Michael Hall School 7+, 8+, 14+ and 16+ Admissions: Process, Interviews and Fees

You get into Michael Hall School by applying online through the school's Enquire and Apply portal, submitting supporting documents and attending an interview, because the school sets no academic entrance exam at any entry point. The school says it welcomes pupils of all academic abilities, and the interview exists to show families how the education works and to judge how well the school can meet each child's needs.

Pupils can join in Early Childhood, Lower School (Classes 1 to 5), Middle School (Classes 6 to 8) and Upper School (Classes 9 to 12). The sections below set out the steps in order, who meets your child, how fee assistance works and what the fee structure looks like.

Entry points and places

Michael Hall takes pupils at every stage of a single site that runs from Early Childhood to Class 12, so the entry points from age seven are Class 1, Class 2 and the later classes of Lower, Middle and Upper School. Class 1 is the year in which formal academic learning begins, and the Early Childhood pages place that in the year a child turns seven.

Class 1 is described as age six or seven, Class 2 as seven or eight and Class 3 as eight or nine, with Class 4 at nine or ten. The school does not publish a number of places or forms of entry for any class, so availability is confirmed by the admissions office on 01342 822275 or admissions@michaelhall.co.uk.

• Class 1: the year formal academic learning begins
• Classes 2 to 5: remaining Lower School years
• Classes 6 to 8: Middle School
• Classes 9 to 12: Upper School, with GCSE then A-level courses

Is there an entrance exam?

There is no academic entrance exam at Michael Hall, and the school states that it welcomes pupils of all academic abilities. The admissions pages name no external test provider and describe no school-set papers, so no maths, English or reasoning paper needs to be practised.

The assessment is the meeting itself. According to the school, admissions show families how its education works and test how well it can meet each child's needs, and once the application and documents are in, the child is considered as a whole.

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Registration and the admissions timeline

Registration starts with an online application on the school's iSAMS admissions portal, and the school lists five ordered steps from first visit to confirmed place. The pages read give no registration deadline and no fixed assessment dates, so the practical sequence of steps carries greater weight than any calendar.

After the application the school requests supporting documents, and interviews are arranged once these arrive. A successful application leads to an offer letter and a contract, and a deposit then secures the place. A non-refundable application fee is charged, with a lower rate for each subsequent child and for a reapplication.

• Explore: attend an Open Day or join a tour, or book a visit through the school's Visit Us booking page
• Apply: read the Admissions Policy and the Fees page, then complete the online application
• Submit supporting documents when the school asks for them
• Meet Us: interviews are arranged after the documents are received
• Join: an offer letter and contract follow a successful application, and a deposit secures the place

Interviews and who meets your child

Children in Lower, Middle and Upper School are usually seen by Class Teachers or Class Guardians and a member of the Wellbeing Team, and the Inclusion Team may also meet the child. Parents meet the class teacher in a separate conversation.

Early Childhood children attend their interview together with their parents. The school does not publish an interview length, a list of questions, a group activity or a reference requirement on the pages read, so any request for a previous school report is covered in the supporting documents the admissions office asks for after your application.

Fee assistance and bursaries

Michael Hall publishes no academic, music, sport or art scholarships, and its financial help takes the form of means-tested fee assistance capped at 30 percent of full fees. Trustees keep discretion to go higher, but only on an exception basis approved by the Head of Finance, the School Principal and the Resources Committee Chair.

Fee assistance is not available in a pupil's first year, which includes pupils who already have siblings at the school, and it is not available for Parent and Child groups, Saplings or Kindergarten. Applicants must show that fee assistance is a last resort after other funding has been considered.

How fee assistance is assessed

Means testing is carried out by an outside company, Bursary Administration Limited, which gathers income and expenditure data through a home visit, usually for new applicants, or an internet interview, and then produces a report for the school. Applicants pay a charge for this service, set out in the school's fee assistance guide.

Applicants register on a portal and the school may refuse applications that miss its deadlines, with no appeal. Awards are tested again each year, and a hardship fund exists for sudden, unforeseen need. The fee assistance programme for each academic year opens ahead of that year, so families planning an entry usually apply once their child has started.

Fees and what they include

Fees at Michael Hall rise by class band, from Early Childhood through Class 1, Class 2, Classes 3 to 5, Classes 6 to 8 and Classes 9 to 12, and the figures sit on the fees page. Parents can pay annually or termly in advance, or in ten or twelve monthly instalments by Direct Debit.

A child starting part-way through a term is charged weekly for that term only, based on a school year of 35 weeks. Sibling reductions take the second child to 87 percent of the full fee, the third to 81 percent and further children to 75 percent. Withdrawal needs a full term's written notice. School buses from Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Brighton are an optional extra, and international student fees are set separately and paid in advance.

Where pupils join from

Michael Hall runs its own Early Childhood provision, so many pupils move up within the school: Parent and Child sessions cover birth to four, Saplings two to four, and Kindergarten and Waldorf Forest Kindergarten four to six. Formal academic learning then begins in Class 1.

The school names no feeder or partner schools on the pages read, and families joining from other schools in later classes use the same application and interview route as everyone else. Upper School covers Classes 9 to 12, with foundational GCSE subjects in Class 9 and the main A-level subjects in Classes 11 and 12.

How to prepare

Preparation for Michael Hall centres on the visit and the interview, since no papers are set. Attending an Open Day or tour, reading the Admissions Policy and the Fees page, and having supporting documents ready lets the application move quickly once the school asks for them.

For younger children, a calm conversation about meeting teachers is usually enough, and Early Childhood children attend with their parents. Older pupils can talk about their interests and schoolwork, and parents can prepare questions for the class teacher. For Upper School entry, ask the admissions office which GCSE or A-level subjects are on offer for the class concerned.

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