South London 11+ Independent Schools: Entry Tests for September 2027

South London's independent schools do not share one 11+ test. For 2027 entry, Dulwich College and Trinity School Croydon set computer-based assessments with a written task, James Allen's Girls' School (JAGS) and Streatham and Clapham High School use the ISEB Common Pre-test, Alleyn's holds written assessments and Whitgift holds English, Maths and Thinking Skills exams. None of the six is on the London 11+ Consortium's member list; registration closes between 16 October 2026 (Trinity) and 13 November 2026 (Alleyn's).

This guide takes each school's process from its own admissions page — the test, the registration deadline and the assessment dates — so that preparation follows the formats your child will actually sit, not a single “South London 11+” that does not exist.

Why South London's Independent School Landscape Is Unique

South London's independent schools are clustered in a way that creates both opportunity and complexity for parents. A family in Dulwich, Forest Hill or West Norwood has Alleyn's (co-educational) plus Dulwich College for a son or JAGS for a daughter, each with a different testing format.

Moving south towards Croydon, this guide also covers Whitgift School, Trinity School Croydon, Royal Russell School and Croydon High School. Whitgift's bursaries page says an annual grant from the John Whitgift Foundation funds “means-tested bursarial support for around one in ten of our 1,500 students”, separately from its scholarships. In Streatham and in Sydenham, two schools of the GDST (the Girls' Day School Trust) complete the picture: Streatham and Clapham High School, and Sydenham & Dulwich Girls, which its own website describes as “formerly Sydenham High School”.

What these schools share is a timetable, not a test. Every one of them that publishes a 2027-entry deadline closes registration between 16 October 2026 (Trinity) and 13 November 2026 (Alleyn's and Sydenham & Dulwich Girls), and the dated entrance tests run from Croydon High's test days, starting on 12 October 2026, to Alleyn's written papers on 8 January 2027. Inside that window they use at least three different kinds of test: assessments with an on-screen part (Dulwich College, Trinity School Croydon, Royal Russell and Croydon High), the ISEB Common Pre-test (JAGS and Streatham and Clapham High) and exams or assessment days run by the school (Alleyn's, Whitgift and Sydenham & Dulwich Girls). Knowing which one each school on your list uses is the starting point for any South London 11+ plan.

What Is Quest, and Which South London Schools Name It?

Quest Assessments is a test provider. Its admissions page describes entry assessments that are “Bespoke and branded to your school”, and its school guidance pages describe it as “used by 160+ independent and grammar schools”.

Among the South London schools in this guide, Royal Russell's own admissions page names Quest: Year 7 entry includes “Assessments in English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning (via the Quest platform)”, taken on a PC during the assessment day. The London 11+ Consortium's own site names Quest Assessments as its test provider, but none of the Consortium's thirteen schools is in South London (see below).

On how adaptive tests work, Quest's guidance page for Royal Russell says Maths, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning “adapt in difficulty based on your child's answers”, while English is fixed difficulty. Two South London schools explain it in their own words: Dulwich College says its Maths, Non-Verbal and Verbal Reasoning tests are adaptive, “which means that questions get harder or easier depending on answers submitted”, and Croydon High School says adaptive “means it responds to their answers and gets harder each time they get a question right”.

On scoring, the Consortium describes its test as “An age-standardised measure of ability”, and JAGS says each of the ISEB Common Pre-test's tests is age-standardised. To read more about how the Quest format works, see our full Quest Admissions test guide.

The London 11+ Consortium: Thirteen Schools, None in South London

The London 11+ Consortium is a group of thirteen London independent schools that share one online admissions assessment, designed with Quest Assessments. Its own site names them: Channing School, Francis Holland (Regent's Park), Francis Holland (Sloane Square), Godolphin and Latymer, More House, Northwood College for Girls, Notting Hill and Ealing High School, Queen's College, Queen's Gate School, South Hampstead High School, St Augustine's Priory, St Helen's School and St Margaret's School.

