Tiffin School 11+ Complete Guide 2026
The Quest Assessments two-stage test, Priority Area, and preparation strategy for Tiffin School in Kingston.
The Quest Assessments two-stage test, Priority Area, and preparation strategy for Tiffin School in Kingston.
Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames is a selective state school for boys, with girls also admitted to its Sixth Form. For September 2026 entry, 1,866 boys sat its Stage One test and 186 places were offered on 1 March: one offer for every 10.0 boys tested, or roughly 10 per cent. Its Year 7 intake for September 2027 is 186 boys in six forms of 31.
| Tiffin School, September entry | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boys tested at Stage One | 1,866 | 1,675 | 1,654 |
| Boys tested at Stage Two | 665 | 653 | 666 |
| Places offered initially (1 March) | 186 | 186 | 186 |
| Offers per boy tested at Stage One (our arithmetic) | 10.0% | 11.1% | 11.2% |
| Initial qualifying score | 100 | 100 | 104 |
Source: retrieved 25 September 2026 from Tiffin School's Patterns of Admissions 2024-2026. The percentage row is our arithmetic: places offered initially divided by boys tested at Stage One.
The school traces its foundation to Thomas Tiffin's bequest of 1638, opened its first school building in January 1880, and describes itself as "a large school of nearly 1500 students". The field it tests has grown while the number of places has not: 1,866 boys sat Stage One for 2026 entry against 1,654 for 2024, for the same 186 initial offers.
Tiffin is a state-funded grammar school, so there are no fees, and demand is very high: 1,866 boys sat Stage One for its 186 places for 2026 entry.
Tiffin School does not use GL Assessment, CEM, or the Sutton SET. Its Year 7 entrance test is a bespoke examination set each year in partnership with Quest Assessments — the school states directly: "We work in partnership with Quest to set our Year 7 Entrance Tests", creating a test specific to Tiffin that changes annually. There are only two subjects — English and Maths — sat across two stages:
Stage One (early October): English and Maths papers sat on a single day (Friday 2 October 2026 for September 2027 entry, in a morning or afternoon slot), answered on an OMR sheet and marked by computer. The English paper is multiple choice; Maths answers may be multiple choice or a numerical answer. The school says the papers are typically 40 to 60 minutes each, and that the number of questions and the time allowed change from year to year. This is a sifting stage: scores are standardised and age-weighted and used to invite a shortlist of boys through to Stage Two. There is no verbal reasoning or non-verbal reasoning paper at any point in the process.
Stage Two (mid-November): Handwritten papers in English and Maths for invited boys, sat on the same day (Thursday 12 November 2026 for September 2027 entry) and similar in length to Stage One. English moves from multiple choice to open answers, some of them longer written responses, and the school's illustrative questions include writing the opening of a story; Maths answers are written rather than selected. This is a different skill set from Stage One, and families whose sons pass Stage One should not assume Stage One preparation alone is sufficient.
Offers are decided on a Combined Score, not a simple total: half the weight comes from the Stage Two English result, and the other half comes from Maths — itself a blend of 40% Stage One and 60% Stage Two. This means Stage Two carries more weight than Stage One in both subjects, and a boy's Stage Two written performance matters more to the final outcome than his Stage One multiple-choice score. Stage One outcomes are emailed in mid-October, in time for the 31 October deadline for the local authority application form, but Stage Two results are not released until after National Offer Day in early March, when boys who have not been offered a place are sent their scores. The Year 7 Open Evening is held in the summer term: for September 2027 entry it was on 30 June 2026, with no booking required.
Unlike QE Boys, which has no catchment and uses distance only to break ties, Tiffin School applies geography as one part of its admissions process — but not through a borough-based "designated area." Tiffin's Priority Area is defined simply as any address within 10km in a straight line of the school gates, measured using computerised geographical systems. There is no borough list: a family's postcode is either inside or outside that 10km radius, and the school states that since the 10km Priority Area was introduced in September 2019, places have only been offered to boys living within it.
The oversubscription process runs, in order: any boy with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school; then Looked After and previously Looked After boys, followed by Pupil Premium-eligible boys, who live in the Priority Area and whose Combined Score is at or above the 450th-ranked score; then the remaining places, less up to 18 held back for aptitude, in rank order of Combined Score to Priority Area residents and only after them to boys outside it; and finally the up to 18 reserved places, up to 9 for sport and up to 9 for music, for Priority Area boys at or above the 450th-ranked Combined Score who demonstrated that aptitude. In practice, living inside the Priority Area has been a precondition rather than an advantage: no boy outside it has been offered a place since 2019, and inside it places go in Combined Score order. For the Tiffin Girls' School's separate (and differently structured) admissions area, see our Tiffin Girls' Designated Area Guide — the two schools use genuinely different systems and should not be assumed to share a boundary.
