One-to-one preparation for the Year 3 papers set by Cambridge's independent schools, September 2027 entry
Book a Free ConsultationLeading Tuition's 7+ tuition in Cambridge is one-to-one preparation for the Year 3 assessments that the city's independent schools set for September 2027 entry, built around each target school's own paper. St Faith's invites applicants to an Assessment Morning on Friday 20 November 2026 or Friday 8 January 2027; the Perse Prep tests Year 3 candidates between 11 and 15 January 2027; and St John's College School holds its 7+ Assessment Day in January.
Preparing for a Cambridge 7+ assessment?
Our expert 7+ tutors help children across Cambridge with the maths, English or reading papers, and the reasoning papers where a school lists them, set by the Perse Prep, St Faith's, King's College School, St John's College School and Stephen Perse Cambridge Junior School, building each programme around one school's own assessment and dates.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppCambridge's 7+ rounds do not share a calendar. St Faith's offers a choice of Assessment Morning on Friday 20 November 2026 or Friday 8 January 2027; the Perse Prep tests Year 3 candidates between 11 and 15 January 2027; St John's College School says its assessment morning is usually held on a Saturday in January; King's College School says its assessments are organised throughout the year; Stephen Perse Cambridge Junior School assesses children individually or in small groups; and two more schools describe taster-day assessments.
St Faith's application page says the deadline for September 2027 entry to Years 1–8 "has now passed" and that "further applications are welcome where spaces permit". Its Assessments page invites applicants to an Assessment Morning on either Friday 20 November 2026 or Friday 8 January 2027, says both dates "are considered equally", and its admissions timeline gives the outcome of the November assessments in December 2026 and of the January ones in February 2027. The Perse Prep's registration rule is 1 December in the year before entry, which makes it 1 December 2026. King's College School's admissions page lists 7+ into Year 3 among its traditional entry points and says it is "always delighted to welcome new children as these additional places become available", which "can really be into any year group and pretty well at any time in the academic year". The assessment morning it lists in November 2026, by appointment, is for entry to Year 3 to 8 in January 2027, a mid-year start, and its registration page says assessments are organised throughout the year.
St Faith's later Assessment Morning is on Friday 8 January 2027, and the Perse Prep tests Year 3 candidates in a half-day session on one date between Monday 11 and Friday 15 January 2027.
Our 7+ tutors in Cambridge begin by reading the target school's own description of its paper, then set the weekly work against it. Sessions are playful where possible, hands-on and paced around a child's concentration span, lengthening gradually as the assessment approaches. The programme covers mathematics, English and reasoning, weighted by school: the Perse Prep and St Faith's both list verbal and non-verbal reasoning, St Mary's lists non-verbal ability, and King's College School and St John's College School describe English and maths papers.
Structured weekly tuition starts once the first target school's registration window has opened; before that, the work is reading aloud, talking through numbers and games. For the exam format in general, see our 7+ tuition guide, and for subject content our 7+ maths and 7+ English pages.
The Perse Prep says its entrance tests comprise elements of English (reading, writing and comprehension), maths including an element of mental maths, and reasoning, both verbal and non-verbal. Its assessment page says "We do not have formal interviews, but the Head will have a chat with the children in small groups", and that "we do not hold overseas or online testing for this age of child".
A Year 3 sample-paper sheet on the Perse Prep's site, whose web address is dated May 2022 and which is a separate document from the school's 2027 dates page, describes how a session runs. The tests are carried out in groups of about six under test conditions. The sheet lists the content as mental arithmetic and a written paper based on Year 2 work in maths; reading comprehension, reading aloud for accuracy and understanding, and a short piece of unaided writing with picture prompts in English; verbal and non-verbal reasoning; and an oral contribution, meaning how the children interact with each other and with staff.
Each item on that list becomes a short, regular activity in our sessions:
On reasoning, the sheet is plain. It says some parents introduce the concept of verbal and non-verbal reasoning to their child, that this is not obligatory because practice is provided on the day, and that excessive practice beforehand tends to be counter-productive. Reasoning enters the programme as puzzles and games, early and lightly, and not as drilled papers.