None of the thirteen is in South London: the site gives their areas as Highgate, Regent's Park, Sloane Square, Hammersmith, Knightsbridge, Northwood, Ealing, Marylebone, South Kensington, South Hampstead and Hampstead. James Allen's Girls' School, Streatham and Clapham High School and Sydenham & Dulwich Girls are not on the list; each runs its own admissions process, set out school by school below. The Consortium says candidates “only sit the assessment once, irrespective of the number of Consortium Schools to which they are applying”, so the single sitting serves the Consortium schools a candidate applies to; each South London school in this guide has its own process.

The Consortium's assessment for September 2027 entry is, in its words, “100 minutes in total”, with a 30-minute break after the Verbal Reasoning section. The six components are taken in this order: 20 minutes of Maths, 10 of Non-Verbal Reasoning, 20 of English and 10 of Verbal Reasoning, then the break, then 15 minutes of Problem Solving and 25 of Creative Comprehension. Maths and the two reasoning sections are adaptive, and the Consortium says “There is no extended writing required.” Candidates sit the assessment once, at their current school or, where that is not possible, at a Consortium school, on Friday 27 November, Tuesday 1 December or Thursday 3 December 2026, after registering by Friday 6 November 2026, and offers are made on Friday 12 February 2027.

Families also looking north of the river can read our North London Quest Assessment guide.

School-by-School Breakdown

The table sets out each school's process for September 2027 entry as the school itself publishes it, with the London 11+ Consortium for comparison. Detailed profiles follow.

Dulwich College

Dulwich College is a boys' school. Its admissions page gives 90 places for Year 7 entry in September 2027, for boys born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016, and says 180 boys are invited to interview: one place for every two boys interviewed. Around 90 pupils join from outside each year, and boys moving up from the Junior School make a year group of around 150.

The entrance examination is on Friday 4 December 2026, in two parts lasting about three hours including breaks. Part 1 is a set of online tests: Maths (20 minutes), English (30), Non-Verbal Reasoning (10), Verbal Reasoning (10), Puzzles and Problem Solving (15) and Creative Comprehension (20). Most questions are multiple choice, with only a few needing a typed word or number. Maths and both reasoning sections are adaptive, so candidates cannot go back and change an answer; English, Puzzles and Problem Solving and Creative Comprehension are not adaptive, and candidates can move backward and forward through the questions. Part 2 is a 20-minute creative writing task, 5 minutes planning and 15 writing, which candidates handwrite or, if appropriate, type. The page links a familiarisation test and a specimen paper for the writing task.

Boys who show promise are interviewed between Wednesday 20 and Wednesday 27 January 2027; the College aims for a friendly interview in which a boy can give further evidence of his academic strengths and his interests. Results are posted on Thursday 11 February and emailed on Friday 12 February 2027. Registration closes at midday on Monday 2 November 2026; the registration fee is non-refundable, and boys in receipt of the Pupil Premium pay no fee. See our Dulwich College 11+ guide for the interview and the creative writing task in detail.

Alleyn's School

Alleyn's is a co-educational school. Its 11+ page says it offers around 150 places, two thirds of them to children joining from state and independent schools and the rest to children moving up from Alleyn's Junior School.

Alleyn's states that the ISEB Common Pre-test does not form part of its 11+ process. Candidates sit the school's own written assessments in Reasoning, English and Maths at Alleyn's on Friday 8 January 2027 (overseas candidates on Thursday 7 January), and those whose results and school report show they will flourish are invited to an interview and small group activity on Saturday 23 January 2027. Registration opened on Tuesday 1 September 2026 and closes at midday on Friday 13 November 2026. Our Alleyn's School 11+ page covers the papers in detail.

Alleyn's 11+ page links an 11+ Entrance Examination Syllabus, dated July 2025, that sets out the Stage 1 papers: English (45 minutes), with multiple-choice comprehension questions and a directed writing task; Mathematics (30 minutes); and a Verbal, Non-Verbal and Spatial Reasoning test (45 minutes, multiple choice). Stage 2 is the group activity and one-to-one interview. The school describes its aim as “for our entrance assessments to allow children to demonstrate what they are capable of and, above all, to offer an enjoyable and rewarding experience to all candidates”.

