13+ French: CE Levels, CASE and the 2027 Exam Dates

‘ 13+ French ’ is not one exam. Depending on the school, it can mean ISEB Common Entrance (CE) French at Level 1 or Level 2, the separate CASE French paper set for scholarship candidates, or no French paper at all, because French has never been one of Common Entrance's three compulsory subjects. CE at 13+ is built around English, mathematics and science; French sits among the additional papers a senior school chooses to set, or not.

Does Your Child's Target School Even Test French at 13+?

The 13+ route runs on ISEB's Common Entrance timetable, sat in Year 8 across three sessions a year, and the access arrangements, registration windows and general structure of that route are covered in full on our 13+ tuition page. What follows here is specific to French.

ISEB’s own description of the exam is direct on this point: candidates sit three compulsory papers — English, mathematics and science — and “may be required to sit additional papers in a wide range of subjects including geography, history, classics, modern foreign languages, and theology, philosophy and religion,” according to ISEB’s Common Entrance overview page. French lives entirely inside that second, optional category. A school’s own admissions requirements — not a single national syllabus — decide whether your child ever opens a French paper at 13+.

Westminster School is a clean example of a school that does not. Its own admissions page states that Year 6 pupils “take a pre-interview test in Mathematics, English and Reasoning at their prep school during October or November” and that “Westminster School uses the Independent Schools Examinations Board (ISEB) Common Pre-Tests,” according to Westminster’s own 13+ admissions page (checked 7 September 2026). French does not appear anywhere on that page. A family preparing Common Entrance French for a Westminster place is preparing for a paper the school does not set.

The ISEB Common Pre-Test itself carries no language component at all. ISEB describes it as “the same set of four tests covering English, mathematics, verbal and non-verbal reasoning,” according to its own families hub page. Our separate pages on 13+ verbal reasoning and 13+ non-verbal reasoning cover what that test actually contains; neither one is French, whichever school your child is aiming for.

Winchester College is a harder case to generalise about, and worth stating precisely rather than guessing. Winchester’s own admissions page confirms boys “sit Winchester Entrance” in Year 8, but that “entry to Winchester College is not dependent on the results of these examinations,” according to Winchester’s own admissions page (checked 7 September 2026). That page does not itself break down which subjects Winchester Entrance covers, so we cannot say from it whether French is one of them — an absence of a published subject list is not the same as evidence that French is absent. The only safe conclusion from Winchester’s own words is that its Entrance result is an indicator of progress, not a determining factor in the 13+ place itself.

What Does ISEB Common Entrance French Actually Test, Level by Level?

Once CE French applies, the exam itself is tiered. ISEB’s own French page states: “We offer the CE French exam at Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 is aimed at candidates who have studied French for between 30 and 40 hours, or who find the language difficult. Level 2 candidates will be expected to have a broader range of vocabulary and grammar knowledge,” according to ISEB’s Common Entrance French specification page. The distinction is about how much French a child has actually done, not about age or year group — a Year 8 pupil newer to the language sits the same Level 1 paper as one entering with only a term or two of study.

Both levels share the same paper structure. ISEB’s own wording is: “Candidates at both levels will sit three papers, in speaking, listening, and reading and writing.” Reading and writing are combined into a single written paper rather than split into two, which changes how revision time should be split — a student needs comfort moving between comprehension and composition inside one sitting, not just strength in one or the other.

Dictionary use is tightly scoped and easy to misunderstand. ISEB states: “Candidates may use a standard English-French dictionary during the preparation period for speaking exams only. Candidates whose first language is not English may have access to a bilingual translation dictionary, but not in the target language (French),” according to the same ISEB page. In other words, no dictionary is permitted during the written paper at all, and the allowance during speaking preparation is not a general concession — it does not extend to a pupil translating whole answers rather than preparing to speak from them.

The specification behind both levels is not brand new, but it is also not necessarily the one an older sibling sat. ISEB’s page is headed “New French CE/CASE Specification (for first teaching from September 2021)”, so any past paper or revision guide dated before that point is testing the previous syllabus, not the one your child will sit in 2026 or 2027.

Is CASE French Simply a Harder Version of Common Entrance?

No, and treating it that way is a common misreading. CASE — the Common Academic Scholarship Examination — is a separate exam with a different purpose. ISEB describes it plainly: “The CASE is designed to challenge the most able students at 13+ in close analysis and interpretation of literary texts,” according to ISEB’s French assessments page. Common Entrance French tests whether a pupil has reached a working level in the language; CASE French tests whether they can read and interrogate a literary text closely — a different skill, not simply a harder version of the same one.

The paper shape looks familiar because it borrows it: CASE French candidates “will sit three papers, in speaking, listening, and reading and writing” — the same three components as Common Entrance French — and ISEB confirms “CASE papers are based on the CE at 13+ specification.” That overlap is exactly why families conflate the two: the papers share a structure and a source specification, but not a demand.

Nor does a family register for CASE directly. ISEB’s own Common Entrance overview states that “pupils sitting CASE assessments are entered by the senior schools they have applied to, who choose which papers pupils will sit and also mark the papers,” and confirms French is among the subjects on offer, alongside “English, mathematics, science, history, geography, theology, philosophy and religion... and Latin,” according to ISEB’s Common Entrance overview page. A child cannot decide to sit CASE French; the senior school decides whether to enter them for it, and which of its papers they will sit.

When Are the 2026 and 2027 13+ French Papers Actually Sat?

Common Entrance at 13+ is not a single date but three sessions a year. ISEB’s own overview states there are “three examination sessions each year; in November, January and May/June,” and French follows that same calendar in every session it is set. The table below summarises the three sessions that fall in 2026 and 2027; the detail and the source quote for each follow it.

For the autumn 2026 session, ISEB’s published timetable puts the French written paper — reading and writing — on Thursday 5 November 2026, sitting alongside Classical Greek, History (with the Mathematics Mental Arithmetic Test) and Geography in the same Thursday column, according to ISEB’s own CE at 13+ exam timetable (checked 7 September 2026). That written paper falls inside the same working week — 2 to 6 November 2026 — as the listening and speaking components.

The spring 2027 session runs to the same tight pattern. French listening is timetabled for Tuesday 26 January 2027, with speaking held on any one of 25 to 29 January 2027, and the written paper falls on Thursday 28 January 2027 — again the same week, only two days after listening. A spring candidate sits their entire French exam, across all three components, inside a single week.

Summer 2027 breaks that pattern, and this is the detail worth planning around. French listening is set for Tuesday 18 May 2027, with speaking on any day from 17 to 23 May 2027 — so far, identical in shape to the other two sessions. But the written paper does not follow within the week: it falls on Thursday 10 June 2027, according to the same ISEB timetable. Counting the calendar between the two dates yourself confirms it — 18 May to 10 June is roughly three weeks, against the two-day gap in the spring session and the same-week pattern in autumn. A summer candidate has to keep their spoken French sharp for a written paper that arrives three weeks after they last used it out loud, which is a longer stretch of self-directed revision than either of the other two sessions requires.

That gap changes what “finished revising” means for a summer candidate. A spring or autumn candidate can treat listening, speaking and writing as one block of preparation, sat inside the same seven days. A summer candidate needs a second, shorter phase of work between the spoken papers and the written one, specifically aimed at not losing ground on vocabulary and grammar while the written paper is still three weeks away.

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