Exam format not yet verified. We have not confirmed this school's exam board or paper format from an official source. Where this guide describes the test, treat it as a working assumption and check the school's admissions page before relying on it.
The exam at a glance
Ditcham Park School is an independent coeducational day school near Petersfield for children aged 2½ to 16. For Year 7 entry, the school says candidates are assessed through an entrance test and a report from their current school.
For 2028 entry, our working assumption, not yet verified with the school, is that the test uses the school’s own paper in a GL-style format covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. That means preparation should be balanced across all four areas, with children getting used to standard timed sections and learning to keep accuracy steady when working at pace.
The school’s admissions page confirms that senior school applicants sit an entrance examination and that places are also informed by a school report. The website does not clearly publish a detailed minute-by-minute test timetable or whether the test is taken on paper or digitally, so parents should check directly with admissions when registering.
- Board/format: school’s own paper, GL-style across four subjects
- Subjects: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
- Other admissions evidence: report from the child’s current school
- Delivery: not clearly stated on the school website
In practice, children preparing for this kind of test should expect short, timed sections rather than one long paper. The key skill is not just knowing the content, but moving calmly between different question styles without losing concentration.
Registration and key dates
Ditcham Park School handles its own admissions. The school’s admissions page includes both an online and a print admissions registration form, both dated 18 September 2026. That tells parents that registration is made directly with the school rather than through a local authority testing portal.
For Year 7 entry, the school’s website says pupils from Year 7 onwards are required to pass an entrance test and submit a report from their current school. However, the site page available at the time of writing does not clearly publish a separate Year 7 registration deadline, exam date or results date for 2028 entry.
Because this is an independent school, it is sensible to contact admissions early in Year 5 or at the start of Year 6 to ask:
- which registration form to use for the relevant entry year
- whether any supporting documents are needed alongside the form
- the date of the entrance test
- when school reports are requested
- when decisions are normally issued
The admissions page also advertises an Autumn Open Morning on Saturday 26 September from 10am to 12pm. Open events can be a useful first step before registration, especially if your child has not yet visited the school.
If you want an easy place to monitor updates, see The Ditcham Park School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) and sign up for Free email alerts for this school's key dates.
As of this research, parents should treat exact 2028 entry dates as not yet published on the school website and check the admissions page directly.
Who can apply: catchment and admissions
Ditcham Park School is an independent school and does not operate a state-school-style catchment area. That means families do not need to live within a defined admissions boundary to apply.
The school’s website says that entry from Year 7 onwards depends on two main elements:
- passing the entrance test
- a report from the child’s current school
The school also publishes fees. From September 2026, the fee for Year 7 is £6,650 per term, and for Years 8 to 11 it is £7,448 per term. For many families, it is worth checking early whether there are any extras beyond tuition and whether any bursary or scholarship arrangements apply for your child’s year of entry, as these details can change.
The school website available at the time of writing does not clearly publish a fixed number of Year 7 places, a published pass mark, or any score threshold for admission. Independent schools often review candidates as a whole rather than publishing a standardised cut-off, so if you need detail on likely cohort size or oversubscription, contact admissions directly.
For parents, the practical takeaway is straightforward: there is no catchment hurdle, but there is still a genuine academic assessment. Preparation matters because your child will need to show secure all-round ability across English, Maths and reasoning, not just strength in one area.
A month-by-month preparation plan
For a child aiming for Year 7 entry in September 2028, the entrance test is expected in the autumn beforehand. A calm build-up across Year 5 and the start of Year 6 is usually much more effective than a last-minute rush.
January to March in Year 5
Keep it light: around 1 to 1.5 hours a week split across two or three short sessions. This is the stage for finding strengths and weaker areas. Start with untimed work in Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, focusing on method and accuracy rather than speed.
April to June in Year 5
Increase gently to 1.5 to 2 hours a week. By now your child should be seeing each subject regularly. Build arithmetic fluency, careful reading habits, vocabulary, and familiarity with common GL-style reasoning patterns. Introduce short timed bursts of 5 to 10 minutes, but keep most work teach-and-practise rather than test-only.
Summer holiday before Year 6
Aim for 2 to 3 hours a week, spread out. This is a good time to consolidate without school pressure. Work on consistency: one Maths session, one English session, one reasoning session, and one mixed review each week works well for many children. Toward the end of the summer, begin occasional timed sections so that pacing starts to feel normal.
September in Year 6
If the test is in the autumn, this is the point to move into exam-style practice. Around 3 to 4 hours a week is realistic for most children, provided sessions stay focused and not too long. Start using timed papers in sections first, then mixed papers. Review every mistake carefully: the learning is in the corrections, not just the score.
October in Year 6 until the exam
Keep work steady rather than intense. Two or three focused weekday sessions plus one paper or half-paper at the weekend is often enough. In the final fortnight, prioritise confidence, pacing and sleep over cramming. If your child is tiring or becoming anxious, reduce volume and focus on familiar question types done well.
A helpful rule of thumb: children usually make best progress when preparation feels regular and manageable. Small, repeated sessions nearly always beat occasional very long ones.
Subject by subject: what to practise
Maths
For a GL-style Maths section, children should be comfortable with core Key Stage 2 topics and able to answer neatly under time pressure. Typical areas include arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, measures, shape, perimeter, area, data handling and worded problems. Practise mental calculation and written working side by side. A child who knows the method but loses marks through rushing needs short timed sets; a child who is accurate but slow needs repeated practice on selecting the quickest sensible method.
Useful habits include underlining what a question is asking, estimating before calculating, and checking whether an answer is sensible. Many marks are lost through misreading rather than lack of knowledge.
