Which schools will judge your child on the test alone, which ones care where you live, and the deadlines that catch families out.
For parents of children in Years 4 and 5
Message me on WhatsAppIf you only read one thing. The tests are sat in the first fortnight of Year 6, and every registration deadline falls in the June to August before that — some as early as the end of June. So the year that matters is Year 5, and the year to decide is Year 4.
Two things most parents here do not know. You can enter your child for more than one authority's test. And a good number of schools do not look at your address at all — they rank purely on score, which puts a Redhill family on exactly the same footing as everyone else.
If you live in Redhill or Reigate and you've started wondering about the 11+, you will have discovered that nobody explains it to you. There is no local grammar school, so the primary school doesn't cover it, and the parents who do know tend to have worked it out the hard way.
I wrote this while taking my own son through it. It's the thing I wish somebody had handed me two years ago.
One point of confusion worth clearing up straight away: Reigate Grammar and the Royal Grammar School Guildford have "Grammar" in the name but are independent schools charging fees. Surrey has no selective state schools at all.
Start here
The tests are sat in the first two weeks of Year 6. Registration closes during the summer before.
By the time your child walks into Year 6, the deadline has passed and the exam is a fortnight away.
Parents who plan to "look at it properly in Year 6" have, without realising, already decided not to apply. It isn't a close call or a tight squeeze; the door is shut. This is the most common and most painful mistake in the whole process, and it has nothing to do with how able the child is.
The earliest deadlines are earlier than people expect. In the most recent cycle, St Olave's closed at the end of June and Queen Elizabeth's Barnet in the first week of July — both before the Kent Test deadline, and a month before Sutton's.
The part that decides your odds
Most guides sort schools by county. For a family in Redhill that is the wrong question, because you are outside every local catchment. The question that actually decides your child's chances is whether the school considers your address at all — and the answer varies enormously, even between two schools on the same street.
These schools order applicants by test score. Where you live is either irrelevant or used only to separate two identical scores. This is where a Redhill child competes on equal terms, and it is the single most useful thing in this guide.
These are still worth knowing about, but go in with your eyes open. From Redhill you are competing for a small reserved allocation, or in one case not competing on score at all.
A qualifying score is not an offer. Passing the SET makes your child eligible to be considered; passing the Kent Test makes them grammar-assessed. Places are then allocated on each school's own criteria, and every one of these schools is oversubscribed with qualified children.
The scale, from the most recent published figures: 3,282 boys sat the Sutton SET for 486 selective boys' places, and 2,670 girls for 420. Roughly one in seven, before out-of-borough competition. That's arithmetic, not pessimism.
The papers
The two main tests are less alike than people assume, and the difference should shape how you prepare.
What that means for preparation. Reasoning is about a third of the Kent aggregate, and none of Sutton's. But because verbal and non-verbal are combined into a single score, non-verbal reasoning on its own is only around a sixth of the Kent total — worth practising, not worth obsessing over. A child whose written English is their strength is better suited to Sutton, where stage 2 includes extended writing.
Kent scores are standardised, roughly 69 to 141 per paper with an age adjustment, so a practice-paper percentage tells you very little about where a child sits against the threshold.
Children who are not at a Kent primary sit the Kent Test on a weekend rather than the main Thursday. You register directly with Kent County Council; your Surrey primary school has no part in it.
Worth knowing: Weald of Kent has introduced its own assessment, sat the Saturday after the Kent Test. It is an alternative qualifying route of equal weighting, not an extra hurdle — effectively a second chance. Check the admissions page of every school you are considering rather than assuming one test covers them all.
The calendar
Exact dates move by a few days each year and are published the spring before. The shape does not change.
Decide whether to try. Visit two or three schools on open days, and be honest about the journey. Redhill to Tonbridge is a direct train of about half an hour. There is no direct train from Redhill to Sutton — it needs a change and takes the best part of an hour, and the schools are spread across Wallington, Cheam and Sutton. Orpington and Barnet are longer again.
Start proper preparation. Not cramming — filling gaps. This is when there is time to fix a shaky grasp of fractions rather than paper over it.
Introduce reasoning if Kent is on your list. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are unlike anything taught at primary school, and children improve quickly — but only once they have seen them.
The earliest deadlines. St Olave's and Newstead Wood have closed by the end of June; Queen Elizabeth's Barnet in the first week of July. These catch people out precisely because nobody expects them.
Kent Test registration closes. It opens in early June. Miss it and there is no second chance that year. Access arrangements must be requested by the same deadline.
Sutton SET registration closes — mid-summer, when most families have stopped thinking about school.
Timed practice papers. The content is finished by now; what's left is stamina and pace. Two or three papers a week under real timing beats daily drilling.
The tests. Kent in the first full week — out-of-county children at the weekend. The Sutton SET around the middle of the month, with stage 2 for those who qualify a fortnight or so later.
Results, then the application. Kent decisions arrive in mid-October. Sutton schools commit only to telling you before half term, so expect about a week, not a fortnight, to decide. The national secondary application closes on 31 October — check whether that falls on a weekend or inside half term in your year, because it is not moved.
Independent school exams, for families running that route as well. Registration from mid-October; assessments from October through to January depending on the school.
National offer day — or the next working day if it falls on a weekend.
Always confirm the exact dates on the official pages — Kent County Council for the Kent Test, the London Borough of Sutton for the SET, and each school's own admissions page for everything else. They publish the coming year's dates in the spring.
Preparation
This part is my opinion rather than anybody's published guidance, and the honest answer is less than the anxious answer — but it needs to start earlier.
A child who is already secure in Year 5 maths needs, I think, perhaps two to three focused hours a week through Year 5, rising a little over the summer. Children doing six hours a week from Year 4 are not twice as likely to pass; they are more likely to arrive at the exam tired of the whole thing.
What actually moves the needle, in order: closing the specific gaps a child has rather than re-covering what they can already do; working under timed conditions, because most children lose more marks to pace than to knowledge; and reasoning practice if Kent is on the list, since it is the part that improves fastest from a standing start.
Not every child should sit it. A child working comfortably at the expected standard, but not beyond it, may pass and then spend seven years in the bottom set of a school where everyone was top of their primary class. There are excellent non-selective schools locally. Sitting the 11+ should be a decision, not a default.
Have a plan for the outcome you don't want. Most children who sit these tests don't get a grammar place. Deciding in advance how you will talk about it, and making sure your child knows the plan, is worth more than another practice paper.
I'm Nivitha Vayath. I tutor maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning in Redhill and online — I don't teach English comprehension or creative writing, and I'll tell you if that's what your child needs.
If you'd like to know where your child actually stands, I'll sit with them for 45 minutes, no charge and no obligation, and send you a written report within two days: what's secure, what isn't, how much time is realistically needed, and my honest view on whether the school you have in mind is the right target. Plenty of families take the report and carry on by themselves, which is a perfectly good outcome.
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