The honest breakdown of Nottingham's Year 9 entry points -- schools, fees and deadlines, verified at source.
Book a Free ConsultationNottingham's 13+ market is five schools, not a city-wide offer. Four run a genuine selective assessment at Year 9 — Nottingham High School, Nottingham Girls' High School (GDST), Trent College and Worksop College — and only Worksop's own admissions policy uses the phrase "13+" in writing. A fifth, Hollygirt School, is not selective at all, but from September 2026 it is closing its Nursery to Year 5 provision and rebuilding itself entirely around Years 6 to 11 — which puts a genuine Year 9 place at the centre of a Nottingham school's offer for the first time. Two of the four selective schools are not actually in Nottingham: Trent College's own government record places it in Derbyshire, and Worksop College is the best part of an hour's drive north in Bassetlaw. None of the four selective schools' own admissions materials describe a Common Entrance or ISEB process, unlike many 13+ schools nationally — see our guide to how Common Entrance normally works for comparison. Below is what each school actually requires, costs and enforces as a deadline for Year 9 entry, verified against each school's own admissions pages rather than the wider Nottingham tutoring market.
| School | Inside Nottingham? | Year 9 Assessment | Day Fee/Term (2026/27) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nottingham High School | Yes | 3 papers: English, Maths, Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning | £7,718 |
| Nottingham Girls' High School | Yes | One 3-hour combined sitting + interview | £6,761 |
| Trent College | No — Derbyshire (Long Eaton) | Interview + Entrance Examination | £7,848 |
| Worksop College | No — Bassetlaw | Verbal reasoning tests + school reports | £8,689.03 |
| Hollygirt School | Yes | No exam — taster days + reference | £60 registration only* |
*Hollygirt's ongoing termly tuition fee was not part of this research; only its £60 registration fee is verified above.
Nottingham High School's Senior School educates children from Year 7 to Year 13, but new students are only welcomed into Years 7 to 10 and into Year 12 — the school does not accept applications into Year 11 or Year 13, so a Year 9 (13+) move has to happen at Year 9 itself. The Senior School entrance assessment is the same regardless of which year group a child is joining: three exams, each set at National Curriculum level for the child's current year group — one hour of English (reading comprehension and creative writing), one hour of Maths, and one hour of Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning, which is computer-based. The Senior School termly fee for 2026/27 is £7,718 inclusive of VAT, and a successful applicant is asked for an acceptance deposit of £800, refunded when the pupil eventually leaves the school. Deadlines matter here: the school asks for applications by 1st December 2025 for a full fee-paying September 2026 place, and by 1st November 2025 if a bursary is wanted — though that bursary window is explicitly Year 7 only, so it does not help a family applying for a Year 9 place. Check current-year deadlines directly with the admissions team before assuming last year's dates still apply.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppNottingham Girls' High School is part of the Girls' Day School Trust and runs entry into Years 7, 8, 9 and 10, with candidates asked to complete papers in English, Mathematics and Verbal Reasoning. The structure changes once a child is past the standard Year 7 intake: for applications into Year 8 and above — which covers the Year 9 (13+) point — the school combines everything into one three-hour sitting covering English, Maths and Reasoning, rather than Nottingham High's three separate hour-long papers. Every candidate is also invited to an informal interview with the Head, Mrs Julie Keller, and the school requests a reference from the applicant's current school before an offer is made. On cost: the termly fee for Year 7 to Year 13 in 2026/27 is £6,761 inclusive of VAT — noticeably below Nottingham High's Senior School rate — and the school asks for a non-refundable registration fee of £120 on application, plus a refundable deposit of £500 to confirm acceptance of a place, which is only returned if the family later declines rather than withdraws outright. There is also a 20% sibling discount for a third or subsequent daughter, which matters if a family already has two girls at the school.
