7+ Tuition

The 7+ examination is the entrance assessment sat by children in Year 2 (ages 6–7) for a Year 3 place at selective London independent schools in September 2027. Highgate School is planning to admit around 50 children through 7+ this cycle, and South Hampstead High School's Junior School typically admits 24; each school sets, marks and administers its own papers rather than sitting a shared regional test.

Families considering Highgate, the City of London schools (via the shared City Junior School), North London Collegiate School, South Hampstead High School, Alleyn's or Chigwell need specialist support at this age: patient, age-appropriate teaching built around a six- or seven-year-old, rather than a scaled-down version of 11+ preparation.

What Schools Have 7+ Entry?

The schools below confirmed live registration and assessment dates for 7+ entry into Year 3 in September 2027 when checked against their own admissions pages in September 2026. Two names often listed elsewhere needed correcting: Channing School’s Junior School has no 7+ round at all, as of September 2026, and “City of London School” 7+ entry runs through the shared, co-educational City Junior School rather than either senior school directly.

Highgate is also able to offer “several fee-assisted places (bursaries) to eligible families applying for 7+ each year,” and its own admissions or bursaries page is the place to check current eligibility and values, which the school itself has to determine.

Chigwell School’s Prep department lists 7+ as a regular entry point alongside 4+, 11+, 13+ and 16+; the school’s own entry-points page confirms 2026-27 dates directly, with assessment by group sessions plus an entrance examination in English and maths.

Channing School is sometimes listed as a 7+ school, but its own admissions pages describe 4+ as the Junior School’s only regular entry point, taking 50 places in Reception from around 200 applicants each year. There is no separate 7+ assessment on the school’s site; occasional places in Year 3 and other year groups are filled through Channing’s general Chance Vacancies process rather than a scheduled 7+ round.

A small number of London schools use 8+ (Year 4 intake) as their equivalent early entry point instead of 7+. Families should check a target school’s own admissions pages to see which point it actually uses, since the two are separate application rounds with their own dates.

What Does the 7+ Exam Test?

Every school above tests some combination of English and mathematics, and several add a group activity or short interview; none of them publishes a standalone verbal or non-verbal reasoning paper at 7+, as of September 2026, unlike the format widely used at 11+.

• Highgate School — written tests in English and Mathematics on assessment day, followed by a second-stage taster lesson and group interview.
• North London Collegiate School — a first-stage written test covering literacy (an imaginative story, reading comprehension) and numeracy (times tables, shape, time, money, simple charts), then a taught morning at the second stage.
• City Junior School — three papers of 25–40 minutes each, in mathematics, reading comprehension and creative writing, followed by group tasks and an individual conversation at the second stage.
• South Hampstead High School Junior — small-group tests in maths, writing and comprehension, plus a round-table discussion; the school does not provide past papers.
• Alleyn’s Junior School — two assessment sessions (8 and 16 January 2027); the school’s own site does not publish the paper subjects for its 7+ round, unlike its 9+ sample papers in English comprehension, English creative writing and mathematics.
• Chigwell School — group sessions with written and practical tasks, plus an entrance examination comprising English and maths papers.

Because the working papers sit inside a wider assessment day — a group activity, a short interview, sometimes a reference from the child’s current school — a strong result on the written papers alone rarely decides a place on its own.

When to Start 7+ Preparation

Assessment dates for the September 2027 round run from mid-November 2026 to late January 2027, not in a single window. North London Collegiate School tests first, on 13 November 2026, then City Junior School on 27 November 2026 and Highgate School on 1 December 2026; South Hampstead High School’s Junior School and Alleyn’s Junior School test in January 2027, on 5 January and 8 January respectively, and Chigwell School’s entrance examination follows on 23 January 2027.

Registration closes weeks before any of those dates: North London Collegiate School’s window shuts 30 October 2026, Highgate’s at noon on 4 November 2026, City Junior School’s at noon on 6 November 2026, Alleyn’s at midday on 13 November 2026, and South Hampstead High Junior’s on 27 November 2026 — and Chigwell’s closes latest of all, at 5pm on 1 December 2026. A family that starts looking only after seeing an assessment date has usually already missed several schools’ registration windows.

For a child in Year 1 the year before assessment, preparation ideally begins gently, well before the relevant registration deadline above, rather than from the first week of school. This does not mean intensive drilling from age five. It means:

• Building reading fluency and a love of books early
• Establishing confident number sense through games and daily maths conversations
• Introducing reasoning puzzles from the spring or summer term of Year 1, before any formal practice
• Starting structured weekly tuition once a target school’s registration window has opened

Children who begin only in the weeks before their school’s own assessment date often find the pace overwhelming. Starting earlier and building gradually is both more effective and kinder to the child.

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How Leading Tuition Supports 7+ Students

Our 7+ tutors are specialists in working with young children. They understand that a six-year-old needs learning to feel exciting and rewarding, not pressured. Sessions are playful where possible, hands-on, and paced around your child's concentration span, lengthening gradually as the assessment approaches.

We work on all three components of the 7+: mathematics, English, and reasoning. We also help parents understand what the schools are looking for and how to support their child's learning at home without creating anxiety. Our experience spans the schools listed above and we know the specific formats and marking emphases of each.

For families considering both 7+ and 11+ entry, we can discuss the most effective long-term preparation strategy across both assessments. Many families find that strong early foundations built for the 7+ pay significant dividends at 11+. See our 11+ tuition page and our school guides at Highgate, City of London Girls, and North London Collegiate.

Because each school above tests something slightly different — Highgate’s English and Maths papers, North London Collegiate School’s literacy and numeracy test, City Junior School’s mathematics, comprehension and creative-writing papers, or South Hampstead High Junior’s maths, writing and comprehension plus round-table discussion — we build each child’s programme around their actual target schools rather than one generic 7+ format. Families weighing a later attempt can also see our Alleyn's School 11+ guide and our wider Primary Tuition support for Years 1 to 6, and our full 7+ tuition London guide for more on exam format and preparation timelines.

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.

Reviewed September 2026: 7+ admissions requirements and September-2027-entry dates checked against each school's own admissions pages (Highgate, North London Collegiate School, City Junior School, South Hampstead High School, Alleyn's and Chigwell School).

Frequently Asked Questions