Hampstead can mean an hour or more each way on public transport from Walthamstow or Chingford, five days a week, for two years. Forest School sits on the edge of Epping Forest in Walthamstow itself, serves the Chingford, Woodford, Loughton and Epping catchment directly, and — being co-educational rather than single-sex — keeps siblings and friendship groups together through Sixth Form in a way several of the more famous North London names, which remain single-sex at 16+, cannot. That combination of a disclosed, genuinely selective 10-20 place cohort and a local, co-educational day-school setting is the specific case for treating Forest School as a realistic option rather than a fallback.

What Are the Fees and Is There a Bursary for Forest School 16+ Entry?

Forest School charges a single termly fee scale across Years 7-13, including the Sixth Form: £8,790 before VAT, or £10,898 inclusive of VAT, per term for 2026-27, according to the school's own fees page. On top of that, a one-off, non-refundable acceptance fee of £1,400 applies once a place has been offered and accepted, with exam entry fees, individual music lessons and textbook replacements charged separately as they arise. Because 16+ candidates join the same fee scale as existing Year 12 and 13 pupils, there is no separate, higher "Sixth Form premium" layered on top of the standard senior school fee.

Forest School does run scholarship and bursary provision at 16+, with a dedicated application form covering academic, music, drama, art and sport awards. That form is due by Thursday 15 October 2026, shortly after the main Friday 9 October 2026 registration deadline for the 2026-27 cycle — so families intending to apply for financial support need to move quickly once registration opens, rather than treating it as a later, separate step. Forest does not publish the number or typical value of Sixth Form awards on its public admissions pages, so families exploring funding should raise the specifics directly with the school's admissions office alongside their registration.

Forest School 16+ vs 11+ Entry: What's the Difference?

Families who already know Forest through its 11+ entry route sometimes assume 16+ simply repeats that process on a later timetable. In practice the two routes differ in scale, format and timing in ways that matter for how — and when — a family should prepare.

The practical takeaway is that 16+ entry is a shorter, more compressed cycle that closes earlier in the school year than 11+, and it tests reasoning and writing skills rather than the broader diet of subjects assessed at 11+. A family whose child did not sit, or was not successful at, 11+ entry is not looking at a diluted repeat of that process at 16+ — they are looking at a different, more concentrated route into a smaller cohort.

How Should Families in Walthamstow, Chingford, Woodford and Epping Prepare for Forest School 16+ Entry?

Because the 16+ cycle runs from an October registration deadline to a December offer date — roughly two months end to end, once assessment and interview stages are included — effective preparation needs to start well before registration opens, ideally in the spring or summer term of Year 10. Our specialist tutors typically structure preparation around three strands: sustained, timed practice on unfamiliar critical-reasoning material (which cannot be crammed the week before the test); short-essay writing under time pressure, built around the kind of open prompts Forest's mini-essay paper uses; and interview technique, so candidates can talk confidently and specifically about their intended A-level subjects and wider interests.

Forest's 2024 leaver cohort saw 77% take up Russell Group university places, with destinations including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, LSE, Durham and Warwick, according to the school's own Sixth Form Prospectus. An independent analysis of Forest's published examination results also recorded six Oxbridge offers from 29 applications in the school's most recent published cycle — a 20.7% success rate, all six to Cambridge — figures Forest itself has not published directly but which are consistent with the school's stated Russell Group progression rate. For families weighing 16+ entry against continuing at a current school, that university progression record, combined with the practical case set out above, is often the deciding factor. If your son or daughter is also building A-level foundations or preparing early for university admissions, our A-Level tuition and personal statement support can run alongside 16+ entry preparation. Families comparing Forest against other schools in the wider Woodford and Chingford catchment, such as Bancroft's School, or researching the broader Woodford tutoring market, will find our other North-East London guides cover those routes in the same level of verified detail.

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