How to prepare for the King's College Taunton 11+

The exam at a glance

For September 2028 entry into Year 7 at King's College Prep, the school says candidates are normally invited to visit the school, attend a taster day, complete the school's assessments and provide a reference from their current school. The school describes this as its own admissions process rather than a consortium or national 11+ test.

The important point for parents is that King's College Taunton sets its own assessment. At the time of writing, I could not verify from official published sources which subjects are tested, how long the assessments last, whether they are written or computer-based, or the exact structure of the day. Because of that, it is best to treat this as a school-led assessment process rather than a standardised 11+ in a fixed format.

What the day usually seems to involve, based on the school's admissions information, is a combination of getting to know the child in school and checking current attainment through internal assessment. That means preparation should focus on secure core skills, calm exam habits and making sure your child can settle well in an unfamiliar school setting.

Board/provider: the school's own assessment process
Format: not officially published in detail
Subjects: not officially published in detail
Delivery: not officially published in detail
What else is involved: school visit, taster day and current-school reference

If you want the latest confirmed detail, keep checking the school's admissions page and the ElevenReady school page here: The King's College Taunton 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).

Registration and key dates

King's College Prep does not appear to run Year 7 entry through a local-authority 11+ portal. Instead, the admissions process is handled directly by the school. The Year 7 admissions page says entry is possible into all year groups and that the school will consider applications throughout the academic year as well as for September entry.

For Year 7, the school says applicants typically:

make contact with admissions and arrange a visit;
attend a taster day;
sit the school's assessments; and
provide a reference from their current school.

I could not verify a published registration opening date, deadline, assessment date or results date for 2028 entry from the official pages available. Because this is an independent school with rolling entry points, dates may be more flexible than in grammar-school systems. That said, families aiming for a September 2028 start should contact the school early in Year 5 or at the start of Year 6 so there is time for a visit, assessment and reference.

What to do now

Contact the school's admissions team directly via the admissions route on the school website.
Ask what documents they currently require for Year 7 applications.
Ask when assessment days are being held for your child's entry year.
Check whether a taster day is offered before assessment.
Ask when they normally notify families after assessment.

Because specific dates are not published in the sources I could verify, do not rely on assumed timelines. If you would like prompts when the school updates its dates, use Free email alerts for this school's key dates.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

King's College Prep is an independent co-educational day and boarding school for ages 4 to 13. For families considering Year 7, the school states that entry is possible into all year groups and that applications can be considered during the academic year as well as for September.

On the admissions pages I could verify, there are no published catchment or priority-area rules. That is typical for many independent schools: admission is based on the school's own process rather than where you live. I also could not verify a published number of Year 7 places, oversubscription rules or any score threshold for assessment.

In practice, this means parents should focus on:

whether King's College Prep is the right fit for their child;
arranging a visit early enough to understand the school;
preparing for the school's own assessments in a broad, sensible way; and
making sure the current school can provide a timely reference.

If you need a place-specific admissions answer, such as whether a year group currently has space or how many assessment rounds are run, the school's admissions team is the right first contact because those details were not published in the official pages I reviewed.

A month-by-month preparation plan

Because King's College Taunton uses its own assessment process and does not publish a detailed test specification on the pages I could verify, the safest plan is to build strong Year 5 and early Year 6 fundamentals without over-coaching. For a child aiming for assessment in the autumn before Year 7 entry, this usually means steady work through Year 5 and a gentle ramp-up over the summer.

January to March of Year 5

Keep it light and regular: 1 to 2 hours a week in short sessions is usually plenty. Focus on reading fluency, comprehension discussion, secure arithmetic and tidy written work. If your child is not yet a confident independent reader, this is the stage to fix that.

Read widely: fiction, non-fiction and quality children's journalism.
Revise times tables and number facts until recall is quick.
Build habits of showing workings clearly.
Encourage full-sentence written answers.

April to June of Year 5

Increase slightly to 2 to 3 hours a week. Start introducing more formal comprehension and maths problem solving. If the school offers open events, begin researching and plan a visit.

