St Paul's School 13+ entry guide

Are you thinking about applying to St Paul's School for 13+ entry? Find out everything you need to know about the admissions process and how to prepare for the entrance exam.

Key information for St Paul's School

• School type: boys' independent school (day and boarding), ages 7–18, encompassing St Paul's Juniors and the senior school
• Location: Barnes, London
• Admissions contact: admissions@stpaulsschool.org.uk
• 13+ exam: ISEB Common Pre-Test (Stage 1), written assessments (Stage 2), interviews (Stage 3), and a headteacher's reference
• Financial assistance: means-tested bursaries through the Founder's Awards programme
• Scholarships: academic and music

Important dates for 2027 entry

• February, Year 5: registration opens
• September, Year 6: registration closes
• October–November, Year 6: Stage 1 entrance exam (ISEB Common Pre-Test)
• January, Year 6: Stage 2 entrance exam (written tests)
• January–June, Year 6: Stage 3 (interviews)
• June, Year 6: offers of places
• Check the school's website to confirm exact dates for 2027 entry

How to apply to St Paul's School

St Paul's School is selective. This means your son will need to complete an entrance assessment to be eligible for a place.

Open days take place in March, April, May and September. Registration opens in February of Year 5 and closes in September of Year 6.

What will my child be tested on?

St Paul's 13+ process has three stages: the ISEB Common Pre-Test, written assessments, and interviews.

Stage 1: ISEB Common Pre-Test

The ISEB Common Pre-Test is an online, adaptive assessment, meaning the questions get harder or easier depending on how your son is performing. It's usually taken in the autumn term of Year 6. It assesses:

• Maths
• English
• Verbal reasoning
• Non-verbal reasoning

St Paul's also requests a report from your son's current headteacher, covering character, academic strengths and interests, which is reviewed alongside the Pre-Test results before deciding who progresses to Stage 2.

Stage 2: Written assessments

Boys who progress to Stage 2 sit two written papers in January of Year 6: English (45 minutes) and Maths (1 hour).

Stage 3: Interviews

Boys who perform well in Stage 2 have a 25-minute interview with two senior members of teaching staff. Parents also have the opportunity to meet a senior member of staff for 25 minutes.

How are places decided?

• your son's performance in the ISEB Common Pre-Test
• a report from his current headteacher
• his performance in the Stage 2 written assessments
• his Stage 3 interview

Financial information

St Paul's School is a fee paying school. Take a look at the school's fees page for a full breakdown of fees for day and boarding pupils.

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 St Paul's, awards are available in academic and music, typically worth between £60 and £1,500 per year depending on the specific award and point of entry — scholarships recognise outstanding achievement rather than providing the main source of financial support.

Visit St Paul's academic scholarships page 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 St Paul's, these are known as Founder's Awards and can range from 2% to 100% of tuition fees, also covering costs like uniform, textbooks, exam fees, music lessons and school trips. Your son will only be assessed for a bursary once he's made significant progress through the academic admissions process — typically once he's called for interview following the written examination.

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 St Paul's Founder's Awards page to find out what's available and how to apply.

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

Financial support for independent school fees is more available than most families realise.

This free guide is an honest look at how scholarships and bursaries work in practice: what they cover, how the timeline unfolds from Year 4 to Year 6 and how to approach admissions with confidence.

How can I help my child prepare for the test?

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.