The Perse Prep says its children are usually working at least one year above the national average, and the sheet says a Year 3 entrant is expected to have completed Key Stage 1 and to be working above the national standard for their age. The first session is therefore a short check of where a child sits against Year 2 work in maths and English, and the plan adds stretch from there. The school provides Year 3 sample papers on its sample papers page.
The place count matters as much as the format. The school's welcome page describes the Prep as academically selective and says it would create an additional Year 6 class of 24 pupils for September 2026, taking it to more than 300 pupils from Years 3 to 6. Nearly two thirds of its Year 3 intake come from the Pelican, and just over a third, usually around 24 pupils, join from other schools, local and further afield. A family from outside the Pelican is therefore preparing for the school's own figure of usually around 24 outside entrants. In Years 4 and 5 the school says it usually offers around three places in each year group, a far narrower door than Year 3.
The school says children at the Prep do not sit the Upper entrance tests, provided the Prep Head recommends them for transfer. For a family aiming at the Perse Upper, Year 3 entry therefore changes what happens at 11+, and our Perse School 11+ guide covers the 11+ entrance assessment itself. The Year 2 taster morning on Saturday 7 November 2026 is, in the school's words, "for pupils and families who are not already attending The Pelican School".
Sitting the Perse Prep tests?
Our expert 7+ tutors help Cambridge families prepare for the Perse Prep's English, maths and reasoning papers, starting from the school's own sample-paper sheet and the January 2027 session.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppSt Faith's, which announced on 2 June 2026 that it and The Leys School will become a single school from September 2028, says any online assessments it uses are adaptive, meaning the difficulty of questions adjusts based on the child's responses. Its Assessments page says the assessments for Years 2 and 3 are primarily multiple-choice, with occasional questions needing a typed or written word or number, and links to a Quest site where sample questions can be explored by year group. It invites applicants to an Assessment Morning on either Friday 20 November 2026 or Friday 8 January 2027.
St Faith's Year 3 and Year 4 page says entry assessments cover reading, writing, spelling and mathematics. The Assessments page lists English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and a short writing task for applicants in Years 2 to 7, and we prepare for both lists. The school's Quest familiarisation test has a 7+ option for children in Year 2, and it contains four parts: English, Maths, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning.
The school also publishes Year 3 sample papers. The English sample says Year 3 entry has a reading test and a spelling test, plus a written task in which pictures are used to write a story. The maths sample lists six topic areas, from place value and calculations to shape and measures and interpreting data, and says the questions are a mixture of calculation and word problems read out to the candidates, so listening carefully is part of the maths paper.
Where a section is adaptive, difficulty follows the child's answers: a pupil who is doing well meets harder questions, and one who has never been told this can read them as a sign of failure. Our tutors rehearse that moment deliberately, using the school's own familiarisation test so the child has seen the screen, the answer format and the four sections before their Assessment Morning, and keep the written work going alongside.
St Mary's School, Cambridge, a girls' school, says it has no formal deadline for Junior School applications and welcomes applications all year round. Its assessment page describes a taster day for girls applying in Year 2 to Year 6 with three parts: an online adaptive assessment, a 20-25 minute creative writing exam and an informal interview with a member of the Junior School Leadership Team. The adaptive assessment covers vocabulary (word fluency and understanding), mathematics (logical thinking and manipulating numbers) and non-verbal ability (recognising shapes and matching patterns). Preparation leans on wide reading for vocabulary, shape and pattern puzzles, and writing for a sustained spell, since 20-25 minutes is a long stretch for a child in Year 2.
King's College School's admissions page says that pupils joining Year 1 and above "do some written English and Maths at an age-appropriate level". It adds that once a pupil is registered they are invited to an assessment morning, which includes a tour of the school with pupils of their own age, and that the school writes to the child's current school for a confidential reference report. It also says places are offered, to those who meet the entry requirements, on a first-come-first-served basis. The school's registration page says it accepts applications for all year groups up to Year 8 if spaces are available.
Because the school says places are offered on a first-come-first-served basis, our programme for a King's College School candidate starts when the family registers, and covers written English and maths. The school's Juniors page describes Years 3 and 4 as the stage for ages 7 to 9 and says it is welcoming to new children joining at this entry point.
