13+ Tutors in London 2026-27: Which Schools Actually Run Year 9 Entry

In London, “13 plus” usually means one of two things. In outer boroughs it can mean a late-transfer grammar-school test — the meaning the top-ranking page for this search actually covers. At London's independent day schools it means entry into Year 9 of the senior school, and that is this page's focus: five schools across five boroughs, chosen because each has a clearly documented 13+ policy, not because they are the only London schools that take pupils at 13. Dozens more do; this is a start, not a complete list. The first thing worth knowing, before any test format or date: Common Entrance, the exam most tutoring agencies market “13+ preparation” around, is close to vestigial even here — of the five schools researched, only one still accepts it at all, and only as an optional, non-decisive input from a boy's current school.

Which London Day Schools Actually Run 13+ as a Standard Entry Point — and Which Don't

None of the five pages ranking for “13 plus tutors London” names a school, and the answer genuinely splits down the middle. Three of the day schools families search for hardest at this age do not run 13+ as a scheduled, guaranteed intake round; two do.

• Highgate School (Haringey) — main entry points are 4+, 7+, 11+ and 16+. Year 9 is not a standard point of entry; an occasional place can appear only if a current pupil leaves, and Year 9 happens not to be one of the year groups Highgate excludes from that occasional-place system. See also our Highgate 16+ guide.
• Latymer Upper School (Hammersmith and Fulham) — the same pattern. Year 9 places are occasional only, offered when space allows, and the school does not offer a remote or overseas sitting for them. See also our Latymer Upper 16+ guide.
• Alleyn's School (Southwark) — formal entry points are 4+, 7+ (Year 3), 9+ (Year 5) and 11+ (Year 7). Its Senior School accepts 13+ candidates only when a current pupil's departure genuinely creates a vacancy. See also our Alleyn's 16+ guide.
• King's College School Wimbledon (Merton) — the opposite pattern: 13+ is a genuine, competitive entry round run every single year, with tests and interviews every December/January.
• Whitgift School (Croydon) — 13+ Entry sits alongside 10+, 11+ and 16+ as a standing annual entry point, open for applications every year regardless of vacancies. See also our Whitgift 16+ guide.

The distinction changes what a family should actually do. There is no fixed “Highgate 13+ exam date” to prepare for, because in most years there may be no exam at all — only a chance to register interest against the possibility that a place opens up. King's College School Wimbledon and Whitgift School, by contrast, can be planned against like any other admissions round: a fixed registration deadline, a fixed test date, a fixed number of places contested every year. King's is also, separately, moving to full co-education at 13+: girls and boys will be admitted to Year 9 together from September 2035, and up to eight academic scholarships are awarded to the incoming year group each year, on top of the standard entrance process.

How Each School Actually Tests at 13+

Even setting the occasional-versus-standard split aside, none of the five uses the same test, and none of the five publishes any reference to the ISEB Common Pre-Test in its 13+ admissions material — the assessment many families assume governs 13+ entry everywhere.

• King's College School Wimbledon sets its own entrance examination — a pre-test in English, Mathematics and Verbal Reasoning, sat in December of Year 6, followed by an interview for those invited back. A boy cannot apply for both the school's 11+ and 13+ routes in the same year; the two are assessed on the same day and decided together. King's will still accept a boy's Common Entrance results from his current school if it still enters pupils for CE, but only to help with subject setting once he has joined — not as part of the admissions decision.
• Whitgift School runs a set Entrance Examination followed by a block of interviews the following month, with results emailed roughly six weeks after the exam.
• Highgate School, when an occasional Year 9 assessment is actually held, tests Mathematics and English only, with successful candidates invited to interview the following week.
• Latymer Upper School's occasional Year 9 process requires candidates to sit an assessment in a foreign language they have studied since Year 7 — a format that doesn't map onto any other school in this group.
• Alleyn's School invites candidates for “assessment and/or interview, as appropriate” if a Senior School vacancy arises, without a fixed published subject list, since the process is built around whatever place has actually opened up.

That spread matters for a tutor as much as for a parent: a child preparing for King's is practising timed subject papers against a fixed December date; a child hoping for an Alleyn's vacancy is being kept exam-ready for an assessment that might be called with only a few weeks' notice, if it is called at all that year.

2026-27 Key Dates — and Why the Cycles Don't Line Up

None of the marketplace pages ranking for this search gives a single date, and the five schools' own cycles genuinely do not share a calendar. The starkest gap: King's College School Wimbledon is currently registering for entry in September 2029, three full years further out than Whitgift's September 2027 round — while the three occasional-place schools have no fixed cycle to register against at all.

King's own results date for its current round is Friday 12 February 2027, with initial acceptance of a conditional place due by 1 March 2027 — almost a year before the registration deadlines above for Highgate and Latymer Upper's occasional-place cycles even open. Whitgift's interview window runs from Wednesday 18 to Wednesday 25 November 2026, with a boarding acceptance deadline of Thursday 10 December 2026; its day-place acceptance date was still marked “TBC” on the school's own key-dates page at the time of writing, which is itself worth checking directly rather than assuming it mirrors the boarding date. A family targeting more than one of these five schools is, in effect, tracking three separate kinds of calendar at once.

What 13+ Costs at Each School

Termly fees vary substantially across the schools that publish a 13+-specific figure, before any boarding premium, and none of the pages ranking for this search names a figure for any of them.

King's College School Wimbledon's £5,970 acceptance deposit is explicitly half a term's fee — a useful way to sense-check any other school's deposit against its own termly rate. Whitgift's day fee of £8,400 per term excluding VAT is the most recently published figure on its own fees page at the time of writing; a 2026-27 update may follow the same pattern as its 13+ key dates, which are already published a year ahead. King's College School Wimbledon and Highgate both charge an identical £210 registration fee to enter their 13+ process — one buys a place in a guaranteed annual test with a fixed date, the other buys only the chance that an assessment will be held at all that year.

What This Means If Your Child Missed an 11+ Place

This is the practical question behind most of these searches: at three of the five schools, getting in at 13+ is not a second sitting of the same exam but a wait for a vacancy, with a different process each time it happens.

• At King's College School Wimbledon and Whitgift School, a family can plan against a fixed annual date rather than wait for an opening. King's also runs a second route specifically for this situation: a Year 8 “Late Assessment”, open to boys who did not sit the Year 6 pre-test, or who sat it but did not receive an offer, with three written papers in English, Maths and Verbal Reasoning sat in late September of Year 8, and interviews the following week for those shortlisted.
• At Highgate, Latymer Upper and Alleyn's, registering interest in an occasional Year 9 place is worth doing as early as each school allows, but it does not guarantee an assessment will be held that year at all — it depends entirely on a current pupil leaving. Highgate is explicit that it does not carry an enquiry forward from one year to the next, so a family has to re-register every September even if nothing has changed since their last enquiry.

The single most useful thing a family can do before booking any 13+ tuition is establish, in writing from the school itself, which of these two systems actually applies — a fixed test to prepare for by a known date, or a waiting-list registration with no guaranteed sitting. Leading Tuition also supports families across London more broadly and through 13+ tuition generally, from Primary right through to Sixth Form.

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