Shrewsbury High School 11+, 13+ and 16+ Admissions: CAT4, Scholarships and Fees

How do you get into Shrewsbury High School? Families register online, sit the Senior School Entrance Assessment, which is an online CAT4 plus, at Year 7, a short Maths paper and a short English paper, and then receive an offer by February half term. The same route applies at Year 9 and Year 12, with scholarship assessments added for sixth form candidates, and the Reception and Junior School follow a separate taster-day process.

The school is an independent, all-through day school in Shropshire for pupils aged 4 to 18, and boys are now joining the Junior School, Year 7 and Year 12 alongside girls. Each entry point, the assessment, the registration steps, scholarships, bursaries, fees and practical preparation has its own section below.

Entry points and places

Shrewsbury High takes pupils at Reception and into the Junior School through taster days, then at Year 7 (11+), Year 9 (13+) and Year 12 (16+) into the senior school and sixth form. Year 7 is the main senior entry point, and the school's pages do not publish a number of places or forms of entry for any year group.

Applications are accepted throughout the year, although the school encourages early application to secure a place. Boys are welcomed into the Junior School, Year 7 and Year 12, and the senior admissions page also invites applications from boys for Year 8.

• Reception and Junior School: taster day, then offer
• Year 7 (11+): Senior School Entrance Assessment
• Year 9 (13+): Senior School Entrance Assessment, with its own key dates document
• Year 12 (16+): online application and scholarship assessments

How the 11+ assessment works

The 11+ assessment is the Senior School Entrance Assessment, an online CAT4 test that every senior applicant sits, with Year 7 applicants also taking a short Maths paper and a short English paper. The school does not publish the length of each component on the pages we read.

The assessment runs on a Saturday morning, which the school describes as relaxed and which includes time to meet staff and pupils. Applicants register for it through the school's online application platform. The school states that no revision is required, and academic scholarship entry follows automatically from sitting it.

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Registration and the admissions timeline

Registration for senior entry is online, and the steps run in a fixed order. The school names a Senior School application deadline in the autumn term before the January assessment, and also accepts applications at other times of year, so early application is the safest course.

Offers for senior entry are made by February half term, and the school runs two transition and induction events in the spring and summer terms for pupils who accept.

• Visit: book a private tour or an Open Day
• Taster Day: a Year 7 taster day runs in the autumn term, and individual taster days can be arranged at any time
• Apply online and pay the non-refundable registration fee
• Sit the Senior School Entrance Assessment
• Receive an offer by February half term
• Complete the parent contract and pay the refundable deposit

Interviews and references

The senior admissions page describes no interview for Year 7 entry. It describes the assessment morning as relaxed, with the chance to meet staff and pupils, and it says reference requests are sent to the child's current school.

For Reception and the Junior School, the route to an offer is a taster day, and the school's pages describe no formal assessment at those stages. The Junior School page also states that reference requests go to the child's current school.

Scholarships and bursaries

Shrewsbury High offers academic, Art, Drama, Music and Sport scholarships at Year 7, Year 9 and Year 12, and its means-tested bursaries can cover up to 100 per cent of fees. Scholarships are merit-based, awarded to very few pupils, and academic awards are usually worth around 10 per cent of fees.

Academic scholarship entry is automatic when a candidate applies for a place and sits the entrance assessment. Art, Drama, Music and Sport applicants complete the online application and pay the registration fee first, then request the specialist forms and submit them by the registration deadline. Year 7 is open to internal and external candidates, Year 9 to external candidates only, and Year 12 to both.

Bursary assessment looks at joint household income and assets, and a scholarship can be combined with a bursary where there is financial need.

Fees and what they include

Fees are published per term on the school's fees page and rise through the year groups, with senior pupils in Years 7 to 9 paying a different rate from Years 10 and 11 and from the sixth form. Fees include tuition, school books, games and swimming, stationery, choral music and a limited number of non-residential curriculum trips.

Lunches are included in all year groups except Years 12 and 13, where they are optional and charged as taken. Public examination entries, optional extra subjects and travel to school are extras. A non-refundable registration fee applies at application, and a refundable deposit is paid on acceptance, held until the final term and returned within 12 weeks of departure less any sums owed.

Where pupils join from

Many pupils move up from the school's own Reception and Junior School, and Junior School pupils are not required to sit the senior entrance exam unless they want to be considered for an academic scholarship. A Year 6 programme of transition events prepares them for the senior school.

External candidates join mainly at Year 7, with further places at Year 9 and Year 12. The pages we read name no external feeder or partner schools, and they describe no catchment area.

How 16+ entry works

Entry to Year 12 begins with an online application and the non-refundable registration fee, and applicants may sit two scholarship assessments, one in an academic subject and one in Sport, Art, Music or Drama. The sixth form pages we read publish no GCSE grade requirement, entrance papers or interview details, so families can ask admissions for these directly.

The school holds a Sixth Form Open Evening and two Becoming a Sixth Former days in the autumn term, and offers are made at the start of December. After an offer, parents complete the online parent contract and pay the refundable deposit. Internal and external students can apply for scholarships, although internal students already holding a scholarship are excluded.

How to prepare

Preparation for the 11+ is most useful when it matches the format: an online CAT4 test followed, at Year 7, by short Maths and English papers. The school states that no revision is required, so calm familiarity with on-screen tests and with timed, short written tasks is a sensible aim.

Attending an Open Day or Taster Day lets a child see the building and meet staff and pupils before the Saturday assessment, which the school describes as relaxed. Children applying for Art, Drama, Music or Sport scholarships also need to prepare for the separate specialist assessment, and the school sends the forms once the main application is in.

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• The ISEB Common Pre-Test explained
• 13+ Common Entrance explained
• The 11+ entrance exam explained
• 11+ and 13+ scholarship exams explained
• What is a bursary? Private school bursaries explained

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Families preparing for the Shrewsbury High 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.

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