Applying at 13+: why the process starts so early

First, put the arrival year at the top of the page

“13+” describes entry around age thirteen, commonly into Year 9 at the English schools discussed here. It does not tell you the application deadline. The year-group examples in this guide use the English system; if your child studies elsewhere, ask admissions to confirm the equivalent cohort from their date of birth.

Make a separate row for each school. Record the arrival year, registration deadline, assessment dates, decision date and any later conditions. Add bursary and scholarship deadlines in their own columns. Do not let a note saying “2029 entry” obscure a registration deadline in 2026.

A current example shows why this matters. Eton’s published 13+ page gives 31 August 2026 as the registration deadline for 2029 entry. As of our 3 September 2026 review, that deadline has passed. The school describes strict deadlines, with separate Year 8 routes for eligible King’s Scholarship or Music Award applicants. Those are not a general late-registration option.

Our Eton College guide follows the newer 2029 timetable and explains the different King’s Scholarship, Music and funding rules. In particular, a late scholarship route does not necessarily come with a new opportunity for financial assistance.

If the main route is closed, establish that before buying months of preparation. There may be other schools or entry points worth exploring, but an ambitious study plan cannot reopen a deadline.

Before the registration deadline

Visit if possible, check the cost and ask whether the school is a sensible match. If you need financial assistance, establish the correct application route before paying. Tell the school about access arrangements your child may need and ask what evidence is required, by whom and by when.

During the assessment year

Confirm each assessment, its location and who registers your child. Keep the testing appointment separate from the deadline by which a senior school needs the result: they are not interchangeable.

After a decision

Read the actual offer. What is being offered, what must you pay to accept it, and what remains conditional? Check the day or boarding place, any house allocation, financial assistance and withdrawal terms separately. A congratulatory email is not the whole agreement.

Name the fallback before accepting: where could your child actually go if a later condition is not met? Ask whether accepting this offer affects another place, and check each school’s payment and notice terms before giving anything up. A second school on a list is not a fallback unless you understand how a place there would be secured. Our offers and waiting-lists guide helps you work through competing deadlines and uncertain places.

Before arrival

Keep track of required reports or exams, but also revisit the choice with your child. Their interests, friendships and support needs may have changed since registration. An early offer can be reassuring without making the decision immune to another look.

We suggest a family check-in at least once a year while you wait. Ask your child what still appeals, what worries them and whether day or boarding life still feels right. Then compare that conversation with the conditions and next dates in the offer. This is a chance to notice a change, not another test for your child to pass.

Do not save an important change for that annual conversation. If a change could materially affect attendance, boarding, care, support or affordability, contact the relevant admissions, boarding, support or bursary lead promptly. You do not need to share unrelated private family details. Our learning-support guide can help you turn a general reassurance into specific questions about provision.

For a fictional example, Tom accepted a future boarding place at ten but now wants to stay at home. His parents need to ask whether a day place is available and what changing the offer would involve. They should not assume the boarding offer can simply be converted—or dismiss his concern because the deposit has already been paid.

What are the ISEB Pre-Tests?

The ISEB family guide describes four online adaptive tests: English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Schools can use them for 11+ or deferred 13+ entry. Verbal reasoning uses words and language patterns; non-verbal reasoning uses shapes and visual patterns. Adaptive means question difficulty changes in response to answers.

Results are adjusted to account for the child’s age, so younger and older applicants can be compared more fairly. This is called age-standardisation. Participating schools can share the same sitting rather than requiring a fresh test for each application.

For the 2026–27 session, ISEB says testing runs from 1 September 2026 until late May 2027. A school can require completion much earlier. Its deadline is the one your family needs to meet.

Start with the official family resources and familiarisation material linked there. The aim is to understand how the assessment works before deciding whether your child needs additional teaching. A commercial mock score is not an official ISEB result, and we would not treat a tutor’s suggested “safe score” as an admissions promise.

If it publishes no threshold, an unofficial “safe score” from a parent chat is a poor basis for preparation.

Our practical ISEB Pre-Tests guide takes you through registration, the four test timings, useful practice and access requests. It also separates sharing a result with another school from testing again in a later academic year.

Who books the test—and where will your child sit it?

ISEB’s registration information explains the parent-created applicant profile and ID, which connect the child’s registration with the schools and invigilation centre. Check those connections rather than assuming that registering with a senior school books a sitting automatically.

