Dulwich College

Dulwich College admissions guide

Every way into Dulwich College, 7+ to 16+: the six-section 11+ assessment, the two separate 13+ routes, the 2027 dates, fees, scholarships and bursaries.

By Richard and Freddie, who joined The Perse in 2019 and left in 2026 after Year 13 to become expert admission tutors.
Last checked 16 August 2026

Dulwich College is an independent boys' school in South London, taking pupils from six months old in DUCKS through to age 18. It is selective from Year 3 upwards, so your son sits an assessment and a place depends on how he does. This guide covers every entry point, what each one assesses, and the dates and requirements for 2027 entry.

What you need to know first

• School type: independent day and boarding school for boys, with a co-educational nursery and infants' school
• Location: Dulwich, South London
• Ages: 6 months to 18, across DUCKS, the Junior School (Years 3–6), the Lower and Middle Schools and the Upper School
• Registration fee: £200, non-refundable. £440 from overseas, and waived entirely if your son is in receipt of the Pupil Premium
• Registration deadline for Year 7 entry: midday on Monday 2 November 2026
• Acceptance deposit if a place is offered: £2,500 for day pupils, £5,000 for boarders
• Fees for 2026-27: £10,662 a term in Years 3–8, £10,706 in Years 9–13, including VAT

Who to email depends on your son's age, and Dulwich runs three separate registrars:

Every entry point

Start with what the numbers mean, because this is where families lose a year. "11+" is the name of an assessment, not a year group. The number is roughly the age a child is when he sits it, so the 11+ is taken by boys aged 10 or 11, who are in Year 6 at the time and who join the school the following September in Year 7. The same pattern holds throughout: 7+ is sat in Year 2 for entry into Year 3.

Two of those rows deserve attention before you read any further. Dulwich has two separate 13+ routes, sat two years apart, with different assessments and different deadlines. Most guides run them together as one. And the Junior School entry points at 8+, 9+ and 10+ exist only to fill places left by boys who leave, so the numbers are small and vary year to year.

Dates for 2027 entry

• Friday 2 October 2026, midday: registration closes for 13+ Deferred Entry
• Friday 16 October 2026, midday: registration closes for 16+
• Monday 2 November 2026, midday: registration closes for Years 3–5, Year 7 and standard Year 9 entry
• 25 October to 8 November 2026: 16+ examinations overseas
• Wednesday 11 November 2026: 16+ examinations in the UK
• 23 to 27 November 2026: 16+ interviews
• Saturday 28 November 2026: Junior School Stage 1
• Tuesday 1 December 2026: 13+ Deferred Entry examinations
• Friday 4 December 2026: the Year 7 (11+) entrance examinations
• On or before Friday 4 December 2026: 16+ offers
• Thursday 7 and Saturday 9 January 2027: Junior School Stage 2
• Saturday 9 January 2027: standard Year 9 entry examinations
• 11 to 15 January 2027: 13+ Deferred Entry interviews
• Tuesday 19 January 2027: standard Year 9 entry interviews
• 20 to 27 January 2027: 11+ interviews
• Thursday 11 February 2027: results posted for 11+ and both 13+ routes, emailed the following day
• Friday 26 February 2027, midday: acceptance deadline for standard Year 9 entry
• Wednesday 3 March 2027, midday: acceptance deadline for 11+ and 13+ Deferred Entry

The 11+: 90 places, and what the day looks like

Ninety places, and 180 boys interviewed for them. Your son needs to be born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016 to sit for 2027 entry. The year group settles at around 150 once boys moving up from the Junior School are counted, so most of the seats are already taken before the external round begins.

The assessment runs in two parts on the same day, about three hours including breaks.

Part 1: six online sections, 105 minutes

Six sections, where most selective schools run four, and where most guides to Dulwich still list four. Puzzles and Problem Solving and Creative Comprehension are the two that catch families out, precisely because they are the two nobody else mentions. If your son has prepared on a generic 11+ course, those are the two he will meet for the first time on the day.

