How to prepare for the Derby High School 11+

The exam at a glance

Derby High School is an independent coeducational day school in Derby for ages 3 to 18. For Year 7 entry, the school runs its own admissions process rather than using a grammar-school consortium test.

For 2028 entry, the school sets its own assessment. At the time of writing, the school website pages we found do not clearly publish the assessment format, subjects tested, paper length or whether the test is sat on paper or digitally. That means it is safest to treat the process as school-specific and to check the admissions page directly before you build a revision plan around any one style of 11+ test.

What parents can rely on from the school’s published admissions information is the overall sequence: families enquire or visit, register with the school, and then children are assessed as part of the admissions process for entry into Senior School. Because this is an independent-school application, the experience is usually more personalised than a large shared 11+ sitting, and may also involve an interview, a school visit or a request for a recent school report. However, if any of those details matter for your child’s application year, do check them with the school rather than assuming they are fixed every year.

In practical terms, that means your preparation should focus on broad, secure Key Stage 2 skills first: careful reading, accurate arithmetic, clear written work, and confidence in unfamiliar questions. If the school later confirms a more specific assessment structure, you can then narrow your practice.

For the latest school-specific overview, keep an eye on The Derby High School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).

Registration and key dates

Derby High School handles its own admissions. The school’s admissions page invites families to make contact directly and provides an enquiry route for prospective pupils. The website also advertises open events, which are a useful first step if you are considering Year 7 entry.

For families targeting September 2028 entry, the school pages we found did not publish a full confirmed Year 7 timeline covering registration opening date, assessment deadline, assessment date and results date. Because of that, it would be wrong to give exact dates here.

What is published on the school website is a Senior and Sixth Form Open Morning on 3 October 2026, from 10am to 12.30pm. Open events often give the clearest current admissions information, so they are worth attending or asking about if a newer event has since been scheduled.

If the school has not yet released 2027–28 admissions dates when you read this, a sensible approach is:

register your interest with the school directly via the admissions contact form or admissions team;
ask when Year 7 assessment dates for your child’s cohort will be published;
ask what documents they require, such as a recent school report, predicted attainment information or proof of date of birth;
confirm whether there is an interview, a taster day or any supplementary assessment.

Because exact dates can change, parents may find it helpful to use Free email alerts for this school's key dates.

You can also check The Derby High School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) for updates once the school publishes them.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Derby High School is an independent day school, so entry is not run through the local authority’s coordinated grammar-school 11+ system. Families apply to the school itself.

The school website describes Derby High School as a coeducational school for children aged 3 to 18 and says it has over 690 pupils, including a sixth form. That gives parents some sense of scale, but the pages we found did not clearly state a fixed number of Year 7 places for each intake.

We also did not find an official published catchment area, distance rule or postcode priority system on the pages reviewed. In many independent schools, there is no state-school-style catchment requirement, but because admissions priorities can still include factors such as sibling links or availability in a particular year group, it is best to ask the school directly how places are allocated for your child’s entry year.

In short:

application is made directly to Derby High School;
no official catchment rule was confirmed in the sources reviewed;
no official published Year 7 place number was confirmed in the sources reviewed;
parents should check the school’s current admissions policy and ask the admissions team about availability and oversubscription for the relevant cohort.

If you want a quick starting point before contacting the school, see The Derby High School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).

A month-by-month preparation plan

Because the exact Derby High School assessment format is not currently confirmed on the published pages we found, the best plan is a steady build of strong Year 5 skills, followed by more specific practice once the school releases details.

12 months before the exam

Keep preparation light: around 1 to 2 hours a week in total.
Focus on reading stamina, mental arithmetic, tables, fractions, spelling and neat written presentation.
Read widely: fiction, non-fiction, newspapers for children and short information texts.
Attend an open event or register your interest with the school if possible.