If your child attends a school unfamiliar with the process, contact both the senior school and the current school early. Do not book an unapproved test provider on the assumption that any online sitting will count.

For additional needs, agree arrangements before test day. Admission-test arrangements and the support a school can provide after enrolment are two separate conversations.

Keep a small record of the applicant ID, centre contact, date, receiving schools and written confirmations. Keep personal documents secure and use the school’s agreed channel to share them.

What happens beyond the test score?

The same pre-test can lead to very different second stages. Ask what happens after the score, who is invited and what any later offer remains conditional on.

Wellington’s main 13+ route closes registration on 30 June in Year 5. It uses Pre-Tests and a school reference, followed for selected candidates by collaborative lessons, problem-solving activities and an interview. Offers follow in March of Year 6, conditional on a favourable report at the end of Year 8. It also publishes later routes; its latest route initially offers successful applicants a waiting-list place, not a guaranteed admission.

That example is useful because an assessment visit is not necessarily another written paper. Do not borrow another school’s format simply because both use the same pre-test.

Our Wellington College guide follows the process through to house choice, day or boarding commitments, learning support and the family bill.

Check the exact arrangements in our school guides or use the local comparisons to build a shortlist that works for your family.

For conversation practice, ask your child to tell you about something they genuinely enjoy. Follow up naturally: what was difficult, what changed their mind, or what would they try next? These are our practice suggestions, not leaked school questions. Let the answer remain recognisably theirs.

For a group activity, we would encourage listening, explaining an idea and being willing to build on someone else’s suggestion. Teaching a child to seize every turn can work against the very impression the family hopes to create. There is no reliable script for being a good classmate.

Common Entrance comes later—and is a different assessment

ISEB’s Common Entrance family guidance describes paper-based examinations, usually taken after an offer that is conditional on passing them. At 13+, English, maths and science sit alongside selected humanities, languages or classical subjects. A prep school usually handles registration, although parent registration is possible. The separate Common Academic Scholarship examinations are not required of every Common Entrance candidate.

Ask for the condition in writing and how it will be assessed. Do not assume that a percentage discussed by another family is a universal pass mark.

The Wellington example above illustrates why the distinction matters: a published offer condition can concern a later school report rather than a Common Entrance score. Other schools may have different conditions. Preparing for an exam nobody has asked your child to take is an expensive misunderstanding.

If the current school does not teach the required syllabus, identify the gap early with both schools. Avoid treating “we will sort it out in Year 8” as a plan, especially for subjects your child has never studied.

If primary school ends at eleven, what happens in between?

A 13+ application does not arrange the years before arrival. If your child’s current school ends after Year 6, you need a workable Year 7 and Year 8 plan regardless of how promising a senior-school application looks.

Consider this fictional family: Leila is at a state primary and wants to apply for a Year 9 place. Her parents still need to secure her next school, understand its curriculum and check how any later assessment would fit. They should not assume the new school will provide specialist preparation or that a two-year transfer will suit Leila socially.

A prep-school bridge might be an option for some families, but adds fees, admissions requirements and another transition. Remaining at a local secondary school may make more sense for others. We would compare the actual two-year experience, not choose solely for an imagined advantage in the later application.

Budget for the whole route, not just Year 9

Put the years before arrival and the senior-school years on the same budget. Include any bridge-school fees, registration and assessment charges, visits, deposits, travel and preparation you actually intend to use. Keep one-off payments separate from recurring bills, and ask which deposits are credited later.

A possible senior-school bursary does not tell you how Years 7 and 8 will be funded. Nor should an unconfirmed award be treated as money already available. Our fees and bursaries guide helps you check the assumptions behind the family’s contribution.

Our England grammar-school guide explains the separate state-school application process where relevant. Keep those deadlines alive while making private-school plans.

If you are late, ask a precise question

Send admissions the intended entry year, your child’s date of birth and current school year, whether you need day or boarding, and whether financial assistance is essential. You do not need to attach a polished personal statement unless requested.

Separate “we can accept a registration” from “we have places”, and separate a waiting list from an offer. Retain an option your family can genuinely use.

If boarding is part of the plan, move on to our boarding-school family guide. Securing a place and choosing a residential life are related decisions, but success with the first does not settle the second.