James Allen's Girls' School (JAGS)

James Allen's Girls' School is not one of the thirteen schools on the London 11+ Consortium's member list. Its admissions page says candidates are “assessed at a Welcome Morning during the autumn term and sit the ISEB Common Pre-test examination between early November and 9 December”.

The Welcome Morning consists of a one-on-one interview with a senior member of staff, a creative writing task and an interactive group task, and the school runs ten Welcome Morning dates across the autumn term. The ISEB Common Pre-test is a set of online multiple-choice tests in Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, each age-standardised. Candidates sit it at their own school where it hosts the test, by 9 December 2026, or at JAGS on Tuesday 8 or Wednesday 9 December. JAGS's page adds that if another school your daughter has applied to also uses the ISEB Common Pre-test and has a shorter window for sitting it, you may need to select that school instead.

Registration for September 2027 entry closes on 10 November 2026. Families also register their daughter with ISEB, which is free, and give JAGS her ISEB Applicant Code. The JAGS registration fee is waived on the Pupil Premium registration form, and offers are sent on Thursday 11 February 2027. Of the ISEB tests, the JAGS page says “No preparation is required.” Our James Allen's Girls' School 11+ page covers the process in full, and our Quest versus ISEB comparison sets the two test formats side by side.

Streatham and Clapham High School

Streatham and Clapham High School is a GDST girls' school whose principal point of entry to the senior school is Year 7. It is not on the Consortium's member list. For September 2027 entry its process combines an interactive group observation activity, a 25-minute creative writing task developed from the same theme on the same day, and the ISEB assessment, which the school describes as an online adaptive test covering Mathematics, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. The school says the group observation gives it “a richer insight than a formal interview”.

Registration closes on Friday 30 October 2026, and the bursary and scholarship deadline is Tuesday 3 November 2026. The group activity and creative writing task run from Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 November 2026. Every applicant sits the ISEB assessment by Monday 7 December 2026, at her own school where possible or at Streatham and Clapham High on Saturday 5 December 2026. Offers are sent in early February 2027, with acceptances due by 12 noon on 3 March 2027.

JAGS and Streatham and Clapham High both use the ISEB Common Pre-test, so a girl applying to both takes one set of four online sections, then two different school-run elements: the JAGS Welcome Morning and the Streatham and Clapham group activity and writing task. See our Streatham and Clapham High School 11+ guide.

Sydenham & Dulwich Girls (formerly Sydenham High School)

The GDST girls' school in Sydenham appears on its own website as Sydenham & Dulwich Girls, with the footer line “Sydenham & Dulwich Girls (formerly Sydenham High School)”. It is not on the Consortium's member list. For September 2027 entry, according to its admissions page, applications close on Friday 13 November 2026, and 11+ applicants attend an Assessment Day on Wednesday 6 January 2027, designed to assess academic potential and verbal, non-verbal, spatial and quantitative reasoning, alongside a short creative writing task and an observational extension activity.

Every applicant is also invited to an individual interview of about 15 minutes on Saturday 9 January 2027, and the school asks the candidate's current school for a reference. Offers for 11+ are made on Thursday 11 February 2027.

Its Assessment Day falls after the ISEB deadlines at JAGS (9 December 2026) and Streatham and Clapham High (7 December 2026), so a girl applying to all three sits the ISEB Common Pre-test in November or early December and the Sydenham & Dulwich Girls assessment in January.

Whitgift School

Whitgift School is a boys' school in Croydon. Archbishop John Whitgift laid the foundation stones of his hospital in 1596, and the school attached to it opened in 1600. Its bursaries page says an annual John Whitgift Foundation grant funds means-tested bursaries for around one in ten of its 1,500 students, and that academic and co-curricular scholarships are separate.

Whitgift's 11+ entry page lists its entrance exams as English, Maths and Thinking Skills (age-related). For September 2027 entry they are on Tuesday 5 January 2027, and applications close on Friday 6 November 2026. The school does not release past papers, publishes some sample papers, and has none for Critical Thinking Skills.