9 months before the exam

Move to about 2 hours a week.
Identify any gaps in core maths and English from schoolwork.
Practise short comprehension tasks, vocabulary building and multi-step maths questions.
Start getting your child used to working carefully without lots of prompting.

6 months before the exam

Aim for 2 to 3 hours a week, split across a few short sessions.
If the school has published assessment details by this point, align your practice to them.
Begin short timed sections only if your child is already secure in the basics.
Keep one session each week for reading and one for arithmetic fluency.

4 months before the exam

Build to 3 hours a week if your child is coping well.
Introduce mixed practice: one piece of reading work, one maths task and one unfamiliar exercise.
Work on accuracy first, then speed.
If there may be an interview or informal meeting, encourage your child to speak about books, hobbies and school interests calmly and clearly.

2 to 3 months before the exam

Use 3 to 4 hours a week as a realistic upper range for most children in Year 5.
Start timed papers or timed sections only now if your child has the underlying skills.
Mark work carefully and keep an error log: rushed mistakes, misunderstood instructions, weak vocabulary, calculation slips.
Practise starting calmly, moving on from a tricky question and checking work at the end.

The final month

Do not suddenly increase the workload.
Use one or two realistic practice runs each week, not daily papers.
Keep school homework, sleep and downtime steady.
Revisit weak topics and confidence-building material rather than trying to cover everything.

The final week

Light revision only.
Check timings, travel and any documents the school has asked for.
Prioritise sleep, routine and calm reassurance.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Because Derby High School’s published pages did not clearly confirm the tested subjects for Year 7 assessment, parents should avoid overcommitting to a narrow 11+ format too early. Instead, practise the core areas most commonly useful in independent-school entry.

English

Work on fluent reading, precise understanding and clear written expression. Useful practice includes comprehension from fiction and non-fiction, vocabulary in context, spelling patterns, punctuation, sentence control and short structured writing. Encourage your child to explain answers using evidence from the text rather than guessing.

Good habits to build:

reading the full question before answering;
underlining key words in a passage;
using full sentences where needed;
checking punctuation and capital letters at the end.

Mathematics

Prioritise secure arithmetic and problem-solving. Children sitting selective assessments often lose marks on basics rather than on the hardest questions, so accuracy matters. Cover number facts, the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, place value, measures, time, shape and worded problems.

Good habits to build:

showing working clearly;
estimating before calculating;
checking whether an answer is sensible;
spotting the operation needed in multi-step problems.

Reasoning and broader problem-solving

The school has not officially confirmed whether verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning or other reasoning tasks are included. Until it does, treat reasoning as a way to build flexibility rather than as a guaranteed exam component. Short practice in patterns, logic, codes, sequences and language-based problem-solving can help children become more comfortable with unfamiliar questions.

If the school later confirms that reasoning is part of the assessment, you can then make this a larger share of weekly practice. Until then, keep it secondary to English and maths fundamentals.

Writing and interview readiness

Some independent-school admissions processes also value how a child communicates in writing and in person. Even where a formal interview is not confirmed, it is useful to help your child speak naturally about what they enjoy reading, what they like at school and how they approach learning. For writing, practise planning briefly, keeping handwriting legible and structuring an answer with a clear beginning, middle and end.

Practice papers and mock exams

When a school’s exact assessment format is not fully published, practice papers are best used to strengthen core skills and exam habits rather than to mimic every detail of the real test.

A sensible approach is:

start with untimed work so your child learns method and accuracy;
move to short timed sections once the basics are secure;
mark carefully and review mistakes together;
repeat weak areas a few days later to make sure the learning sticks;
use occasional full practice sessions to build stamina, not every weekend.

For school-specific resources, use Free Derby High School practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers). These are most useful when paired with The Derby High School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates), especially if the school publishes more detail later.

Mock exams can help if your child needs practice sitting still, working to time and recovering after a difficult question. They are less useful if taken too early or too often. One or two well-timed mocks, followed by proper review, are usually more valuable than a long run of exhausting papers.