St John's College School describes a different morning. Its page on entry to other year groups says children applying for Year 3 are invited to an assessment morning, usually held on a Saturday in January before the September of entry. The morning is designed to feel like a normal morning at school: children are divided into small groups, stay in the pastoral care of one teacher, and have Maths, English, Drama and Music, Art and possibly PE, all specialist taught and observed by at least two teachers. The school's academic assessments page adds that reading age is assessed, and its admissions page says that in the English and maths papers the school looks very much for potential as well as what a child has achieved.
For that morning the paper work is only part of the preparation. A child spends a whole morning with unfamiliar teachers in a group, moving between subjects, and our tutors build in the same variety: short blocks of different activity, reading aloud for reading age, and practice at settling in with unfamiliar adults. The school's admissions FAQ describes its 7+ assessment as age-appropriate assessments in English and maths, and the programme gives those two subjects the most time.
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Weighing two or three Cambridge schools?
Our expert 7+ tutors in Cambridge plan the order of work around the earliest published date, then fit each school's own format around it, from group mornings to individual or small-group assessments.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppHeritage School follows a taster-day pattern. Its admissions page says children in Year 2 and above join normal lessons for most of the day and complete standardised assessments in Maths and English during it. The school says that all children who are offered a place "must be able to access mainstream classroom teaching effectively, work with a cooperative and respectful attitude and can achieve average to above average scores in standardised English and Maths assessments". A tutor's task for Heritage is familiarity with standardised question formats and ease in a classroom for most of a school day.
Stephen Perse Cambridge's admissions page calls Year 3 the core entry point for its Junior School. It says the evaluation includes specific tests in maths and reading, and that children who reach the academic threshold are invited to a Taster Day. Its key dates page says Early Years and Junior School assessments are conducted individually or in small groups, rather than on a single, set assessment day.
A January assessment morning comes with a published date or window, whereas Stephen Perse says its Junior School assesses individually or in small groups rather than on a single, set assessment day. The programme for Stephen Perse Cambridge Junior School is therefore ready earlier and shorter in form. The reading and maths tests are rehearsed one-to-one, and for children who reach the threshold and are invited to a Taster Day, the tutor's role is to make an unfamiliar setting familiar through the same kind of unfamiliar-room practice used for the other schools.
St Mary's, which welcomes applications all year round, and Heritage, which asks school-age applicants to attend a taster session after visiting, both assess on a taster day. For a family applying to several Cambridge schools at once, the order of work follows the published dates, such as the Perse Prep's 1 December 2026 registration deadline and the January papers that follow it; Stephen Perse, which assesses individually or in small groups, and the schools with taster days are fitted around them.
Year 3 entry decides the 11+ question for some families and not for others. The Perse Prep says its pupils do not sit the Upper entrance tests when the Prep Head recommends them, so for those families the 7+ papers carry more weight. Stephen Perse Cambridge says on its Junior School page that the vast majority of its Junior pupils move directly into its Senior School, whose main entry points are Year 7 (11+) and Year 9 (13+).
The other three schools run to the end of Year 8. St Faith's describes itself as a co-educational day school for children aged from 3 to 13, and says in its merger announcement that it is the largest preparatory school in Cambridge, with 541 pupils. St John's College School says it welcomes boys and girls aged 4 to 13, and King's College School accepts applications for all year groups up to Year 8. For a child who stays, the next transfer point is 13+, and our Cambridge 13+ guide covers the Cambridge schools that take pupils at that age. St Faith's also lists Year 7 (age 11+) among its points of entry, and King's College School lists 11+ into Year 7.
That affects the shape of the plan. For a child heading for the Perse Upper, 7+ preparation is planned with 11+ in view, so reading habits and number fluency are built to carry on rather than peak in January 2027. For a child on a route to 13+, the aim is a secure, unhurried start in Year 3. Families who would like the wider support available before Year 3, including Year 1 and Year 2, can read about our primary tuition, and our Cambridge tuition page lists the other subjects and levels we cover in the city.
Reviewed October 2026: dates and descriptions checked against the admissions pages of the Perse School, St Faith's, King's College School, St John's College School, Stephen Perse Cambridge, St Mary's School, Cambridge and Heritage School.
Ready to plan Year 3 entry for September 2027?
