Notre Dame Senior School 11 plus guide

Are you thinking about applying to Notre Dame Senior 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 Notre Dame Senior School

• School type: Catholic independent day school for girls
• Location: Cobham, Surrey
• Admissions contact: admissions@notredame.co.uk
• 11+ exam: Quest Admissions and creative writing
• Financial assistance: means-tested bursaries
• Scholarships: academic, art, drama, music and sport

Important dates for 2027 entry

• Tuesday 1st September 2026: scholarship applications open
• Monday 2nd November 2026: registration and scholarship application deadline
• Friday 20th November 2026: 11+ assessment day
• Week commencing Monday 23rd November 2026: scholarship assessments
• January 2027: Year 7 and scholarship offers made
• March 2027: deadline for accepting offers

How to apply to Notre Dame Senior School

Notre Dame Senior School is selective. This means that your child will need to take an entrance exam to be eligible for a place.

You must register your child via the school's online admissions portal. Registration opens in the autumn term of Year 5 and closes in the autumn term of Year 6. A non-refundable registration fee applies.

Notre Dame uses an entrance exam provided by Quest Admissions, in addition to a creative writing paper set by the school. The assessment day, which includes the exam, takes place in November when your child is in Year 6.

All candidates also have a short informal interview as part of the assessment day. You will receive your child's results in January. If they are offered a place, you will have until March to accept.

What will my child be tested on?

The Notre Dame Senior School 11+ assessment day is split into two main parts, alongside a short interview and a leisure activity. The whole day is designed to be as informal and stress-free as possible.

Quest Admissions tests are designed to explore how your child thinks, not just what they know. Taken online, Quest tests consist of a mix of adaptive questions, which get more or less challenging depending on how your child is performing, and non-adaptive questions. The test is completed under timed conditions, with each school choosing how to set and combine the different elements.

Part 1: Quest Admissions

The first part is a 60-minute online entrance test created by Quest Admissions. This assesses:

• Maths
• Verbal reasoning and comprehension
• Non-verbal reasoning

Have a go at a familiarisation test to see what the questions look like.

Part 2: Creative writing

The second part is a creative writing task lasting 30 minutes. Candidates are given a choice of two tasks and only need to complete one.

How are places decided?

Following the online test and creative writing task, all candidates also have a short, informal interview with a member of staff, along with a leisure activity to help them feel at ease.

Places are offered in January. These are based on:

• their performance in the entrance exam
• the creative writing task
• the interview

If your child is offered a place, you will have until March to accept.

Financial information

Notre Dame Senior School is a fee paying school. Take a look at the school website for a full breakdown of fees per year group.

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 Notre Dame Senior 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 Notre Dame Senior School's website to find out what bursaries are available and how to apply.

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

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

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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.