Keep an eye on official school information as well as Free email alerts for this school's key dates, so your practice stays aligned with what Derby High School actually requires.

On the day

Keep the morning simple. Lay out clothes, stationery and directions the night before, and allow extra travel time so there is no last-minute rush.

Give your child a normal breakfast they know suits them.
Avoid doing difficult questions on the morning of the assessment.
Use calm, practical language: read carefully, do the questions you can, move on if stuck, check work if there is time.
Remind them that one hard section or one awkward question does not decide the whole outcome.

If the school has given specific arrival instructions, follow those rather than general 11+ habits. Independent schools sometimes include a welcome, a short wait for parents or a more individual timetable for the session.

After the assessment, try not to conduct a post-mortem in the car home. A snack, some rest and a change of subject are usually better than going over every question.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

Because Derby High School is an independent school, the post-exam process differs from state grammar-school allocation. There is no local-authority National Offer Day allocation in the usual grammar-school sense unless your child is also applying elsewhere through the state system.

Instead, the school normally assesses applicants through its own admissions route and then communicates outcomes directly to families. The exact timing for results or offers for the relevant Year 7 cohort was not clearly published on the pages we reviewed, so parents should ask the admissions team when decisions are usually sent.

If your child is offered a place, you may be asked to accept it by a stated deadline and possibly complete further paperwork. If your child is not offered a place, ask politely whether there is a waiting list and whether any feedback can be given.

Independent schools do not use the same statutory admissions appeal system as maintained schools and academies. If you are unhappy with an outcome, the right first step is to follow Derby High School’s own complaints or admissions procedure and ask the school what review options, if any, are available.

What has changed recently

From the sources reviewed, we did not find an officially announced recent change to Derby High School’s Year 7 assessment board, published test format, catchment rules or place numbers in the last two years.

What we did find is that the school website advertised a Senior and Sixth Form Open Morning on 3 October 2026 from 10am to 12.30pm. That is an event listing rather than an admissions-policy change, but it is still useful for parents seeking up-to-date information directly from the school.

If the school publishes a revised admissions process for 2028 entry, rely on that latest version rather than older forum posts or assumptions based on other independent schools.

Frequently asked questions

Does Derby High School use GL or CEM for Year 7 entry?

No official source we found confirmed GL, CEM or another external provider. For 2028 entry, treat it as a school-set assessment and check the school’s admissions page for current details.

What subjects are in the Derby High School 11+?

The school pages reviewed did not clearly confirm the tested subjects. Until the school publishes them, focus on strong English and maths fundamentals and ask admissions for the current assessment outline.

Is there a catchment area for Derby High School?

We did not find an official published catchment rule on the sources reviewed. As an independent school, applications are made directly to the school, so ask admissions how places are prioritised for your child’s year.

How many Year 7 places are available at Derby High School?

We did not find a confirmed published Year 7 place number in the sources reviewed. Contact the school directly for the latest availability and likely size of intake.

When should my child start preparing?

For most children, gentle preparation during Year 5 is enough at first. Start with reading, arithmetic and problem-solving, then increase timed practice only once the school has confirmed the assessment details or your child is secure in the basics.

Does Derby High School interview applicants for Year 7?

The published pages we reviewed did not clearly confirm whether every Year 7 applicant is interviewed. Ask the admissions team what the current process includes for your child’s entry year.

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Sources

Derby High School website: The school is a coeducational independent day school for ages 3 to 18; the site says it has over 690 pupils including a sixth form; the homepage advertises a Senior and Sixth Form Open Morning on 3 October 2026 from 10am to 12.30pm.
Derby High School Admissions: Admissions are handled directly by the school; families are invited to enquire or contact the school about admissions.

Preparing for other schools in Derby

Written by ElevenReady from the school's published information and reviewed by a person before publishing. Last reviewed 20 October 2026. Exam arrangements change. Check the school's admissions page for the current year.