Practical guidance from the Leading Tuition team
Book a Free ConsultationThe March 2023 offer letters were, for many of our families, the culmination of preparation that had started long before Year 6. Our 2023 cohort was our largest to date — and it delivered our strongest results. Ninety-seven per cent of the children we worked with received at least one offer from a school the family had genuinely targeted. This post reflects on what drove those outcomes: the preparation patterns that worked, the mistakes we saw others make, and the advice we would give to any family starting out on this journey now.
In the 2023 admissions cycle, we worked with 35 students sitting selective school entrance examinations at 11+ and 13+. Of those, 34 received at least one offer from a selective or independent school — a success rate of 97.1%.
We define success as receiving at least one offer from a school the family had genuinely targeted. We do not count offers from schools added as late safety options if the family's first-choice school did not make an offer.
Our 2023 cohort was our largest to date, and the results reflected a trend we had been seeing for two years: families starting preparation earlier. In 2023, more than half of the children we worked with began structured tuition in Year 4 or early Year 5, rather than in Year 6. That additional time does not mean drilling papers for two years — it means building the genuine mathematical fluency and reading comprehension that selective school exams reward.
One observation from our tutors this year: the children who struggled were rarely those who lacked ability. They were the children who had been over-coached on past papers without building underlying understanding. A child who can answer a question but cannot explain why gets found out under time pressure. Genuine understanding is faster under exam conditions.
We asked several families if they would share a brief reflection.
Writing to us after results day, a parent whose daughter gained a place at Henrietta Barnett School wrote: "We started working with Leading Tuition in Year 4, which felt very early at the time. Looking back, that extra year made an enormous difference — not because of the volume of practice, but because our daughter had time to genuinely understand what the exam was testing rather than just recognising question types."
Writing to us after results day, a parent whose son gained places at both Tiffin School and QE Boys wrote: "He received offers from both schools, which we had not expected. The preparation was very focused — his tutor had worked with children sitting both exams before and knew exactly where the differences were. Our son knew going in that the Tiffin verbal reasoning section has a different time structure to the QE maths paper. That level of detail made a real difference on the day."
If your child is in Year 4, Year 5 or Year 6, and you are beginning to think about selective school entry, the most important first step is understanding which schools and which exams are relevant to your child — and what realistic preparation looks like for each one. You can find school-specific guides on our 11+ school preparation pages, or book a free consultation to talk through your child's specific situation.
How do you measure your success rate?
We count the proportion of students who received at least one genuine offer from a school the family had identified as a target school before the admissions cycle began. We do not include offers from schools added as late backup options.
Do you only work with high-achieving children?
No. We work with a wide range of students, including children who need to build foundational skills before beginning focused exam preparation. Our tutors assess each child individually and build a programme around where they are, not where they need to be.
How early should preparation start?
It depends on the target school. For the most selective grammar schools — QE Boys, Henrietta Barnett, Tiffin — most of our successful students began working with us in Year 4 or early Year 5. For boarding school 13+ entry, the ISEB Common Pre-Test is taken in Year 6, so preparation typically begins in Year 5.
What does 1-to-1 tuition offer that group tuition or online courses don't?
A specialist tutor can identify exactly where a specific child is losing marks and address that precisely. Group courses and online platforms can build general exposure to exam content, but they cannot adapt in real time to an individual child's misconceptions, gaps, or exam technique weaknesses.
Book a free consultation and we’ll help you find the right support for your child.
Book a Free Consultation