Our expert 7+ tutors help families across Cambridge turn a school's published paper into a weekly programme for a child in Year 2, with maths, English and reasoning weighted to that school.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppFive independent schools publish a Year 3 route: the Perse Prep, St Faith's, King's College School, St John's College School and Stephen Perse Cambridge Junior School, which calls Year 3 its core entry point. St John's gives 4+ and 7+ as its primary entry points, and St Faith's lists Year 3 and Year 4 (age 7+ and 8+) among its main points of entry. St Mary's School, Cambridge, a girls' school, and Heritage School hold taster days with assessments for children from Year 2.
St Faith's application page says the deadline for September 2027 entry to Years 1–8 "has now passed" and that further applications are welcome where spaces permit, and it asks families to contact its Admissions Team to check availability before applying. Its Assessments page invites applicants to an Assessment Morning on either Friday 20 November 2026 or Friday 8 January 2027 and says both dates are considered equally, so children attending in January will not be at any disadvantage. Its admissions timeline gives the outcome of the 20 November assessments in December 2026 and of the 8 January assessments in February 2027.
The Perse Prep tests Year 3 candidates in a half-day session on one date between Monday 11 and Friday 15 January 2027, and Years 4 to 6 on Saturday 16 January 2027. Registration forms must be submitted by 1 December in the year before entry, so 1 December 2026 for September 2027. The school requests a written reference from the child's current school in early December. Families not already at the Pelican can attend the Year 2 taster morning on Saturday 7 November 2026.
The Perse Prep lists reasoning, verbal and non-verbal, alongside English (reading, writing, comprehension) and maths including mental maths. Its Year 3 sample-paper sheet adds that parents may introduce the concept of verbal and non-verbal reasoning, that this is not obligatory because practice is provided on the day, and that excessive practice beforehand tends to be counter-productive. We therefore introduce reasoning through puzzles and games in short sessions, and keep most of the preparation on reading aloud, Year 2 maths and unaided writing.
The Perse Prep says nearly two thirds of its Year 3 intake come from the Pelican and just over a third, usually around 24 pupils, join from other schools, both local and further afield. In Years 4 and 5 it says it usually offers around three places in each year group. These figures come from the school's welcome page, and they are why we plan a Perse Prep candidate's preparation around the January 2027 session.
King's College School says pupils joining Year 1 and above do some written English and Maths at an age-appropriate level, and says places go to those meeting the entry requirements on a first-come-first-served basis. St John's College School says Year 3 applicants attend an assessment morning, usually on a Saturday in January, with Maths, English, Drama and Music, Art and possibly PE, observed by at least two teachers, and that reading age is also assessed.
St Faith's publishes Year 3 sample English and maths papers on its sample entrance papers page. The English sample describes a reading test, a spelling test and a written task from pictures, and the maths sample lists six topic areas with questions read out to candidates. Its Quest familiarisation test has a 7+ option for children in Year 2 with four parts: English, Maths, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning. Our tutors use both, so a child has met the question styles before their Assessment Morning.
The Perse Prep's Year 3 sample-paper sheet lists an oral contribution among the elements of testing, meaning how the children interact with each other and with staff and their general approach to the testing process. The tests are carried out in groups of about six under test conditions, and the school says it holds no formal interviews, although the Head has a chat with the children in small groups. Our tutors practise the spoken side by having a child talk with an unfamiliar adult and explain their thinking aloud, so speaking up in a group of about six is less of a first.
Stephen Perse Cambridge says its Junior School evaluation includes specific tests in maths and reading, and that children who reach the academic threshold are invited to a Taster Day. Its key dates page says Junior School assessments are conducted individually or in small groups rather than on a single set assessment day. We rehearse reading aloud and spoken maths one-to-one, since the school says children are assessed individually or in small groups, and we keep the plan flexible because the school says there is no single, set assessment day.
Our expert 7+ tutors help children across Cambridge by starting from the target school's own published description of its paper and dates. The first session checks a child against Year 2 maths and English, and the weekly work follows, in sessions that are playful, hands-on and paced around concentration, lengthening gradually as the assessment approaches. Reasoning is weighted by school: the Perse Prep and St Faith's list verbal and non-verbal reasoning, and St Mary's lists non-verbal ability. Book a free consultation and our tutors will build a weekly programme around your target schools.
Book a free consultation and our expert 7+ tutors in Cambridge will build a weekly programme around your child's target schools and the dates those schools publish for September 2027 entry.
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