City of London School

City of London School guide

City of London sets six online sections and a handwritten story on one day, and runs no 13+. The format it shares with Dulwich, and the 2027 dates.

By Richard and Freddie, who joined The Perse in 2019 and left in 2026 after Year 13 to become expert admission tutors.
Last checked 11 September 2026

Most selective schools run four sections in an online assessment. City of London runs six, and two of them are the ones almost no preparation covers.

It also runs no 13+ at all, which is the fact that costs a prep-school family a year if they find it too late.

There is no 13+

This is worth checking early rather than late, because the schools City of London is naturally compared with — Westminster, St Paul's, Dulwich — all do run a 13+, so the assumption is a reasonable one to arrive with and an expensive one to keep.

The assessment

Both parts are sat on the same day, the online sections first and the writing task after.

That is 105 minutes online, then a 30-minute handwritten creative writing task — a short story from a prompt, written by hand unless access arrangements have been approved.

Two things in that table do more work than the durations. Six sections, where most selective schools run four — and the two extra ones, puzzles and problem solving and creative comprehension, are 35 minutes of the 105 and are the two almost nothing sold as 11+ preparation covers.

The format it shares with Dulwich

City of London and Dulwich College publish the same six section names, the same durations and the same three adaptive sections. Neither school mentions the other.

For a family applying to both, that is genuinely useful: screen practice transfers directly, and there is no need to prepare twice for the online half.

The writing task is where they part. City of London allows 30 minutes for a story from a prompt; Dulwich allows 20, with five of those set aside for planning. A boy trained to Dulwich's clock will over-plan here and leave himself short; one trained to City of London's will run out of time there. Practise them separately.

Dates for September 2027 entry

A non-refundable registration fee applies. Successful candidates join Year 7, which the School calls First Form.

The interview and group activity

Candidates who score well are invited back in January for an interview of around 15 to 20 minutes, and a group activity on the same visit.

The group activity is the part families prepare least and understand worst. It is not a test of who talks most. What is being watched is whether a boy can listen, build on someone else's idea and keep a group moving — which is rehearsable, and is a different skill from anything the written assessment measures.

Fees

For 2026-27 the fee is £9,848.40 a term including VAT, which is £29,545.20 a year.

Individual music lessons are charged separately at £429.60 a term, £1,288.80 a year — worth knowing if your son is likely to take them, since at some schools on this roster lessons are folded into a music award instead.

Bursaries

The School's scheme is called Transformational Bursaries, and it helps almost 100 pupils.

A net household income of £35,000 or less, together with receipt of Universal Credit, reduces the registration fee to £64. Applying means ticking the box on the registration form and completing a financial declaration; a second stage of documentation may follow, and a home visit. Family finances are reassessed every year.

We sell tutoring, so it is worth saying plainly: if that threshold is anywhere near your household, start with the bursary application rather than with preparation. It is worth more than anything we can sell you, and the reduced registration fee removes the first barrier to trying.

Scholarships

Magdalen College School takes the same approach. Several of the girls' schools on our roster do not — Godolphin's music award reaches 30% of fees and City of London School for Girls' reaches 10% — so if you are comparing schools, "scholarship" does not mean the same thing at each of them.

Financial help at City of London comes through the bursary, and only through it.

Entry points

10+ into Year 6, an additional intake a year before the main one that only a minority of schools run; 11+ into Year 7, the main round; and 16+ into the sixth form.

No 13+, as above. If your son is at a prep school that runs to 13, the 11+ here means leaving two years early, and that is a conversation worth having with the prep before you register rather than after.

How to prepare

Cover the two forgotten sections. Puzzles and problem solving, and creative comprehension, are a third of the online time. They are also non-adaptive, so they reward careful reviewing — which only helps a boy who knows they work that way.

Practise adaptive pacing on a screen. Answer carefully first time, keep moving, and accept that a well-answered section gets harder.

Write a story by hand in 30 minutes. Not 20, not 40. The clock is part of the task.

Rehearse the group activity. It is a real assessment and it is the one nobody practises.

The shorter version of all this, with the assessment laid out beside our preparation for it, is on our City of London School page.

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