St Edmund's College 11+ Admissions: Entrance Assessment, Registration and Fees

A child gets into St. Edmund's College at 11+ by registering for the Year 7 intake, known at the school as Elements, sitting a CEM computer-based assessment in numerical, verbal and non-verbal ability, and attending an Interview and Assessment Day; the offer then draws on the test result, the interview and a report from the child's current school.

St Edmund's is an independent Catholic day and boarding school in Old Hall Green, Ware, Hertfordshire, taking boys and girls from Nursery through to Sixth Form. Alongside the standard Year 7 place, families can apply separately for academic, art, music, sport and all-rounder scholarships, and for means-tested bursaries, both assessed around the same registration window.

How entry works at Year 7 (11+)

Year 7 entry, called Elements at St Edmund's, is one of the school's main intake points alongside Reception, Year 9 (Grammar) and Year 12 (Sixth Form). As an independent school, St Edmund's requires families to register directly with its admissions office; there is no local authority admissions process.

The school will consider applications to other year groups where places are available, so a family joining outside the main 11+ round is not automatically ruled out. Registration, assessment and interview happen in a single admissions cycle ahead of September entry, with scholarship assessments for art, sport and music running on separate dates within the same window.

How the 11+ assessment works

The Year 7 assessment is a CEM (Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) computer-based test lasting around 60 minutes, covering numerical, verbal and non-verbal ability, with extra time available for applicants who need it. The school states that CEM assessments are designed to reduce reliance on heavy coaching, since they assess underlying understanding and limit the advantage of material learned by repetition; CEM does not publish official practice papers.

Assessment is paired with an interview on the school's Interview and Assessment Day, and the admissions team also requests a report from the child's current school. The offer decision is based on all three elements together: exam performance, interview and school report.

Registering and the admissions process, step by step

Families typically begin with a visit, arranged through the External Relations team by phone or email, or by registering for an open event. The formal process then follows a set order.

• Register: submit the registration form and pay the non-refundable registration fee ahead of the application deadline
• Scholarships (optional): apply separately for academic, art, music, sport or all-rounder scholarships, noting that scholarship deadlines fall earlier than the standard application deadline
• Interview: the admissions team schedules an interview slot after registration
• Assessment: sit the CEM computer-based test on the Interview and Assessment Day
• Offer: a decision is made using the exam result, interview and current school report, with an acceptance deadline attached
• Accept: confirm the place and receive information for joining

Scholarships and bursaries at 11+

At Elements (Year 7) entry, Douay and Old Hall academic scholarships are awarded automatically from performance in the entrance exam, with no separate application; Old Hall awards are restricted to Catholic applicants who have attended a Catholic school for at least two years. All Rounder, Art, Music and Sport scholarships require a separate application, with Art assessed by portfolio and practical test, Music by audition (Grade 3 standard in at least one instrument, with free tuition in two instruments for scholars), and Sport judged on athletic ability, character and academic performance. Scholarship awards give a fee reduction of up to 20 percent for the duration of attendance.

A limited number of means-tested bursaries, covering up to 100 percent of fees, are available mainly at the Year 7 and Year 12 entry points. Families register for a place first, then request a bursary application from admissions and complete a Confidential Statement of Financial Circumstances with supporting documents; a bursary can be pursued alongside a scholarship application.

Preparing for the CEM assessment

The school states that its CEM test rewards understanding and that no official practice papers exist, so preparation is best focused on broad reasoning skills across numerical, verbal and non-verbal question types; drilling a single past paper offers limited benefit. Children benefit from working steadily with a range of reasoning question styles over time, so the format feels familiar without the test itself feeling rehearsed.

For the interview, current-school reports and staff feedback form part of the picture the school builds alongside the test, so keeping a normal routine at school in the run-up matters as much as anything done at home. Families applying for a scholarship should factor in the earlier deadlines and the extra requirement, whether a portfolio, an audition or trial-based assessment, since these sit outside the standard Year 7 timetable.

Fees for Year 7 entry

Day and boarding fees are published per term on the school's own fees page and are reviewed annually; the current published day fee for Year 7 sits below the Year 8 and Year 9-13 rates, reflecting the school's stepped fee structure by year group. Boarding at Year 7 is offered as weekly, full or flexi-boarding, each priced separately from the day fee.

A non-refundable registration fee applies at the point of application, and families offered a place pay a refundable acceptance deposit to secure it. The school updates fee figures each academic year, so current figures for all fee types are held in the day_fees, boarding_fees and fees_year fields.

Related guides

• Independent school fees compared

Preparing for the St Edmund's College 11+ with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the St Edmund's College 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, 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.