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No — and this is one of the most common misunderstandings families have about Tiffin. There is no pass mark set in advance. Tiffin's own admissions policy defines the cut-off as "the lowest Combined Score" of any boy gaining a place in Year 7 that year — a relative rank set by the field, not a fixed number that can be studied for in advance. The school does publish where it fell: the initial qualifying score, the lowest score of a boy offered a place on 1 March, was 104 for 2024 entry and 100 for both 2025 and 2026, and the lowest score of a boy offered a place by the end of Year 7 was 102 for 2024 entry and 98 for 2025 entry, as further places were offered during the year; the school has not yet published the 2026 figure. For 2026 entry, 665 of the 1,866 boys who sat Stage One were tested at Stage Two, about 36 per cent, and 186 of those 665 were offered a place, about 28 per cent. Every stage of the process is genuinely competitive, and the right preparation target is "as high a Combined Score as possible," not a specific number pulled from a previous year's results.
Tiffin's academic results are very strong. The school described its 2026 GCSEs as "our best-ever GCSE results" and publishes subject-by-subject GCSE and A-level results on its Exam Results page; for comparisons with other schools it points families to the Department for Education's performance tables.
At A-level, the school reported "our highest ever percentage of A* grades" in 2026. Its leavers' destinations page says the overwhelming majority of Sixth Form students go on to leading universities, "including over 30 per year to Oxbridge", and two recent leavers went on to study at Princeton. The Sixth Form admits girls as well as boys, and its Published Admission Number of 90 for external candidates is the minimum number of places the school offers to applicants from other schools.
Tiffin offers wide co-curricular provision. Its off-site sports field, Grists, is the home of rugby, and its Boat Club on the Thames offers rowing. The school lists over 70 clubs and societies, from a Rocketry Club and Model United Nations to Bridge, a Literature Society and British Sign Language, and its trips range from choir tours to China, Australia and New Zealand to a Physics visit to CERN.
Duke of Edinburgh expeditions take students to Wales, and sports tours have included basketball in Chicago and rugby in Ireland. Boys at Tiffin are expected to engage broadly, and the school presents its co-curricular life as part of the education rather than an extra.
A well-structured preparation programme for Tiffin's Quest-set examination should begin in Year 5 and needs to build two distinct skill sets — fast multiple-choice technique for Stage One, and extended written technique for Stage Two. Key milestones:
Year 5 (autumn term): Introduce English (comprehension, vocabulary, grammar) and Maths practice systematically, in multiple-choice format to mirror Stage One. Build stamina for timed practice through short (20-minute) sessions initially, working up to full-length timed papers (Tiffin's Stage One papers are typically 40 to 60 minutes each).
Year 5 (January to August before the tests): Move to full timed mock papers in both subjects, then start layering in Stage Two-style written work — extended comprehension answers, creative writing under time pressure, and multi-step maths problems that need a written answer rather than a choice of options; rough working is not marked, so the final answer has to be accurate. Review mistakes by question type to identify specific weaknesses and target them directly. Aim for one full mock per week from Easter onwards.
Year 6 (September to October — Stage One): Light consolidation only for Stage One. The child should be maintaining familiarity and confidence rather than introducing new material. Ensure exam logistics are practised — timing, reading instructions carefully, pacing within each section.
Year 6 (November — Stage Two, for shortlisted boys): A different kind of preparation is needed here. Since Stage Two carries the larger share of the Combined Score (all of the English weighting and 60% of the Maths weighting), boys who pass Stage One should treat the roughly month-long gap before Stage Two as a distinct preparation phase — focused on extended writing stamina and accurate written answers in maths — not simply "more of the same."
At Leading Tuition, our specialist 11+ tutors prepare boys for both stages of Tiffin School's tests. We provide structured programmes covering both stages of the Quest-set examination — Stage One's timed multiple-choice English and Maths, and Stage Two's written comprehension, creative writing and multi-step maths — plus full timed mock examinations and detailed feedback on each child's performance. We also prepare boys simultaneously for Tiffin School, Wilson's School, and other South West London grammar schools, making preparation efficient for families applying to multiple schools.
For families in Kingston, Richmond, Merton, and across South West London, we offer both in-person and online tuition. Book a free consultation with our team to discuss your son's preparation.
Mock exams are a crucial but sometimes underused part of Tiffin 11+ preparation. Many families complete plenty of individual practice papers at home but never replicate the full conditions of sitting the Quest-set test under genuine exam pressure. This is a significant gap — full-length mocks under exam conditions build stamina and take the surprise out of the day in a way that practice at home cannot.
A good Stage One mock session for Tiffin should replicate both Stage One papers — English and Maths, each typically 40 to 60 minutes, answered on an answer sheet rather than in a booklet — sat back to back with a short break in between, matching the real single-day sitting. Children should practise sitting for this duration with no parental assistance, no opportunity to ask questions, and a clear time boundary for each paper. Getting this stamina right in advance removes one major variable from the actual exam.
On the day of the Tiffin 11+ examination (Stage One takes place in early October), children report to the school's examination centre. Parents do not accompany children into the examination room. Children should arrive having eaten a proper breakfast, carrying what the school asks for (an ordinary HB pencil, not a propelling pencil, a rubber, a pencil sharpener and the information slip the school emails beforehand), and without revision materials that could cause last-minute anxiety. Arriving ten to fifteen minutes early is sensible to allow time to settle.