Boys being considered for an offer are interviewed by a senior member of staff between Wednesday 13 and Tuesday 26 January 2027, followed by a short meeting with parents, and decisions are emailed to parents on Friday 12 February 2027. Every boy who sits the exams is considered for an academic scholarship without a separate application. See our Whitgift School 11+ page.

Trinity School Croydon

Trinity School Croydon welcomes its first co-educational intake in Year 6 and Year 7 in September 2027 and will be fully co-educational in 2031, so girls can apply at 11+ for 2027 entry.

Trinity's 11+ page says candidates “complete both a computer-based assessment and written papers”. Its Admissions Policy gives the computer-based General Paper as 70 minutes: Mathematics 30, English 20, Verbal Reasoning 10 and Non-Verbal Reasoning 10, “mainly multiple choice” and not requiring typing or keyboard skills. The guided written paper is 30 minutes and “will require students to produce a personal response to a range of prompts”. Students who are successful in the entrance assessment are invited to an academic interview with a member of the teaching staff, which the school describes as an opportunity to “get to know your child better and hear about their interests, ideas and engagement with the world around them”.

For September 2027 entry, applications close on Friday 16 October 2026, the earliest deadline in this guide. Trinity's key dates give the 11+ entrance assessments on Friday 11 December 2026, interviews throughout January 2027 and offers on Friday 12 February 2027. See our Trinity School Croydon 11+ page.

Applying to both Whitgift and Trinity in the same year is entirely feasible, because the dates do not clash: Trinity's assessments are on 11 December 2026 and Whitgift's on 5 January 2027. The formats differ — a computer-based assessment and a guided written paper at Trinity, English, Maths and Thinking Skills exams at Whitgift — but both test English and Maths.

Royal Russell School

Royal Russell's own admissions page says Year 7 entry is by an Assessment Day that includes “Assessments in English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning (via the Quest platform)”, taken on a PC, an interview, lunch with peers and a group activity. Quest's guidance page for the school gives four subjects over 70 minutes: English 30, Verbal Reasoning 10, Maths 20 and Non-Verbal Reasoning 10. Its key-dates page gives a registration deadline of Wednesday 4 November 2026, Year 7 entrance assessment days on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 January 2027, and offers on Friday 12 February 2027.

That makes Royal Russell a useful contrast with the two Croydon schools above. Whitgift holds English, Maths and Thinking Skills exams; Trinity pairs a computer-based assessment with written papers; Royal Russell runs its four assessments on the Quest platform. A Croydon family shortlisting all three meets three different formats, in December and January.

Croydon High School, the fourth Croydon option here, describes Part 1 of its Year 7 entrance test as “an adaptive online test, completed on the day”, designed to assess ability in “skills such as numeracy, problem solving and vocabulary”, and says “There is no special preparation required and no practice papers are available.” Part 2 is a piece of creative writing from a written stimulus and Part 3 is an informal interview with a member of the Senior Leadership Team. Applications for September 2027 entry close on 19 October 2026, entrance tests run from 12 October 2026 and offers are made by Christmas 2026. See our Croydon High School 11+ page and our Royal Russell 11+ page.

Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.

The Online Test Format: What Your Child Will Actually Experience

For children sitting an on-screen assessment — at Dulwich College, Trinity School Croydon, Royal Russell or Croydon High, or at a Consortium school north of the river — it helps to know not just what subjects are covered but how the test is delivered. Adaptive sections respond to the answers a child gives, which makes the experience different from a conventional timed paper.

English is not adaptive where the school says so. Dulwich College says its English test is non-adaptive, so all candidates have the same questions and can move backward and forward through them, and the Consortium says its English section is non-adaptive, “meaning all candidates see exactly the same questions but with different content on each of the three exam days”. English lasts 30 minutes at Dulwich College and 20 minutes at Trinity School Croydon, according to Trinity's Admissions Policy; Quest's guidance page for Royal Russell gives 30. Dulwich College follows its online tests with a separate 20-minute creative writing task. The Consortium describes its English text as “a piece of fiction specially written for the Consortium examination”, with comprehension followed by a check on the correct use of standard English in context.