Three of the six adapt. In the College's own words: questions get harder or easier depending on answers submitted, and candidates are therefore not able to go back and change their answers.

That has consequences worth understanding. In an adaptive section, an early run of wrong answers pulls the difficulty down and caps the score available for the rest of it. Guessing quickly to save time costs more than it would on a fixed paper, because it also changes what the test offers next. And there is no going back to check, which is the opposite of what most children are taught to do in exams. In the three non-adaptive sections he can review, so he needs two different habits on the same morning.

Part 2: creative writing, 20 minutes

Five minutes planning, fifteen minutes writing, in response to a stimulus. Handwritten, or typed where appropriate. Twenty minutes is short, and the planning time is part of it rather than extra, so the useful thing to practise is getting to a first sentence quickly.

Dulwich uses Quest Assessments, the same platform as The Perse

The online part of the Dulwich assessment is run on Quest Assessments, the same platform The Perse School uses in Cambridge. Neither school mentions this, because each describes "our online assessment" without naming a supplier.

It matters if you are applying to both, which some families do. The interface, the question mechanics and the adaptive behaviour are the same, so screen practice for one transfers to the other. The papers do not: Dulwich runs six sections in 105 minutes, the Perse runs four in 70, and the two extra Dulwich sections have no Perse equivalent. Treat it as a shared format, not a shared exam. Our Perse School admissions guide covers that side in full.

The two 13+ routes

This is the section most worth reading twice. Dulwich runs two routes into Year 9, and they are different assessments on different timetables.

Deferred Entry is the one the College describes in most detail, and the route where it states plainly that it does not use the ISEB pre-test. That is worth knowing if your son is also applying to schools that do, Eton being the obvious one, because the ISEB preparation they need does not carry across, and the Dulwich assessment is a completely different paper.

Overseas candidates sitting the Year 9 entry route take the reasoning papers on paper rather than online.

The Junior School: 7+ to 10+

Junior School entry runs in two stages.

Stage 1, on Saturday 28 November 2026, is a set of adaptive digital assessments in maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning taken in small groups, plus short written assessments in creative writing and maths. The session includes an outdoor play break with a snack, which tells you something about how the day is pitched.

Stage 2 follows in January, on Thursday 7 January 2027 for Year 3 and Saturday 9 January for Years 4 and 5. It is a one-to-one literacy and numeracy assessment with a member of Junior School staff, plus collaborative activities.

Year 3 is the main point of entry, with about 30 places, over half of which go to children continuing from DUCKS. Years 4 and 5 offer three to five and eight to ten places respectively, filling those left by leavers. Year 6 has occasional places in some years; register your interest with the College.

16+ entry

About 40 new boys join a Year 12 cohort of around 250.

The academic requirement is specific enough to check yourself: 65 points at GCSE, counted by adding the grades achieved, with a grade 8 or above in English Language, Mathematics and in every subject chosen for A Level.

Candidates sit written examinations in each of the three A Level subjects they have chosen, with three exceptions:

• Art, and Design & Technology: a portfolio rather than a written paper
• Computer Science: strong performance in mathematics, with programming experience shown at interview
• Physical Education: a group interview rather than a written paper

Registration closes at midday on Friday 16 October 2026. UK examinations are on Wednesday 11 November 2026, overseas examinations run from 25 October to 8 November, interviews are held from 23 to 27 November, offers come on or before Friday 4 December, and acceptances are due by Friday 11 December 2026.

Fees for 2026-27

All figures include VAT.

Lunches are included for Years 3 to 8 only. DUCKS runs separately: £6,336 a term for a Kindergarten school day, £7,922 for a full day, £7,227 for full-time Pre-Reception and £7,950 for Reception to Year 2. Boarders in Year 9 and above who need visa sponsorship pay £200 plus VAT a term.

Scholarships

Every applicant at Year 7 and Year 9 is automatically considered for an academic scholarship. There is no separate application and nothing to opt into.

The ceiling matters more than any individual figure: the combined value of scholarships awarded to any one boy cannot exceed one third of tuition fees. Adding two awards together does not get you past that.

