Reed's School 11+ entry guide

Are you thinking about applying to Reed's 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 Reed's School

• School type: independent day and boarding school — currently for boys, with girls joining the Sixth Form; Reed's is moving to become fully co-educational and will admit girls into the First Form (Year 7) from September 2027
• Location: Cobham, Surrey
• Admissions contact: admissions@reeds.surrey.sch.uk
• 11+ exam: ISEB Common Pre-Tests
• Financial assistance: means-tested Foundation bursaries
• Scholarships: academic, art, drama, music and sport

Important dates for 2027 entry

• Thursday 15th October 2026: registration closes
• Monday 30th November 2026: deadline to complete the ISEB Common Pre-Tests
• Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th January 2027: interviews
• February 2027: results are emailed to parents
• Early March 2027: deadline for accepting offers and paying the security deposit

How to apply to Reed's School

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

You must submit an online registration form together with a non-refundable £180 registration fee. The closing date for 2027 entry applications is Thursday 15th October 2026.

Reed's uses the ISEB Common Pre-Tests, an online assessment set by the Independent Schools Examination Board. Your child will need to complete the tests by 30th November 2026, when they are in Year 6. The tests can be taken at your child's current school if that school is willing to invigilate them. Once applications have closed, the school will contact your child's current school to request a reference.

Candidates who complete the tests are invited in for an interview. These take place in January.

You will receive your child's results by email in February. If they are offered a place, you will need to confirm acceptance and pay a £1,500 security deposit by early March.

What will my child be tested on?

The Reed's School 11+ entrance exam is the ISEB Common Pre-Test. The whole assessment takes around two hours and fifteen minutes.

ISEB Common Pre-Test

The ISEB Common Pre-Test is an online, adaptive assessment made up entirely of multiple-choice questions. It covers:

• Maths (40 minutes)
• English (40 minutes)
• Non-verbal reasoning (30 minutes)
• Verbal reasoning (25 minutes)

If your child is applying to more than one school that uses the ISEB Common Pre-Test, they only need to sit it once each academic year — their results are shared with every school they've applied to.

How are places decided?

Before their interview, candidates take part in a group activity involving team-building tasks, designed to help them feel at ease. This is followed by an informal interview with a member of staff, giving the school a chance to learn more about your child's interests, and your child the chance to ask questions about Reed's.

Places are offered in February. These are based on:

• their performance in the ISEB Common Pre-Tests
• the interview
• a reference from their current school

Financial information

Reed's School is a fee paying school. Take a look at the school website for a full breakdown of fees per year group and for boarding students.

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. 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 Reed's 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 Reed's School's website to find out 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. 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.