Bromley High School 11+ guide

Are you thinking about applying to Bromley High School for 11+ entry? Find out everything you need to know about the admissions process and how to prepare for the entrance exam.

Key information for Bromley High School

• School type: girls' independent day school
• Location: Bromley, Kent (on the border of southeast London)
• Admissions contact: admissions@bro.gdst.net
• 11+ exam: CAT4 reasoning test, plus a creative writing paper and a mathematics extension exercise
• Financial assistance: means-tested bursaries (Founders' Bursary Awards)
• Scholarships: academic, art, drama, music, sport, and Young Leaders

Important dates for 2027 entry

• Friday 23rd October 2026: applications deadline
• Friday 23rd October 2026: Year 7 scholarships closing date
• Saturday 21st November 2026: entrance exam
• Weeks commencing 11th and 18th January 2027: scholarship assessments (for scholarship applicants only)
• Friday 5th February 2027: offers sent to parents
• Wednesday 3rd March 2027: deadline for accepting offers

How to apply to Bromley High School

Bromley High School is selective. This means that your child will need to take an entrance exam to be eligible for a place.

You must apply for Year 7 entry via the school's online application system. Applications for September 2027 entry close on Friday 23rd October 2026. If you would also like your child to be considered for a scholarship, the scholarships closing date is the same day.

Children sit the entrance exam in November, when they're in Year 6. Girls applying for a scholarship complete additional assessments in January.

You will receive your child's results in early February. If they are offered a place at Bromley High School, you will have until early March to accept.

What will my child be tested on?

The Bromley High School entrance exam is made up of three parts, testing academic potential rather than specific subject knowledge.

Part 1: CAT4

The first part is CAT4 (Cognitive Abilities Test), a non-adaptive, non-subject-specific test that covers verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, spatial reasoning, and quantitative reasoning.

Children applying for Year 7 entry typically sit a Level D CAT4, aimed at 11 year olds. The test takes just over an hour and is split into three timed sections: non-verbal reasoning, verbal and quantitative reasoning, and quantitative and spatial reasoning.

Part 2: Creative writing

The second part is a short creative writing paper.

Part 3: Mathematics extension exercise

The third part is a brief maths extension exercise. The school does not provide past or sample papers for any part of the exam.

How are places decided?

Places are offered based on your child's performance across the CAT4, the creative writing paper, and the maths extension exercise. Girls applying for a scholarship also complete additional assessments in January, alongside the standard entrance exam.

Offers are sent to parents in early February, and you will have until early March to accept a place.

Financial information

Bromley High School is a fee-paying school. Take a look at the school website for a full breakdown of fees per year group.

Scholarships

Scholarships are awarded for a child's talent or achievement. While many schools focus on academic excellence, some offer awards in music, sport, drama, art, or other specialist areas.

Scholarships often come with a small fee reduction and acknowledge your child's talents, motivating them and boosting their confidence. Some schools automatically consider all applicants, while others may request an additional application, assessment or audition.

Visit Bromley High School's website to see the scholarships available and how to apply.

For more information, read: Your guide to independent school scholarships.

Bursaries

Bursaries are means-tested awards (based on a family's financial situation) designed to make independent education more accessible. Depending on your circumstances, a bursary could cover part or all of the school fees and sometimes extras like uniforms, lunches or school trips.

Families provide financial information to qualify, and awards are reassessed each year. For many families, bursaries make an excellent education possible that might otherwise seem out of reach.

Visit Bromley High School's website to find out what bursaries are available and how to apply.

For more information, read: Bursaries: a parents' guide

How can I help my child prepare for the test?

Applying to senior school can feel like a big milestone, but preparation doesn't have to be overwhelming. Here's how you can help your child prepare for test day.

Stay on track with a clear plan

One of the hardest parts of exam preparation is knowing what to focus on, when, and how to make steady progress without it taking over family life.

A clear, structured plan helps your child feel less overwhelmed and more in control. It ensures they build skills in the right order, cover everything they need, and avoid last-minute cramming.

Atom's exam plan makes this easier. Enter your child's target schools and exam dates, and we'll create a personalised weekly plan tailored to the topics they'll be tested on. It shows them what to work on and when, adapts as they improve, and helps them build progress in a calm, manageable way, little and often.

That means less guesswork for you, less stress for them, and a clearer path all the way to exam day.

Build smart exam technique

As your child's knowledge grows, practice tests can help them feel more comfortable with the real exam format.

Atom's mock tests are exact replicas of real entrance exams. They're also unlimited: your child can take the same test repeatedly and see new questions each time. This helps them practise without repeating the same content.

Atom's mock tests are automatically marked. You'll see your child's standardised age score (SAS), where they're doing well, and what they should focus on next. You'll also learn how they compare to other children applying to the same school.

Encourage regular reading

Strong reading skills play a big role in preparation for entrance exams.

Encourage your child to read every day, even for just 10–15 minutes. The key is variety. Mix fiction and non-fiction, different genres, and a range of authors. This helps them become more confident in understanding tone, purpose, and meaning across different texts.

Over time, regular reading will:

• broaden their vocabulary
• improve comprehension and inference
• build confidence in tackling unseen texts

And just as importantly, it can help them enjoy reading, not just see it as exam preparation.

Looking for inspiration? Atom's reading and writing starter kit has suggestions spanning fiction and non-fiction for Years 3–6.

Celebrate progress, not just scores

When you're supporting your child through exam preparation, what really matters is knowing they're moving in the right direction, not just how they scored on a single test.

Atom's progress tracking gives you a clear, simple picture of how your child is doing in each topic and the direction they're moving in. You can see where they're on track, where they might need more practice, and spot progress as it happens.

That makes it easier to give meaningful encouragement, keep motivation steady, and focus on what matters most: consistent improvement, not just one-off results.