Trent College markets itself as an independent school "in Nottingham," and its postal address does read Long Eaton, Nottingham — but its official Department for Education record lists its local authority as Derbyshire, not Nottinghamshire, because Long Eaton sits just over the county line, a short drive out from the city along the A52. That distinction matters for a family choosing between a genuinely central Nottingham school and one that only borrows the city's name for its postcode. Trent accepts the majority of its new pupils at Year 7, but its own admissions policy states that places are "also available for Year 9 and Year 12 entry." A non-Year-7 applicant is invited to interview and sits an Entrance Examination, and the school also requests references and school reports from the child's current school; scholarship assessments for later entry points typically run between December and March. The fee structure makes the Year 9 move a real budgeting decision: Year 7-8 day fees are £7,134 a term, rising to £7,848 a term at Year 9 — a jump a family moving a child in at 13+ needs to plan for rather than assume matches the Year 7 rate. Weekly boarding follows the same pattern, rising from £10,981 a term at Year 7-8 to £11,613 at Year 9, while full boarding is a flat £15,000 a term regardless of year group.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppWorksop College is the only school in this whole search — official or competitor — whose own admissions policy uses the exact phrase parents are typing into Google. Its policy lists entry points as "Year 9 (13+), Year 10 (14+) and at Year 12 into the Sixth Form (16+)," which settles any ambiguity about what "13+" actually means at this particular school. The catch is location: Worksop College's government record places it in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, and the town of Worksop itself is the best part of an hour's drive north of Nottingham along the A614 — genuinely too far for some families to consider as a day school option, even though it sits inside the same county. At Year 9, pupils may be assessed by verbal reasoning tests and school reports rather than an academic exam paper — the policy is explicit that GCSE results aren't relevant at this age because there aren't any yet. On fees, the current published Year 9-11 day rate is £8,689.03 a term, rising to £10,383.12 for flexi boarding, £12,419.59 for weekly boarding and £14,884.13 for full boarding (£16,404.34 for boarders from outside the UK). Worksop is a Woodard School with a Church of England ethos, and pupils are expected to attend chapel.
Hollygirt School is easy to miss in a search for 13+ tutors in Nottingham because it doesn't run a selective 13+ exam at all — but it belongs on this page for two reasons. First, its address is Elm Avenue, inside Nottingham itself, unlike Trent College or Worksop College. Second, and more importantly, Hollygirt announced on 13 March 2026 that it is refocusing its entire offer: at the end of the current academic year its Nursery to Year 5 provision will conclude, and from September 2026 the school will provide education solely for pupils in Years 6 to 11. That single decision makes Year 9 core to what a Nottingham independent school actually offers for the first time, rather than a side door into an all-through school — and it is recent enough that no directory or competitor page ranking for this search could possibly know about it. Hollygirt's admissions process has no formal entrance exam: it consists of taster days and a reference from the child's current school, backed by a registration fee of £60. The school's own description of its usual intake points is ages 3, 7, 11 and 14 — not 13 — though it says it will consider an application for any year group at any point in the year, which in practice makes a Year 9 move possible outside the standard entry ages if a place is available.
The flip side of a five-school answer is that almost every other secondary school in Nottingham runs no selective entry at any age — including well-regarded ones. The West Bridgford School processes in-year applications for Years 7 to 11 directly, and its own admissions page states plainly that it is "currently oversubscribed in all year groups," which means a family applying mid-cycle is competing for a rare vacancy, not sitting an exam. An in-year application gets a written outcome within 15 school days, and if it is turned down, an appeal is heard by an independent panel within 30 school days. Year 7 entry for September 2027 goes through the council's Coordinated Admissions Scheme, with applications due by 31 October 2026. None of that involves a 13+ assessment of any kind — a family outside the five schools above is not preparing for a test, they are hoping a place becomes free. Tutoring aimed at a "13+" exam is the wrong preparation for that situation entirely, and it is worth knowing which category a family falls into before spending money on the wrong kind of help.
