St Michael's Catholic Grammar School 11+ guide

Thinking about applying to St Michael's Catholic Grammar School? Find out everything you need to know about admissions in 2025–2026 and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus.

Key information about St Michael's Catholic Grammar School

• Address: St Michael's Catholic Grammar School, Nether Street, North Finchley, London, N12 7NJ
• Number of pupils: approx. 850
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Number of places in Year 7: 128
• 11+ exam: GL Assessment
• Catchment area: no

Dates for your diary

• Wednesday 23rd April 2025: registration opens for the entrance exam at St Michael's Catholic Grammar School
• Tuesday 8th July 2025: entrance exam registration closes
• Friday 12th September 2025: St Michael's Catholic Grammar School 11+ entrance exam
• Mid-October 2025: parents receive entrance exam results
• Friday 31st October 2025: national deadline to apply for secondary school places
• Monday 2nd March 2026: national school offers day

About St Michael's Catholic Grammar School

St Michael's Catholic Grammar School is a girls' grammar school in north London. It was founded in 1909 by the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus as a boarding school. The school is first and foremost a Catholic school and a place of spiritual formation. The Gospel message "Love one another, as I have loved you" informs all aspects of community life.

St Michael's is recognised as Outstanding by Ofsted. Intellectual exploration is encouraged and every year, students achieve outstanding exam results.

How to apply to St Michael's Catholic Grammar School

St Michael's Catholic Grammar School is a selective school. This means that your daughter will need to take the 11 plus to be eligible for a place.

Girls applying for 2026 entry to St Michael's Catholic Grammar School need to be registered by Tuesday 8th July 2025. The entrance exam will take place on Friday 12th September 2025. You’ll receive your daughter’s results in mid-October so that you have time to decide whether to apply to the school before the common application form deadline on 31st October 2025.

Remember – passing the entrance exams doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at your preferred school. Many grammar schools are often oversubscribed with qualified children. Schools and their admissions authorities work through admissions criteria to prioritise children for places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for St Michael's Catholic Grammar School below.

What subjects are on the St Michael’s 11 plus?

Girls applying for 2026 entry to St Michael's Catholic Grammar School will take the 11 plus entrance exam in September 2025.

The 11 plus papers are provided by GL Assessment. All of the questions are multiple-choice. Your child will have a question booklet and separate answer sheets.

Children are tested in:

• English: questions are based on the national curriculum content your daughter will be learning at school. This often includes a reading comprehension task.
• Maths: questions are based on Key Stage 2 maths content taught up to the start of Year 6. The areas typically assessed include aspects of number, measurement, geometry and statistics.
• Verbal reasoning: this subject is not taught at school. Verbal reasoning assesses your child’s ability to analyse and solve problems with written information, like letters, words, symbols and numbers.
• Non-verbal reasoning: like verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning isn’t taught on the national curriculum. This tests your child’s ability to solve problems with visual information, such as shapes, diagrams and pictures.

How does place allocation work at St Michael's Catholic Grammar School?

Following the entrance test, all children are ranked in order starting with the highest score.

There are 128 places available in Year 7 at St Michael's Catholic Grammar School. Priority goes to girls who are baptised Catholic, come from a practising Catholic family, and have made their First Holy Communion in the Catholic Church. Girls in this group are prioritised in the following order:

1. ‘Looked after children’ and ‘previously looked after children’ who are ranked within the top 200 places in the entrance test
2. Up to 32 children in receipt of Pupil Premium who are ranked within the top 200 places in the entrance test
3. Other girls within this group, ranked in order of scores from highest to lowest

There is no catchment area at St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School.

Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation

St Michael's Catholic Grammar School is one of the most popular state schools in London, so competition for places is high. Here are our top tips to help you and your child feel confident for exam day!

Bitesize learning

It’s important to build a good knowledge base before the 11 plus. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when learning is key – our brains encode new information more effectively when dealing with smaller ‘chunks’ of information. For children aged 10–11, child psychologists recommend regular study sessions of 20–30 minutes.

Atom Home makes learning a more enjoyable process for your child. They'll explore exciting worlds full of interactive questions, earning coins to spend in the Atom shop. Atom adapts to your child, showing them questions at just the right level of difficulty to keep them motivated.

Read widely

11 plus exams test your child’s ability to analyse and interpret written information. Regular reading is a great way to help your child build these skills.

Encourage them to read books from different genres and by a diverse range of authors. Increasing the variety of your child’s reading will help them understand different styles, tones and purposes. Meanwhile, reading a little every day will help widen their vocabulary, sharpen their analytical thinking, and enhance their imagination.

Refine exam technique

When your child feels confident with the topics they’ve learnt in Year 5, they’ll be ready to put their knowledge to the test.

Practice tests can help your child develop problem-solving skills and build confidence working under test conditions. They’re also a great way to consolidate learning and highlight knowledge gaps for further improvement.

With Atom Home, you'll unlock online mock tests and printable practice papers. Enjoy automatic marking and progress tracking with the online tests, and help your child get familiar with the real exam experience with printable practice papers.

Celebrate progress

Setting regular, achievable goals and celebrating your child’s progress – no matter how big or small – will help keep their motivation high.

Make sure to encourage a growth mindset. This means celebrating effort, as well as achievement! When your child makes mistakes or struggles to understand a particular topic, help them understand that they’ll improve through practice. Regular praise will help your child improve their resilience when tackling new and challenging topics.