English
English preparation should cover both comprehension and technical accuracy. In comprehension, focus on retrieving information precisely, understanding vocabulary in context, making simple inferences and supporting answers with evidence from the passage where appropriate. In SPaG-style work, children should revise punctuation, grammar, sentence structure and common spelling patterns.
Reading quality fiction and non-fiction regularly is one of the best ways to improve performance. It builds vocabulary, stamina and understanding of tone. For practice, choose short passages and ask your child to explain not just the answer but how they found it in the text.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning rewards familiarity. Common GL-style tasks often involve letter patterns, codes, sequences, word relationships, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms and logical manipulation of language. Children improve fastest when they learn the recurring question families and the method for each one.
Build a notebook of question types your child finds tricky. When an error appears, label the type and revisit it a few days later. This is much more effective than simply doing one paper after another.
Non-Verbal Reasoning
Non-Verbal Reasoning usually tests how well a child can spot visual patterns and rules. This can include shape sequences, rotations, reflections, symmetry, shading, position changes, codes and odd-one-out questions. Accuracy depends on method: encourage your child to look for one change at a time, such as shape, size, number, direction or shading.
Children often find NVR easier once they stop guessing from the overall look of a shape and start checking each feature systematically. Timed sets help later, but first make sure the child knows what they are looking for.
Practice papers and mock exams
Practice papers are most useful when they are used as a learning tool, not just a score tool. Start with individual sections by subject, then move to mixed practice, then to timed papers once your child knows the main question types. After every paper, spend as long reviewing mistakes as you spent completing it.
A good review routine is:
- mark the paper promptly
- sort mistakes into knowledge gaps, misreads and timing issues
- redo every incorrect question without time pressure
- note repeated patterns in an error log
- revisit those patterns later in the week
For Ditcham Park School-specific preparation, use Free Ditcham Park School practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers). You can also keep track of the latest school information in The Ditcham Park School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) and sign up for Free email alerts for this school's key dates.
If you use mock exams elsewhere, treat them as practice for timing, instructions and nerves rather than as a prediction. One mock score never tells the whole story. What matters more is whether your child learns from the experience and becomes more settled under timed conditions.
On the day
The most helpful approach on exam day is calm routine. Aim for an ordinary morning with a good breakfast, comfortable uniform or clothes if advised by the school, and enough time to arrive without rushing.
- check the reporting time and location the day before
- pack any requested items the night before
- avoid last-minute teaching on new topics
- keep conversation light and reassuring
- remind your child to listen carefully to instructions and move on if stuck
For the child, three simple reminders are enough: read each question carefully, keep an eye on time, and do not panic if one section feels hard. In selective tests, some questions are meant to stretch candidates. One difficult moment does not mean the paper is going badly.
After the exam, try not to conduct a detailed post-mortem on the journey home. Most children feel better if the day is treated as complete once they have finished.
After the exam: results, allocation and appeals
Because Ditcham Park School is an independent school, the process after testing is different from state grammar school national allocation. Families usually hear directly from the school about the outcome of the entrance process rather than through local authority school-offer day.
The school’s admissions page confirms that Year 7 entry depends on the entrance test and a current school report, but the website page reviewed does not clearly publish a formal results date, offer date or appeals timetable for Year 7 entry.
In practice, parents should expect to:
- receive the outcome directly from admissions
- be told the next steps for accepting a place if successful
- ask the school directly about waiting lists, reserve lists or any review process if a place is not offered
Independent schools do not always run a statutory appeals process in the same way as state schools, so if this matters to your decision-making, ask the school what review or appeal route is available and what deadlines apply.
What has changed recently
The clearest recent published update on the school website is the admissions registration material dated 18 September 2026, where the admissions page lists both an online and a print registration form for 2026–27. The same page also advertises an Autumn Open Morning on Saturday 26 September from 10am to 12pm.
The school’s fees page also shows updated fees from September 2026, including £6,650 per term for Year 7 and £7,448 per term for Years 8 to 11.
Beyond those published updates, we did not find a clearly announced recent change on the school website to the Year 7 entrance test board, catchment arrangements or published number of places.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ditcham Park School have a catchment area?
No. It is an independent school and does not use a state-school catchment area for Year 7 entry.
What subjects are in the Ditcham Park School entrance test?
For 2028 entry, the working assumption for this guide, not yet verified with the school, is a GL-style paper covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.
Does Ditcham Park School publish a pass mark?
We did not find a published pass mark or score threshold on the school website. Check directly with admissions for the latest information.
Who runs registration for the test?
Registration is handled by Ditcham Park School itself, using the forms on its admissions page rather than a local authority portal.
Are Year 7 places offered based only on the exam?
No. The school says entry from Year 7 onwards depends on passing the entrance test and a report from the child’s current school.
How early should my child start preparing?
For an autumn Year 6 test, many children do well starting gently in Year 5, then increasing practice through the summer before Year 6.
Sources
- Ditcham Park School Admissions: School is an independent day school near Petersfield for boys and girls aged 2½-16; senior entry from Year 7 onwards depends on passing an entrance test and a report from the child's current school; admissions are handled by the school; admissions page lists online and print admissions registration
- Ditcham Park School Fees: From September 2026, Year 7 fees are £6,650 per term and Years 8 to 11 fees are £7,448 per term.
- Ditcham Park School website: School website confirms Ditcham Park School is an independent coeducational school near Petersfield.
Preparing for other schools in Hampshire
- How to prepare for the Ballard School 11+ · practice papers
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Written by ElevenReady from the school's published information and reviewed by a person before publishing. Last reviewed 4 October 2026. Exam arrangements change. Check the school's admissions page for the current year.