Practise reading a passage and explaining evidence from the text.
Work on multi-step maths questions, not just quick arithmetic.
Keep spelling, punctuation and grammar ticking over through normal schoolwork.
Help your child get used to concentrating for 20 to 30 minutes at a time.

July to August before Year 6

Use the summer sensibly: 2 to 4 hours a week is enough for most children. You are not trying to create exam fatigue. You are aiming for calm confidence by September.

Do a mixture of reading, written responses and maths review.
Practise working neatly under light time limits.
If your child tends to rush, slow them down and check accuracy.
If your child is hesitant, build confidence with shorter tasks first.

This is also a good point to contact the school if you have not already done so, especially as King's considers applications during the academic year.

September of Year 6

Move to 3 to 4 hours a week, split across several sessions. If the school gives you an assessment date, work backwards from it. Start doing occasional timed practice, but keep most work focused on quality and method.

One timed comprehension or written task each week.
One timed maths set each week.
One or two untimed review sessions correcting errors carefully.
Talk through interview-style questions about school, interests and learning, in case these come up informally on a visit or taster day.

October until the assessment

Keep things steady at 3 to 5 hours a week, depending on your child's energy and school workload. Do not suddenly double the workload. In the final fortnight, prioritise confidence, sleep and accuracy over new material.

Review common mistakes rather than chasing harder content.
Practise checking work at the end of a task.
Make sure your child knows what the day will look like: travel, timings and what to bring.
Keep routines normal and calm.

When to start timed papers? For this school, I would start only once core skills are reasonably secure, usually in the summer before Year 6, and even then in moderation. Because the school has not published a detailed test format on the sources I checked, overdoing narrow test practice may be less useful than broad academic readiness.

Subject by subject: what to practise

The school has not published a detailed subject list for its Year 7 assessments on the official pages I could verify. So rather than guess, it is better to prepare the areas most commonly looked at in independent-school admissions: reading, writing and mathematics, while treating any extra elements as school-specific.

English

Even where a school does not publish a paper breakdown, English preparation is usually valuable because it supports comprehension, written expression and confidence across the whole admissions process.

Practise reading carefully and answering in full sentences.
Work on retrieving facts, inferring meaning and explaining evidence from a passage.
Build vocabulary naturally through reading, not word lists alone.
Practise neat, structured writing: short descriptions, narratives and clear factual paragraphs.
Revise spelling, punctuation and grammar through real writing tasks.

Good practice is to ask your child not only what the answer is, but how they know. That habit helps in any school-set assessment.

Mathematics

For school-led assessments, strong arithmetic and clear reasoning matter more than trick questions. A child who can work accurately and explain a method is in a strong position.

Secure the four operations with whole numbers.
Revise fractions, decimals, percentages, measures and basic geometry at Year 5 level.
Practise multi-step word problems.
Encourage showing workings clearly and checking answers.
Use short timed tasks sometimes, but keep accuracy as the main goal.

If your child finds maths stressful, use mixed review little and often rather than long worksheets.

Reasoning or other school-set tasks

Because King's College Taunton has not published a detailed assessment specification in the sources I reviewed, I cannot confirm whether verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, interview tasks or group activities form part of Year 7 assessment. If the school provides updated guidance later, follow that rather than any generic 11+ formula.

Help your child listen carefully to instructions the first time.
Practise settling quickly into unfamiliar tasks.
Build resilience: if one question feels hard, move on and return later.
Encourage polite, confident conversation with adults during visits and taster days.

For the latest confirmed format details, keep an eye on The King's College Taunton 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).

Practice papers and mock exams

With a school-set assessment, practice papers are most useful when they build general readiness rather than trying to mimic a format the school has not published. Use them to strengthen reading stamina, maths accuracy and the habit of working carefully under light time pressure.

