Our approach
Useful advice. Honest limits.
A school can be excellent and still be the wrong place for a particular child. That is the starting point for Eleven Plus Diary.
Written for the parent making the decision
We explain admissions processes and the questions that help families compare schools. We give reasons for our judgements, name the circumstances that could change them, and link to the evidence you may want to read yourself.
What our byline means
Eleven Plus Diary is the publication’s editorial byline. It is not a claim that a named former parent or consultant visited every school. Our current guides are desk research, with AI-assisted drafting and checking. We do not present invented conversations, visits or application outcomes as reporting.
Sources and dates
School policies, admissions authorities and test providers are the starting point for procedural facts. A school’s description of itself is not independent proof of its quality. Dates and requirements belong to a named cycle wherever possible; older information is labelled rather than quietly treated as current.
Most guides cover England. Our Edinburgh guides separately explain Scottish school stages and the schools’ own admissions routes. Coverage is selective, not a complete directory of every UK school. We do not treat England’s admissions rules as UK-wide rules.
Opinion and examples
Worked examples and hypothetical families are labelled. They help explain a decision; they are not winning applications or promises of admission. Where a point is uncertain, we say what to check.
Questions and corrections
Have a question about a guide or spotted something we should correct? Email hello@elevenplusdiary.com. For corrections, include the page link and, if available, a link to the school’s current information so we can check the detail.
Please leave out children’s names, school reports, financial documents and other sensitive personal information. We offer general guidance, not individual admissions decisions.
Sister publications
Eleven Plus Diary is published alongside three other school guides, each covering a different country or audience:
- Admissions Diary: US school admissions.
- European School Guide: schools across Europe.
- NewSchoolRun: international schools for expat families.
Images
The kitchen-table image on our homepage is AI-generated and illustrative. It is not a photograph of a school. School-specific imagery must be identified accurately and used with an appropriate permission or licence.