Lady Eleanor Holles 11+ entry guide

Are you thinking about applying to Lady Eleanor Holles 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 Lady Eleanor Holles School

• School type: girls' independent day school (ages 7–18)
• Location: Hampton, southwest London
• Admissions contact: registrar@lehs.org.uk
• 11+ exam: ISEB Common Pre-Test and a school-set Problem-Solving Exam
• Financial assistance: means-tested bursaries
• Scholarships: academic and music

Important dates for 2027 entry

• Tuesday 3rd November 2026: application deadline (midday)
• 17th, 18th and 19th November 2026: ISEB Common Pre-Test sessions
• 29th November 2026: Problem-Solving Exam
• Mid-December 2026: assessment results letters sent
• 26th, 27th and 29th January 2027: interviews and music scholarship auditions
• By 12th February 2027: offer letters sent
• Early March 2027: deadline for accepting offers

How to apply to Lady Eleanor Holles School

Lady Eleanor Holles School is selective. This means that your child will need to sit an entrance assessment to be eligible for a place.

Applications for September 2027 entry open in the spring term of Year 5 and close at midday on Tuesday 3rd November 2026. You can register your child and complete the online application form via the school website, and you're encouraged to attend an open event beforehand.

All candidates sit the ISEB Common Pre-Test in November, either at LEH or at their current school, followed by a Problem-Solving Exam at LEH later that month. A reference is also requested from your child's current school ahead of the assessments.

Children who perform well are invited back to the school for an interview in January. You'll receive your child's results in February. If they're offered a place, you'll have until early March to accept.

What will my child be tested on?

The Lady Eleanor Holles School 11+ entrance assessment has two stages, sat around three weeks apart.

Stage 1a: ISEB Common Pre-Test

The first stage is the ISEB Common Pre-Test, an exam created by the Independent Schools Examination Board. It's taken online and is entirely adaptive, meaning the questions become more difficult depending on how your child is performing. It takes around 2.5 hours in total and covers:

• Maths: based on the Year 5 national curriculum, ranging from arithmetic to multi-step problem solving
• English: split into reading comprehension, and spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Verbal reasoning: your child's ability to reason and solve problems using letters, words, symbols and numbers
• Non-verbal reasoning: your child's logic and problem-solving skills using 2D and 3D figures and diagrams

Have a go at a free ISEB practice test to see what the questions look like.

Stage 1b: Problem-Solving Exam

The second stage is a Problem-Solving Exam, sat at LEH. This lasts around one hour and tests linguistic and logic problem-solving, drawing on elements of English and maths.

How are places decided?

Every candidate's results from the ISEB Common Pre-Test and the Problem-Solving Exam are reviewed by the LEH Admissions Panel. Children who perform well are invited back to the school for an interview with a senior member of staff in January.

Music scholarship auditions also take place in January for those who have applied. Places are offered in February. These are based on:

• performance in the ISEB Common Pre-Test and Problem-Solving Exam
• the interview
• a reference from the headteacher at their current school

Financial information

Lady Eleanor Holles School is a fee paying school. Take a look at the school's fees page for a full breakdown of fees per year group.

Financial assistance

When exploring independent schools for your child, scholarships and bursaries are worth considering. They can ease the pressure of school fees and open doors to opportunities that might otherwise feel out of reach.

Scholarships

Scholarships are awarded for a child's talent or achievement. At 11+, Lady Eleanor Holles School offers academic and music scholarships, each worth 10% of fees.

Scholarships often come with a small fee reduction and acknowledge your child's talents, motivating them and boosting their confidence. All candidates are automatically considered for an academic scholarship as part of the entrance assessment; music scholarship applicants apply separately and attend an audition.

Visit Lady Eleanor Holles 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. At Lady Eleanor Holles School, bursaries can cover from £1,000 a term up to the full cost of tuition, as well as extras like uniform and school coach costs.

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 Lady Eleanor Holles School's website to see what bursaries are available and how to apply.

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, including the ISEB Common Pre-Test. 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.