Few questions cause London parents more quiet anxiety than *when should we start?* Start too late and the calendar feels punishing; start too early and you risk months of drilling that flatten a child's curiosity long before any exam. The honest answer is that the 11+ rewards steady, unhurried readiness far more than it rewards an early sprint — and the admissions calendar for London independent schools, once you see it laid out, is more forgiving than the rumour mill suggests. What follows is a realistic, year-by-year timeline that keeps the work proportionate to your child's age, anchored to how real London schools actually run their admissions.
A note before the calendar: dates vary by school, sometimes by months. Two of the City of London schools illustrate the spread. City of London School for Girls opened registration for 2027 entry in June 2026 and closed it on 30 October 2026, with a first assessment between 13 and 18 November 2026. City of London School set its registration deadline at 2 November 2026 and its assessment on 27 November 2026. Other selective schools close registration much earlier — often in the summer term of Year 5. The single rule that matters: confirm each target school's own deadline directly, because missing it almost always means your child cannot sit that year.
The shape of the London 11+ year
| Stage | Roughly when | What is happening |
|---|---|---|
| Foundations | Year 4 | Strong reading, number fluency, light familiarisation. No heavy drilling. |
| Core preparation | Year 5 | The main preparation year. Reasoning introduced. Many registrations open and some close. |
| Registration | Summer of Year 5 to autumn of Year 6 | Deadlines vary widely by school — some June of Year 5, some October or November of Year 6. |
| Assessments | Autumn of Year 6 (roughly Nov–Jan) | ISEB Common Pre-Test and/or school papers; interviews for shortlisted candidates. |
| Offers | February to March of Year 6 | Most London independents email offers in mid-February, with acceptance due in early March. |
Understanding that the assessments land in the autumn and early new year of Year 6 — not in the summer of Year 6, as many parents assume — is what makes a calm timeline possible. The work is essentially front-loaded into Years 4 and 5, with Year 6 given over to consolidation and the admissions process itself.
Year 4: foundations, not a syllabus
Year 4 is for the things that make everything else easier later, and almost none of it should look like exam preparation. The two foundations that matter most are a genuine reading habit and fluency with number. A child who reads widely and often is quietly building the vocabulary, comprehension and stamina that every 11+ English and reasoning paper draws on; a child who is secure with times tables and mental arithmetic will not be slowed down by basic calculation when the questions get harder.
Light familiarisation is welcome — a gentle introduction to the types of question that exist, so nothing feels alien in a year's time — but heavy drilling at this age is counterproductive. Reputable guidance is consistent that starting too early can simply make a child lose interest before the preparation that counts even begins. If you do anything formal in Year 4, keep it short, varied and low-stakes, and protect the curiosity that will carry your child through the longer haul.
Year 5: the core preparation year
Year 5 is where structured preparation belongs. By now your child can begin building exam-specific skills, moving gradually from learning the content towards timed practice and technique. This is also the year that verbal and non-verbal reasoning are usually introduced in earnest — neither is taught in the standard primary curriculum, so both genuinely need to be learned rather than assumed.
Year 5 carries two decisions. The first is administrative and time-sensitive: registrations. Many London independent schools open registration during Year 5, and a number close it in the summer term of Year 5 — well before the exams themselves. Build a simple spreadsheet of every target school with its registration window, and check each one against the school's own admissions page rather than a third-party list.
The second decision is tutoring versus self-preparation, covered below. Whichever route you choose, the aim across Year 5 is consistent, manageable practice — a regular rhythm a child can sustain — rather than a heavy load that peaks and crashes. Leaving the bulk of preparation to a final scramble of under twelve weeks tends to be challenging for most children; a steady Year 5 is what removes the need for that scramble.
Year 6: assessments, interviews and offers
By Year 6 the heavy learning should largely be done, and the year becomes about consolidation and the admissions process. Many schools use the ISEB Common Pre-Test as a first-round filter: an online, adaptive assessment — the questions adjust to how a child is performing — covering English, mathematics, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, taken in Year 6, normally in the autumn term and occasionally in the spring. Because one registration through the ISEB system can feed several schools, deadlines are set by the schools themselves, and some fall as early as the end of June in Year 5.
Alongside or instead of the pre-test, many London independents set their own written papers and invite shortlisted candidates to interview. The realistic rhythm, drawn from real 2027-entry calendars, is assessments across November and into the new year, interviews in January, and offers emailed in mid-February with acceptances due in early March. Knowing this shape helps you taper rather than intensify: by the autumn of Year 6, your child needs steadiness and rest more than they need new material.
Tutoring versus self-preparation, and how much is too much
There is no single right answer here. Self-preparation with good-quality practice materials suits organised families with a confident child and the time to keep a routine going; tutoring can help where reasoning needs explicit teaching, where a parent would rather not be the one marking papers, or where a child responds better to someone outside the family. Either can work well. What does not work is volume for its own sake: excessive tutoring shows no long-term attainment gain, and hours stacked on hours past a sensible point tend to erode confidence rather than build it.
A useful test of "too much" is whether the preparation still fits comfortably inside a normal childhood. If sport, friendships, free time and sleep are being sacrificed to fit in more practice, the balance has tipped — and the trade-off is rarely worth it, because tired children learn less from each additional hour, not more.
Protecting wellbeing: the signs that matter
Children aged nine to eleven need roughly nine to eleven hours of sleep a night, and when study eats into that, cognitive performance falls — so late-night practice is usually self-defeating. A calm, consistent home routine, with proper sleep, meals, exercise and genuine days off, does more for performance than another worksheet.
Watch for the warning signs: disrupted sleep, withdrawal from things a child used to enjoy, persistent low mood or a noticeable dip in how they are doing more generally. If several of these appear together, or persist for more than a week or two, treat it as a signal to ease off rather than push through. It is also worth remembering that children are highly attuned to adult emotion; much of what looks like exam stress in a child is absorbed from the worry around them. Open, low-pressure conversation — and your own visible calm — is one of the most protective things you can offer. The goal is a child who arrives at the exam prepared and still themselves, which over a long preparation matters far more than any single extra hour of practice.