Maths is adaptive at Dulwich College, where it lasts 20 minutes, and in the Consortium assessment, where it also lasts 20 minutes; Trinity's Admissions Policy gives Mathematics 30 minutes of its computer-based General Paper. Dulwich College states that its Maths and English questions “will cover the range of topics as set out in Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum”. The Consortium says its Maths questions “are based on the National Curriculum for Year 5”, that it does not test anything on the Year 6 curriculum, and that it provides “stretch and challenge through the style and depth of the questions we ask”.

Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning each last 10 minutes at Dulwich College, Trinity School Croydon and in the Consortium assessment, and both are adaptive at Dulwich College and in the Consortium assessment. The Consortium describes Non-Verbal Reasoning as assessing “the candidate's ability to identify patterns and think logically” and Verbal Reasoning as assessing “the candidate's ability to understand vocabulary, and use of language”, and says of both “We do not, however, recommend intense preparation as any gains quickly become very marginal.”

Dulwich College's creative writing task is Part 2 of its entrance examination, which candidates handwrite or, if appropriate, type. It lasts 20 minutes, 5 for planning and 15 for writing. The College's specimen paper shows a picture and asks for “a detailed descriptive response”, with marks awarded for “originality and imagination”, “appropriate voice and style”, “use of imagery (metaphor and simile)” and “ambitious and accurate vocabulary, punctuation and sentence structures”.

Preparation Timeline for South London 11+ Schools

If your child is in Year 6 in 2026/27, the table above is your timetable: registration closes between 16 October and 13 November 2026 and the dated entrance tests run from 12 October 2026 to 8 January 2027. The timeline below is for families looking one year further ahead, with a child in Year 5 in 2026/27. Schools publish the next cycle's dates during 2027, so the months below follow the 2027-entry pattern and should be checked against each school's own page. Not every school expects practice: JAGS says of the ISEB tests “No preparation is required.” and Croydon High says “There is no special preparation required and no practice papers are available.” Dulwich College links a familiarisation test and a specimen creative writing paper, Whitgift publishes some sample papers and Alleyn's links a syllabus with reasoning samples.

How Leading Tuition Helps South London 11+ Families

Leading Tuition's specialist 11+ tutors prepare children for the South London schools in this guide — Dulwich College, Alleyn's, James Allen's Girls' School, Streatham and Clapham High, Sydenham & Dulwich Girls, Whitgift, Trinity and Royal Russell — and for each school's own format rather than a generic 11+ course.

Our approach begins with a diagnostic assessment of your child's current level in English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, plus creative writing if Dulwich College, JAGS or Streatham and Clapham High is on the list. From that baseline we build a month-by-month plan around your child's target schools, their academic profile and the time left before the registration deadlines.

For JAGS and Streatham and Clapham High, that means the four online sections of the ISEB Common Pre-test, creative writing, and the Welcome Morning or the group activity. For Dulwich College, Trinity and Royal Russell, it means the on-screen sections, plus Dulwich's Puzzles and Problem Solving, Creative Comprehension and creative writing, and Trinity's guided written paper. For Alleyn's and Whitgift, it means Alleyn's written assessments and Whitgift's English, Maths and Thinking Skills exams. For a family applying across formats — JAGS and Dulwich College, say — we plan the overlap so no preparation is duplicated.

We also prepare children for the interviews at Dulwich College, Alleyn's, JAGS, Sydenham & Dulwich Girls, Whitgift and Trinity. Interview preparation covers the mechanics of a good interview (listening carefully, asking for clarification, thinking aloud), the intellectual content (current affairs, books read, intellectual interests, problem-solving on the spot), and the emotional dimension (managing nerves, recovering from a difficult question, remaining engaged throughout).

Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.

To discuss your child's preparation for any South London independent school, book a free consultation, or see our school pages for Dulwich College, Alleyn's, James Allen's Girls' School and Streatham and Clapham High. For a broader overview of the Quest platform, see our Quest Admissions test guide.

Reviewed 9 October 2026: each school's 2027-entry test, registration deadline and assessment dates checked against the schools' own admissions pages, the London 11+ Consortium's site and Quest Assessments' admissions page and guidance page for Royal Russell.

Frequently Asked Questions