Five, not the generic "Nottingham" offer most tutoring directories imply. Four run a genuine selective assessment at Year 9 — Nottingham High School, Nottingham Girls' High School, Trent College and Worksop College — and only Worksop's own admissions policy uses the exact phrase "Year 9 (13+)" in writing. A fifth, Hollygirt School, is non-selective but restructured itself around Years 6 to 11 from September 2026. Two of the four selective schools, Trent College and Worksop College, are not actually inside Nottingham: Trent's government record places it in Derbyshire, and Worksop sits roughly an hour's drive north in Bassetlaw. Checking each school's own admissions page before assuming your child needs "13+ tutoring" is the first useful step.
Three exams, each one hour long and set at National Curriculum level for the child's current year group: English (reading comprehension and creative writing), Maths, and a computer-based Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning test. This is the same format used for any Senior School entry point from Year 7 to Year 10, so a Year 9 applicant sits the same structure as a Year 7 applicant, just marked against Year 9 expectations. The Senior School termly fee for 2026/27 is £7,718, and a successful family pays an £800 acceptance deposit. Applications for a full fee-paying place are due by 1st December 2025 for September 2026 entry — check the school's admissions team directly for the current cycle's exact date before applying.
The termly fee for Year 7 to Year 13 in 2026/27 is £6,761, payable by Direct Debit either termly or by monthly instalments. On top of that, the school charges a non-refundable registration fee of £120 when you apply, and a refundable deposit of £500 once a place is accepted — refunded only if the family later withdraws rather than declines outright. Entry into Year 8 and above, which covers the Year 9 point, requires a three-hour combined assessment in English, Maths and Reasoning, an informal interview with the Head, Mrs Julie Keller, and a reference from the applicant's current school. A 20% sibling discount applies from a third daughter onwards.
Not according to its own government record. Trent College's postal address reads Long Eaton, Nottingham, but the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register lists its local authority as Derbyshire, because Long Eaton sits just over the county border, a short drive from the city along the A52. The school accepts most new pupils at Year 7 but its admissions policy confirms places are "also available for Year 9 and Year 12 entry," via an interview, an Entrance Examination and references from the current school. Year 9 day fees are £7,848 a term for 2026/27, up from £7,134 at Year 7-8 — a real jump worth budgeting for.
Because its own admissions policy is written that way: the heading reads "Year 9 (13+), Year 10 (14+) and at Year 12 into the Sixth Form (16+)," which is the only place in this entire search — competitor pages included — that the exact target phrase appears in an official document. At Year 9, Worksop assesses by verbal reasoning tests and school reports rather than an academic paper, since there are no GCSE results yet to go on. The current published Year 9-11 day fee is £8,689.03 a term. The catch is distance: Worksop town is roughly an hour's drive north of Nottingham, in the Bassetlaw district, so it is genuinely further from the city than Trent College.
On 13 March 2026, Hollygirt announced it is closing its Nursery to Year 5 provision at the end of the current academic year and, from September 2026, will educate only pupils in Years 6 to 11. That makes Year 9 central to the school's offer for the first time, rather than one entry point among many. Hollygirt runs no selective 13+ exam: admission is by taster days and a reference from the child's current school, backed by a £60 registration fee. Its usual entry ages are stated as 3, 7, 11 and 14, not 13, though the school says it will consider an application for any year group at any point in the year.
No. Nottinghamshire has no state grammar schools, so every genuine 13+ (Year 9) assessment route in the area runs through one of the independent schools above. The alternative is illustrated by The West Bridgford School, a well-regarded state secondary that processes in-year Years 7-11 applications directly rather than by exam, and is "currently oversubscribed in all year groups" by its own admission. A written outcome follows within 15 school days, and an unsuccessful appeal is heard by an independent panel within 30 school days. Year 7 entry for September 2027 goes through the council's scheme, with applications due by 31 October 2026 — no test involved at any point.
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