Holmwood House School 11+ Admissions: Assessment, Interview, Scholarships and Fees

How do you get into Holmwood House School? Children join the senior school at Year 7 by registering, sitting an online entrance assessment in English and Maths between November and January of Year 6, and then meeting the Head for an interview. Younger children join the Prep school after a day at the school during which their teacher observes them, and the school also takes pupils during the academic year through mid-year admissions.

The school's pages do not name a test provider or publish a number of places, so the details below stick to what the admissions process, scholarships, fees and 11+ preparation pages state. Where a point is missing, the school's admissions team is the place to ask.

Entry points and places

The school admits children into Nursery, Preschool and Reception, into its Prep years, into Year 7 for the senior school, and mid-year through a separate route, with Year 7 as the main senior entry point. The senior school runs from Year 7 to Year 11, ending at GCSEs, and the pages read list no sixth form or 16+ entry.

No page gives a number of places or forms of entry at any year group. Families who want to know how many places a particular year group has are directed to the Admissions Team, which handles registration and can say whether a year group has space.

• Nursery, Preschool and Reception: school report, Early Years Profile where applicable, and a reference from the current school or nursery
• Prep years: a day at the school with teacher observation
• Year 7: online assessment in English and Maths, then an interview with the Head
• Mid-year: personal tour, taster day, then a formal offer

How the 11+ assessment works

Year 7 applicants sit an online entrance assessment covering English and Maths, taken between November and January in the year before entry, which is Year 6. The school's pages do not name a test provider, give a length, or describe question types, so families should not assume a particular commercial test.

After the assessment, the child is invited to an interview with the Head. The school adds that pupils who perform particularly well may be considered for an academic scholarship, which means the same sitting can feed into a scholarship decision.

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Registration and the admissions timeline

Admissions at the school run through four steps: a visit, registration, taster days and assessments, then an offer and acceptance. Only registered applicants are eligible to attend taster days and assessments, so registration comes before any assessment, and the registration form comes from the Admissions Team. A registration fee applies.

No registration deadline or acceptance deadline appears on the pages read, and the deposit amount is not stated. Year 7 Experience Evenings are held termly, and places at them are reserved through the Open Days page.

• Visit the school on an open day or a personal tour
• Contact the Admissions Team for the registration form and return it with the registration fee
• Take part in the taster day or assessment for the year group
• Receive a confirmation letter and an Acceptance Form if a place is offered
• Return the form signed by both parents or carers, with a copy of the birth certificate and the requested deposit
• Attend Transition Day once the place is accepted

Interviews and references

Year 7 applicants are interviewed by the Head after the online assessment. The school describes this as part of the senior entry process, and applicants for the sport, art, music and drama scholarships who are already at the school are also invited to an interview with the Head.

For Prep entry, families provide the latest school report and a reference from the current school. For Reception, the school asks for the latest report, the Early Years Profile where applicable and a reference from the current school or nursery. The pages do not say whether Year 7 applicants must supply a reference.

Scholarships and bursaries

Scholarships are offered at Year 7 in five areas: academic, sport, art, drama and music, and the school describes the awards as a modest fee remittance. Families are invited to begin the process in the autumn term of Year 6. Academic awards are by invitation only, open to external applicants and to the school's own Year 6 pupils with a CAT score or equivalent above 125.

Each area has its own assessment, listed below, and the pages give no exact award values or deadlines.

• Academic: a group task with the Head, then a short presentation on a topic the candidate chooses
• Sport: academy, district or county level in a sport with references from coaches or clubs, then a practical session with the Director of Sport covering core skills, indoor cricket, agility and fitness
• Art: a portfolio of about five mounted pieces and an outside-school sketchbook, then a one-hour drawing assessment and an interview with the Head of Art
• Drama: a CV, two monologues (one supplied by the school) and an interview with the Drama teacher
• Music: two instruments, one at Grade 4 or above and one at Grade 2 or above, plus a CV and a practical assessment with the Director of Music

Fees and what they include

Tuition fees are published by year group, per term, with VAT included, and can be paid termly in advance or spread across twelve monthly payments. Year 7 sits in the Years 7 to 9 band. Lunches, wraparound care and clubs, overnight stays, individual learning support, individual music tuition and GCSE public exam fees are charged as extras.

Overnight stays are priced per night and include supervised activities, dinner, bed and breakfast and laundry; Years 7 to 11 board on Tuesdays. A deposit is retained if an accepted place is cancelled before entry, and a term's written notice to the Head is needed to withdraw a child. Bursaries are awarded only in the most limited circumstances to children already attending, and reduced fees apply to a third and subsequent child attending at the same time.

Where pupils join from

Most Year 7 places can be reached from within the school itself, because Holmwood has its own Nursery, Preschool and Prep school, and many Prep pupils stay on through the senior school to Year 11. External applicants sit the same Year 7 assessment and interview, and the school's mid-year route lets children join at other points when places are available.

Some pupils leave at the end of Year 6 for selective schools through the 11+, and the school names Colchester Royal Grammar School and the County High School for Girls as places pupils have secured. The 11+ is described as typically targeting the top 4% of the national cohort.

How to prepare

Preparation for the Year 7 assessment centres on English and Maths, the two subjects the school names, so steady reading, written work and secure arithmetic and problem-solving give the most direct practice. Practising on a computer helps too, since the assessment is taken online.

For the interview with the Head, a child who can talk comfortably about their reading, interests and school life tends to feel at ease. Scholarship candidates can prepare to the named formats: a chosen topic for the academic presentation, a portfolio and sketchbook for art, two monologues for drama, and prepared instruments for music.

Families at the school's own Prep can use the 11+ stretch clubs run by the English and Maths teams, which prepare pupils for verbal and non-verbal reasoning, and practise at home on Century Tech, which covers English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

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Preparing for the Holmwood House School 11+ with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the Holmwood House School 11+ usually come to us a year or so before the assessment, though shorter runs work where the foundations are already sound. Having prepared pupils for entry to leading independent and grammar schools, with placements including Westminster, St Paul's, Wycombe Abbey and Eton, our tutors build each programme around the format the school actually uses, whether a written paper, an online pre-test, an interview or a combination of them.

More than half of our tutors hold Qualified Teacher Status and around three in five hold a master's degree or doctorate, and the pool includes former heads of department, exam-board examiners and teachers from independent and boarding schools, so the preparation is led by people who know how selective schools assess. Every tutor who works with children holds an enhanced DBS check.

Families work with us online from anywhere in the UK or abroad, and in person in central London. Fees start from £50 per 50-minute session and depend on tutor level and subject, with no registration fee and a free initial consultation to talk through your child's current level and the timeline to the 11+. Families receive progress reports after sessions and have a dedicated point of contact.

Read more about our 11+ entrance exam tutors, or send an enquiry and we will come back with tutor recommendations.