ElevenReady's free resources for this school are here:

How to use practice papers well

Start untimed. First make sure your child understands what the question is asking.
Mark together and look for patterns. Are mistakes caused by weak knowledge, rushing or misunderstanding instructions?
Redo errors a few days later. Improvement comes from correction, not from piling up new papers.
Only add timing gradually. A child who panics under the clock learns very little.
Stop before fatigue sets in. One carefully reviewed paper is better than three skimmed ones.

If you are considering an external mock, use it for experience and routine rather than as a predictor. For a school-set admissions assessment, a mock cannot tell you an official cut-off or likely pass mark, especially where the school does not publish one.

On the day

Children usually do best when the day feels familiar and manageable. The aim is not to create a sense of high stakes, but to help your child arrive calm, alert and ready to show their usual school ability.

Get everything ready the night before: clothes, stationery if requested, water and travel plan.
Allow extra journey time so you are not rushed.
Give a normal breakfast your child knows suits them.
Avoid last-minute cramming in the car; it usually raises anxiety and helps very little.
Remind your child to listen carefully to instructions and ask if they do not understand.
Tell them it is normal not to know every answer straight away.
Encourage neat working, sensible pacing and checking if time allows.

Because King's College Taunton also uses visits and taster experiences in its admissions process, remind your child that being polite, engaged and willing to join in matters too. They do not need to perform; they simply need to be themselves at their best.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

I could not verify a published results date or formal offer timeline for Year 7 assessment from the official pages I reviewed. As an independent school, King's College Taunton does not follow the local-authority National Offer Day system used for state secondary applications. Offers are typically handled directly by the school.

After assessment, families should expect the school to consider the overall application, which the published admissions page says includes the child's visit, taster day, assessments and current-school reference. If your child is successful, the school will explain the next steps for accepting the place.

If your child is not offered a place immediately, sensible questions to ask the admissions team are:

whether the year group is full;
whether a waiting list is kept;
whether the child may be reconsidered later in the year; and
whether there is a further opportunity to visit or reassess.

Formal statutory admission appeals are a feature of state-school admissions. For an independent school, any review or complaint process is set by the school itself, so parents should ask the admissions team what route is available if they want feedback or reconsideration.

What has changed recently

From the official sources and recent reputable coverage I could verify, I did not find any clearly announced change in the last two years to King's College Prep's Year 7 admissions format, catchment rules or published assessment structure. The admissions information available continues to present Year 7 entry as a school-run process involving a visit, taster day, assessments and a school reference.

Frequently asked questions

Does King's College Taunton use GL or CEM for Year 7 entry?

No official source I reviewed said that. The school presents Year 7 entry as its own assessment process, so it is best not to assume a standard 11+ provider unless the school publishes one.

What subjects are in the King's College Taunton 11+?

I could not verify an official published subject list for Year 7 assessment from the school's admissions pages. Prepare broadly in English and maths, and check the admissions page for any updated detail.

Is there a catchment area for King's College Prep?

I found no published catchment or priority-area rule on the admissions pages reviewed. As an independent school, applications appear to be handled without a catchment system.

When should we apply for Year 7 at King's College Taunton?

The school says it considers entry throughout the academic year as well as in September, but I could not verify a fixed published deadline for Year 7. Contact admissions early in Year 5 or at the start of Year 6 to ask about the assessment timetable for your child's entry year.

Does King's College Taunton interview children?

The official page I reviewed mentions a visit, taster day, assessments and a current-school reference. It does not clearly publish a formal interview requirement, so ask admissions what the current process includes.

When do results come out?

I could not verify a published results date from the official sources reviewed. Because this is an independent-school process, offers are handled directly by the school rather than through local-authority offer day.

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Sources

King's College Taunton – Joining from 11+ years old: Backs that Year 7 applicants typically visit the school, attend a taster day, complete the school's assessments and provide a reference from their current school; backs that the process is school-run; backs that entry is possible into all year groups and that the school will consider entry anytime t
King's College Taunton – Home page: Backs that King's College Prep is an independent co-educational boarding and day school for ages 4-13.

Preparing for other schools in Somerset

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.