St. Bede's College Manchester 11+ Entrance Exam: A Guide for Parents

St. Bede's College Manchester's 11+ entrance exam, the Upper Third (Year 7) Entrance assessment, is set and marked internally by the school, with no external provider named on its admissions pages, and its English, mathematics and reasoning papers are sat on a Saturday in January.

An interview follows the written papers before places are confirmed, and families applying for Year 7 scholarships sit separate academic, sport, music or arts assessments instead.

About St. Bede's College Manchester

St Bede's is a Roman Catholic secondary school in the Whalley Range area of Manchester, educating boys and girls together as a co-educational HMC member. It remains a relatively small school by intake size.

The entrance exam

The Upper Third (Year 7) Entrance assessment is designed and marked internally by St Bede's; its admissions pages do not name an external test provider or consortium, so the format and content of each paper are the school's own. Candidates sit papers in English and mathematics alongside reasoning tasks, giving staff a rounded view of a child's academic readiness for Year 7. An interview also forms part of the process, alongside the written papers. Families applying for scholarship places at Year 7 instead sit separate academic, sport, music or arts assessments, set out on the school's admissions pages.

• English: a written paper testing reading and writing skills appropriate to Year 6 pupils.
• Maths: a written paper covering number, reasoning and problem-solving appropriate to Year 6.
• Reasoning tasks: exercises assessing verbal and non-verbal reasoning skills.

Registration and key dates

Families apply for Year 7 entry during Year 6, and the college's admissions pages publish the exact date on which registration opens each year. Registration usually closes in December, during the autumn term of Year 6, with the entrance assessment itself sat on a Saturday in January, in the spring term of the same school year. Interviews follow the written papers, and the school publishes offer dates on its admissions pages nearer the time. The key facts table on this page carries the current dates for each stage.

• Registration opens: date published on the school's admissions pages.
• Registration closes: December, in the autumn term of Year 6.
• Entrance assessment: January, in the spring term of Year 6.
• Interviews: shortly after the written assessment.
• Year 7 entry begins: September, at the start of the new school year.

Current dates are in the key facts table at the top of this page, taken from the school's own admissions pages below, which remain the reference for each round.

• How to apply
• Admissions FAQs
• Admissions

Past papers and familiarisation

St Bede's does not publish past papers or sample materials for the Upper Third (Year 7) Entrance assessment on its admissions pages, so families cannot practise from the school's own questions in advance. Preparation for this kind of assessment usually focuses on building general fluency in English and mathematics at a Year 6 level, alongside practice with verbal and non-verbal reasoning question types commonly used in 11+ testing. Working through general reasoning practice books and past papers from other schools' 11+ assessments can help a child grow familiar with question style, timing and format, even where content differs from St Bede's own paper.

Preparing with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the St Bede's 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 in Greater Manchester and further afield work with us online, 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, and we reply to enquiries within one working day with tutor recommendations.

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