St James Senior Boys' School 11 plus guide

Are you thinking about applying to St James Senior Boys' 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 St James Senior Boys' School

• School type: independent day school for boys aged 11–18 (co-educational at Year 7 entry from September 2027)
• Location: Ashford, Surrey
• Admissions contact: admissions@stjamesboys.co.uk
• 11+ exam: Quest Admissions
• Financial assistance: means-tested bursaries
• Scholarships: academic, sport, music, drama, art and design

Important dates for 2027 entry

• Friday 13th November 2026: registration deadline
• Saturday 28th November 2026: assessment day (entrance exam and interview)
• Early December 2026: offers are sent
• Friday 22nd January 2027: scholarship application deadline
• Friday 5th March 2027: deadline for accepting offers

How to apply to St James Senior Boys' School

St James Senior Boys' 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 online registration form, along with a non-refundable registration fee of £150. You'll also need to upload supporting documentation, including a passport and your child's most recent school report.

St James uses an entrance exam provided by Quest Admissions. The assessment takes place in November when your child is in Year 6, with an interview held on the same day.

You will be contacted with your child's results in early December. If your child is offered a place, you will have until early March to accept.

What will my child be tested on?

The St James Senior Boys' School entrance exam is provided by Quest Admissions and is taken online, either at the school or an assigned test centre. It covers four subject areas, some of which are adaptive, meaning the difficulty of the questions adjusts automatically based on how your child is answering.

Quest Admissions

The assessment covers:

• Maths: covers a broad range of Key Stage 2 topics, assessing your child's fluency with numbers, understanding of mathematical concepts, and ability to solve problems
• English: typically includes a reading comprehension task, assessing your child's understanding of a given passage, which could be fiction or non-fiction
• Verbal reasoning: solving problems and sequences using written information, such as letters and words
• Non-verbal reasoning: interpreting patterns and working with sequences using visual information, such as shapes and diagrams

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

How are places decided?

Your child will have an interview with the Head or a senior member of staff on the same day as the assessment exam. This is an opportunity for them to discuss their academic strengths and interests.

The school will also contact your child's current school to request a confidential reference.

Offers are sent in early December, based on:

• their performance in the exam
• the interview
• a reference from their current school

If your child is offered a place, an acceptance deposit of £2,000 is required to secure it, and you'll have until early March to formally accept.

Financial information

St James Senior Boys' School is a fee paying school. Take a look at the school website for a full breakdown of fees per year group.

Scholarships

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 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 St James Senior Boys' 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 St James Senior Boys' 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, so 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.