Admissions Entry Points at Chigwell School

Your Child's Date of Birth

This applies to children born between 1^st September 2021 and 31^st August 2022.

How to Register your Child

Please complete the online registration form and the registration fee of £180 (inc VAT), please note that this is non-refundable.

Application Closing Date

The closing date for applications is 5.00pm on Wednesday 17^th September 2025. Unfortunately, applications received after this time will not be considered.

Assessment Sessions

The assessment sessions take place over a three-week period beginning on Monday 22^nd September 2025.

What happens at the Assessment?

Children and their parents will be allocated a time slot according to their date of birth during one of the weeks. Children attend and participate in the assessment as part of a group while their parents wait for their child.

The 4+ assessment consists of pupil participation in a range of activities centred on the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. Briefly, these activities comprise number and literacy games, physical games, playing with other children, listening and responding to a story and joining in with singing or rhymes. The assessment usually takes place in the Pre Prep library, lasts approximately 1½ hours and is carefully designed to ensure children feel happy and settled.

The date and time of each child’s assessment will be sent after the closing date for applications.

The results of the 4+ assessments will be communicated on Monday 13^th October 2025.

Confirming Acceptance of a Place

Acceptances must be received by 10.00 am on Tuesday 4^th November 2025.

4+ Prospectus

For further information, please view the 4+ Prospectus.

Your Child's Date of Birth

This applies to children born between 1^st September 2018 and 31^st August 2019.

How to Register your Child

Please complete the online registration form and the registration fee of £180 (inc VAT), please note that this is non-refundable. We advise registration at the earliest possible as most interviews will take place prior to the application closing date.

Application Closing Date

The closing date for applications is 5:00pm on Monday 1st December 2025.

Group Assessment Dates

• 7+ group assessments will be held during the first three weeks of January 2026.

• The 7+ entrance examination will take place on Saturday 24th January 2026.
  

Parents will be notified of their appointments by email.

What happens at the Assessment?

All 7+ candidates have group sessions and sit the entrance examination. In addition, a confidential report form will be sent to parents for completion by their child's current school.

The 7+ group sessions will involve some written and practical tasks in a small group. We will also be observing how pupils interact with others. Pupils can expect to remain with us for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Parents will have the opportunity to meet with the Head and Senior Deputy Head of the Prep School.

The examination itself comprises papers in English and maths. Specimen English and maths papers are given below. We do not send out further past papers.

Results of the 7+ entrance examination will be emailed and posted on Thursday 12th February 2026.

Confirming Acceptance of a Place

Acceptances must be received by 10.00am on Friday 6th March 2026.

7+ Prospectus

For further information, please view the 7+ Prospectus.

Your Child's Date of Birth

This applies to children born between 1^st September 2014 and 31^st August 2015.

How to Register your Child

Please complete the online registration form and the registration fee of £180 (inc VAT), please note that this is non-refundable. We advise registration at the earliest possible, as most interviews will take place in November.

Meeting (Interview) Dates

Most meetings will be held on Saturday 15th November and Saturday 29th November 2025 with the final few in early January.

Application Closing Date

The closing date for applications is Tuesday 25th November 2025.

What happens at the Meeting?

The 11+ meeting takes place in two parts:

• Parents will have the opportunity to meet with a senior member of staff and ask questions about life at Chigwell School, and also outline their child’s strengths and interests.
• We meet the candidates separately.

The whole process takes 30 minutes. The School also sends parents a confidential report form to pass on to their child’s current school.

11+ Entrance Examination

The 11+ entrance examination takes place on Saturday 10th January 2026.

More information on the online assessment process can be found at the link below.

online assessment process

Results of the 11+ entrance examination will be emailed and posted on Thursday 19th February 2026.

Confirming Acceptance of a Place

Acceptances must be received by 10:00am on Friday 6th March 2026.

Bursaries and Scholarships at 11+ Entry

Bursaries and scholarships are available at this entry point.

Scholarships

We offer academic, music, and sports scholarships at 11+. Please indicate your interest in a scholarship on the registration form. If a candidate performs especially well in the examination, they may be called for an academic scholarship interview and assessment on either Wednesday 21st or Thursday 22nd January 2026. Candidates have individual interviews in English, mathematics with senior members of staff and participate in a collaborative task.

Music scholarship auditions are held in the week beginning Monday 12th January 2026. 11+ candidates should have at least Associated Board Grade 4 in the first instrument offered and Grade 2 in their second instrument or singing.

Sports scholarship assessment - details to be confirmed in due course.

Bursaries

Bursary awards are made on the academic merit of the candidate, together with the parents’ financial circumstances. A link to the bursary application form will be sent to registered candidates by the end of November 2025.

Read more on Bursaries and Scholarships.

11+ Prospectus

For further information, please view the 11+ prospectus.

Your Child's Date of Birth

This applies to children born between 1st September 2012 and 31st August 2013.

How to Register your Child

The 13+ entry is only held if there are places available and this year there is likely to be very limited places on offer. To register please complete the online registration form and the registration fee of £180 (inc VAT), please note that this is non-refundable.

Application Closing Date

The closing date for applications is 5.00pm on Friday 16th January 2026.

13+ Entrance Examination

The entrance exam will be held on Monday 2nd February 2026.

All candidates will sit papers in English, maths and a modern foreign language paper (a form will be emailed to you regarding the candidate’s choice of language – French, Spanish or German). Successful candidates will be offered an interview after the exam. A school reference request will also be sent to you to pass to your child’s current school.

