Westminster School

Westminster School admissions guide

How Westminster 11+ entry works, and why it secures a place at both schools with no further testing at 13+. The three stages, the dates and the ISEB rule.

By Richard and Freddie, who joined The Perse in 2019 and left in 2026 after Year 13 to become expert admission tutors.
Last checked 18 August 2026

Most families treat an 11+ offer as provisional, with a 13+ hurdle still to come. At Westminster that is not how it works. The School says that pupils who come through the 11+ have secured entry to both schools, and that they move from the Under School into Westminster School in Year 9 with no further entry testing.

So the 11+ is the whole competition. This guide covers what that round involves, when it falls, and what the other entry points are for.

The 11+ secures both schools

Westminster's own 11+ page puts it plainly:

Pupils have secured entry to both schools. They enter the Under School in Year 7 before progressing to Westminster School in Year 9, with no further entry testing.

Two things follow from that. A family that holds preparation back for a Westminster 13+ is preparing for something that will not test their child. And a family weighing the 11+ against waiting for 13+ is not choosing between two bites at the same cherry: they are choosing between a round that settles it and a separate, later, smaller round.

The three stages

Westminster publishes the format of all three, which is more than several schools manage.

Stage 1 is sat at Westminster, or at your child's own school where that has been approved.

The Stage 2 maths paper is described as testing the ability to apply mathematics in the context of problem solving, which is a different thing from arithmetic fluency and is worth preparing as such. The English paper covers reading and writing: comprehension, descriptive writing and short reviews. Reviews in particular reward a child who has an opinion and can defend it, which most 11+ preparation never asks for.

Stage 3 is two interviews rather than one, and the School says it is looking for genuine interests and enthusiasms. That is not code for anything. A child who actually cares about something and can talk about it does better than one who has been coached into caring about the right things.

The ISEB rule that catches people out

This is not specific to Westminster, but this is often where a family meets it:

The tests can only be taken once for all schools applied for, and children cannot re-sit them.

One sitting covers your whole list. So the pre-test cannot be used as a warm-up for the schools further down it, and a rushed run at it costs you everywhere at once rather than only here. If time is short, the honest planning conversation is about the whole list rather than about Westminster in isolation.

Dates and registration

Registration opens on 1 September two years before entry, and closes on 30 September the following year.

That is a twelve-month window, which sounds generous and behaves like a trap. Deadlines that feel far away are the ones families let slide, and this one closes more than a year before your child sits anything. Put it in the calendar the moment you start considering the school.

Every entry point

The number names the assessment rather than the year group your child joins. A child sitting the 11+ is in Year 6 at the time.

Note that 13+ is still screened by the ISEB pre-test in Year 6, so it is not a later decision in the way the name suggests. If your child is at a prep school and you are choosing between the two routes, both involve being assessed in Year 6; the difference is which school they join first and when.

Fees and financial support

Westminster publishes its fees and its bursary and scholarship arrangements on its own pages, and both change annually, so check those rather than any secondary source including this one. Families applying for a bursary may qualify for a waiver of the registration fee through the Bursar's Department.

How to prepare

Get the pre-test right first. It is one sitting for your whole list, it cannot be re-sat, and it is the filter that decides whether your child ever reaches the January papers. Everything else is downstream of it.

For Stage 2, practise applied maths rather than drilled arithmetic, and practise writing something with a view in it. Forty minutes is not long, and a child who has only ever written descriptively will struggle to produce a short review with an argument in it under time.

For Stage 3, rehearse the format and leave the content alone. Two interviews in one visit is more tiring than most children expect, and the second one is where a coached answer starts to show.

On timing: most families we work with start twelve to eighteen months out, which for the 11+ means the spring or summer of Year 5. That leaves room to build the underlying English and maths before anything is timed.

Our Westminster School page has the shorter version, with the three stages and every date on one screen.

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