Scholarships are not means-tested, and they can be topped up with a bursary where a family needs it, which families often assume is not allowed.

Music auditions for Years 7 and 9 are on Saturday 9 and Saturday 16 January 2027. Art and Design & Technology portfolios are submitted digitally between 27 November and 2 December 2026, with shortlisted candidates interviewed on 23 January 2027. Sport interview days are 18 and 19 January 2027 for Year 7, 22 January for Year 9, and the week of 23 November 2026 for Year 12.

Bursaries

Dulwich made over 210 bursary awards in 2025-26, spending £5.5 million.

The College's published guidance points to a combined gross household income below £110,000, savings and discretionary spending below £10,000, one residential property whether mortgaged or rented, and no frequent or expensive holidays, luxury cars or major home improvements.

Read those as indications rather than cut-offs. Each application is assessed on its own circumstances, and a family just outside one of them should still apply rather than rule themselves out.

An award covers all or part of tuition fees and text books. A full award also covers lunches, bus travel, a uniform allowance, music lesson trials up to £250 a term and examination fees.

Applying is a tick box on the online registration form. A link to the bursary form follows in early November and must be returned by the end of November, and awards are announced alongside admission offers. Bursaries are available at Years 7, 9 and 12. Boarding places are also supported through the Royal National SpringBoard Foundation.

Access arrangements

If your son has a diagnosis that affects how he works, Dulwich needs the evidence at registration, not later. Specifically it asks for a letter or report from CAMHS, an HPC-registered psychologist, a medical consultant, a psychiatrist or a Speech and Language Therapist. Separately, it wants a letter from his current school stating his normal way of working.

Both parts matter. A diagnosis without the school letter does not establish what he normally does, and the school letter alone does not establish the diagnosis.

Any change must be reported no later than ten days before the examination. That deadline catches people, because it applies to changes as well as to the original application: an assessment that comes through in late November still needs reporting before the December exam rather than mentioned on the day.

Free 11+ preparation if your son is eligible

Dulwich partners with Atom Learning to give free 11+ and Key Stage 2 preparation to pupils in Years 5 and 6 who are in receipt of the Pupil Premium: practice questions, learning resources, mock tests and past papers. The £200 registration fee is waived for the same families.

We sell tutoring, so it is worth saying plainly: if your son qualifies, take this first. It costs nothing, it is built for the assessment he is actually sitting, and there is no sense paying for something you have been offered free.

Preparing for Dulwich, in Dulwich

Our tutors live in and around Dulwich, East Dulwich, West Dulwich and nearby South London, and every one of our Dulwich tutors is a Dulwich College alumnus who sat the assessment your son is preparing for.

In-person lessons work by arrangement: you travel to your tutor, or you meet somewhere convenient to them. We do not run a tuition centre, there are no group classes or drop-in sessions, and tutors do not teach in your home. If a centre with a timetable is what you are looking for, we are not that. Online lessons are available anywhere in the UK and are what most families outside the immediate area choose.

How to prepare

Get the entry point right first. The two 13+ routes are different exams sat two years apart, and the Junior School stages have almost nothing in common with the Year 7 assessment. Preparing for the wrong one is easy to do and expensive to discover late.

Practise on screen. Three of the six sections adapt, they behave nothing like a printed paper, and being comfortable with the interface is worth real marks. Accuracy in the opening questions of each adaptive section matters more than it would on a fixed paper, for the reasons above. Then practise the writing task on paper, because that part is handwritten.

Do not skip Puzzles and Problem Solving or Creative Comprehension. They are 35 of the 105 minutes, they are the two sections generic 11+ courses leave out, and they are where prepared candidates most often lose ground to unprepared ones.

Leave time to fix foundations before anything is timed. Most families we work with start around eighteen months out, which for the 11+ means the spring or summer of Year 5. Later is workable and common, and it changes the plan rather than ruling anything out, but the two unusual sections are the ones that need the run-up.

Our Dulwich College page has the shorter version, with the assessment tables and every date on one screen.

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