Interviews

Selected candidates will be invited back for interviews on Thursday 12th February 2026.

Results of the entrance examination will be posted on Monday 23rd February 2026.

Confirming Acceptance of a Place

Acceptances must be received by 10.00am on Monday 9th March 2026.

Bursaries and Scholarships at 13+ Entry

Bursaries and scholarships are available at this entry point. Please note your choice on the registration form.

Scholarships

It might be helpful to know that we expect our Scholars to achieve 7, 8 or 9 grades across the board at GCSE. Before entering for the scholarship, it is worth talking to your current school about your child’s predicted grades.

Bursaries

Bursary awards are made on the academic merit of the candidate, together with parents’ financial circumstances. A link to the bursary application form will be sent to registered candidates.

Read more on Bursaries and Scholarships.

Date of Birth

This applies to young people born between 1^st September 2009 and 31^st August 2010.

How to Register

To register, please complete the online registration form and the registration fee of £180 (inc VAT), please note that this is non-refundable.

The Assessment Process at 16+

Sixth form places will be awarded on the basis of the entrance tests, interviews and a current school report.

Candidates are expected to achieve grade 8s or 9s in the subjects being studied at A level. Grade 7s will be considered on request to the Head of Sixth Form.

We will request the following information once the registration form has been completed.

• The GCSE subjects and examination boards
• Details regarding separate science or dual award science at GCSE
• Candidates applying for history should indicate which periods they are studying for GCSE
• Candidates applying for religious studies should indicate which specification they are following
• A-level choices and of those, the two subjects to be taken in the entrance exam.

Bursaries and Scholarships

Scholarships are available at the 16+ entry point.

• Candidates may apply for sport, academic, music, art, and/or drama scholarships.
• A combination of academic/drama, academic/art, academic/sport, or academic/music scholarships can be applied for, but not a combination of drama, art, sport, or music.
• Scholarships are awarded on merit and as partial remission of fees or honorary (no remission of fees).

Sports scholarship assessment and interviews will be confirmed in due course.

Bursaries are also available at 16+ entry.

• Candidates may also apply for a bursary (means-tested award) and one of the scholarship categories.
• Bursaries are only likely to be awarded when the family income is less than four times the annual school fees.
• Applications for scholarships and bursaries can be made on the registration form.

Read more on Bursaries and Scholarships.

Application Closing Date

The closing date for fee-paying and scholarship applications is 10.00pm on Friday 10th October 2025. Applications received after this time are very welcome but will only be considered for fee paying places. Boarding applications must be made directly to the school (as per below). Please see more on our boarding pages.

16+ Entrance Exams

Entrance exams for all sixth form candidates will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 5th November 2025. Candidates will be advised of timings closer to the date. Candidates will sit papers in two of their chosen A Level subjects and an online general paper. Examples of the questions asked can be found in the familiarisation link below.

Familiarisation Test

Interviews

Selected candidates will then be invited back for interviews on Saturday 22nd November 2025. Invitations for art, music and drama scholarship assessments will also be sent out during this period.

Results

Results will be emailed and posted on Monday 1st December 2025.

Confirming Acceptance of a Place

Acceptances must be received by Monday 5th January 2026.

16+ Prospectus

For further information, please view our 16+ Prospectus.

Before you apply

Before making your application to Chigwell, you should consider the following points, these will also assist you during the application process:

• Research your A Level subject choices
  What interests you, where do your skills lie, and what do you hope to study in the future? Be sure to read our prospectus and see what subjects we offer. Please view our current prospectus.

• Research University courses
  Having an idea of what course you would like to study or institutions you would like to go to after sixth form will help you research your A Level choices. It’s important to consider the Entry Requirements for each course as well.

• Draft your Personal Statement
  This is your chance to shine! Tells us what you can do, what you’ve done, and what you will bring to our unique school community.

• Ask us
  Feel free to ask us any questions you may have about any part the application process. You can email us at rdarkin@chigwell-school.org (Miss Roxanne Darkin, Head of Careers & Sixth Form Coordinator).

What you need to apply

We require certain documents in order to support your application, so please make sure you have the following:

• Your IELTS Report (or equivalent)
• Your current and previous school reports
• Personal Statement
• Registration fee
• Copy of your passport.

How to apply

Please contact the School directly to apply. Contact Miss Roxanne Darkin, Head of Careers & Sixth Form Coordinator by email at rdarkin@chigwell-school.org

What happens next?

Every applicant must sit entrance tests, usually in English and Maths, and an additional chosen A Level subject. These can be sat whilst visiting us, but can also be sat at one of our authorised Education Agencies or a British Council office. Please contact us if you have any questions about this.

All applicants also have an interview with the Head of Sixth Form, this may be conducted by Skype or other real-time video conferencing programme, or whilst visiting the school. We understand that visiting the school may be difficult, be we hugely encourage you to come and visit us, especially as you’ll be spending two years living and studying here. We can answer as many of your questions as possible and give you as good an idea as we can about school life at Chigwell, but it is ultimately your decision and how you feel about the school environment.

We’ll acknowledge receipt of your application and request any further documentation we may need.

You will need to return your acceptance form along with your first terms fees and your deposit to confirm your place. If you require a Visa to study with us, we will send you an email detailing the Tier 4 Visa application process.

Further Information

Read more about boarding at Chigwell.