Stage Two, for those invited, takes place in mid-November and involves open-answer mathematics and English papers — a different format from the multiple-choice Stage One. Preparation for Stage Two requires specific focus on accurate written answers in maths, where rough working is not marked, and structured written English responses. Families whose children pass Stage One should not assume that Stage One preparation is sufficient for Stage Two; the two stages test overlapping but distinct skills.
There isn't a fixed pass mark. Tiffin's admissions policy defines the cut-off as the lowest Combined Score of any boy who gains a place that year — a relative rank, not a fixed number families can target in advance. For 2026 entry, 1,866 boys sat Stage One, 665 were tested at Stage Two and 186 were offered places, and results depend on the whole cohort's performance, so the realistic goal is the strongest possible Combined Score rather than a specific historical figure.
Both schools are extremely competitive and use a similar two-stage shape, multiple-choice English and Maths first and then written English and Maths, but they weight the stages differently. Tiffin sets a bespoke two-stage test in partnership with Quest, in English and Maths only, and for 2026 entry 1,866 boys sat Stage One for 186 places, with priority for boys living within 10km. Wilson's uses the Sutton Selective Eligibility Test, two multiple-choice papers in English and Maths with no verbal or non-verbal reasoning, followed by a written second stage in English and Maths; its admission number is 186, with 14 places for boys eligible for free school meals, 9 each for sport and music aptitude, and the rest in rank order of score. Tiffin's Combined Score is 50% Stage Two English and 50% Maths, with the Maths combining Stage One and Stage Two in a ratio of 2:3; Wilson's ranks on the SET and its two second-stage papers in a ratio of 1:2:2 and requires a pass in each second-stage paper. Both require exceptional performance under time pressure.
Yes. The examinations are entirely separate and fall on different dates: for September 2027 entry the Sutton SET was on 15 September 2026 and Wilson's second stage is on 3 October, while Tiffin's Stage One is on 2 October and its Stage Two on 12 November. Both schools test English and Maths only, so much of the preparation overlaps, though the formats differ. Families who can reach both schools often apply to both, but check Tiffin's 10km Priority Area first: for 2024, 2025 and 2026 entry, no Tiffin place went to a boy living outside it.
The Combined Score is the figure Tiffin actually ranks applicants by. It is weighted 50% Stage Two English and 50% Maths — and that Maths half is itself a blend of 40% Stage One and 60% Stage Two. In practice this means Stage Two performance (in both subjects) counts for more than Stage One, so a boy who does well in the Stage One multiple-choice papers but struggles with extended writing or open-answer maths at Stage Two can still be overtaken in the final ranking.
Not as a borough list. Tiffin School's Priority Area is defined purely as any address within 10km in a straight line of the school — not a set of named boroughs. In practice Kingston and Richmond addresses are inside it, while the line runs through Sutton, eastern Merton around Mitcham, and parts of Wandsworth, Hounslow and Elmbridge, so the only reliable way to check is to measure the straight-line distance from your address, not to assume borough membership. This is a different system entirely from Tiffin Girls' School's designated area, which is defined by named postcode districts rather than distance.
Leading Tuition prepares boys for the Tiffin School 11+ entrance examination. Tiffin uses its own bespoke test set with Quest Assessments — not GL Assessment, CEM, or the Sutton SET — and the Stage Two written papers in particular reward depth of thinking and extended writing stamina, although the school says its tests need no knowledge beyond the Year 5 National Curriculum. Our specialist tutors work with boys from Year 4 through to the November Stage Two examination, covering both stages: Stage One's timed multiple-choice English and Maths, and Stage Two's written comprehension, creative writing and multi-step maths. We are rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot. To discuss a structured preparation plan for your son, book a free consultation at leadingtuition.co.uk/consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
Yes. Tiffin School's Priority Area is any address within 10km in a straight line of the school, measured using computerised geographical systems — not a list of named boroughs. The school states that since the Priority Area was introduced in September 2019, places have only been offered to boys living within 10km, and its Patterns of Admissions confirms that no place went outside it for 2024, 2025 or 2026 entry. Boys from outside can still register and apply, but apart from a boy with an EHCP naming the school, they rank only for places left after every Priority Area boy has been placed.
There is no fixed pass mark. Tiffin's cut-off is defined as the lowest Combined Score of any boy gaining a place that year — a relative rank, not a fixed number. The Combined Score is weighted 50% Stage Two English and 50% Maths (itself 40% Stage One plus 60% Stage Two), so Stage Two performance matters more than Stage One. For 2026 entry, 186 places were offered from 1,866 boys tested, about one in ten, and the lowest score offered a place on 1 March, which the school publishes as its initial qualifying score, was 100.
Tiffin School sets a bespoke two-stage test in partnership with Quest Assessments — not GL Assessment, CEM, or the Sutton SET. There is no verbal reasoning or non-verbal reasoning paper. Stage One (2 October 2026 for September 2027 entry) is English and Maths on a computer-marked answer sheet: English is multiple choice, and Maths may be multiple choice or a numerical answer, with each paper typically 40 to 60 minutes. Stage Two (12 November 2026), for invited boys, is handwritten English and Maths of similar length, with some longer written English answers; the school's illustrative English questions include writing the opening of a story.
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