How to prepare for the Salesian College 11+

The exam at a glance

Salesian College is an independent Catholic boys’ school in Farnborough with a co-educational sixth form. For Year 7 entry, the school’s admissions process includes an entrance examination, an informal family meeting with a Deputy Headteacher and a confidential reference from your child’s current school.

For 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information is that the assessment is set by the school. Official school information confirms that the entrance examination includes Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, English and a written task. The school also says the process includes an interview-stage family meeting in the autumn term of Year 6.

The school’s admissions information does not clearly publish a full paper-by-paper breakdown, exact timings for each section or a detailed running order for the test day on the page we found. Parents should therefore treat the school’s admissions page as the key reference point and check it again when registration opens for their child’s year.

Exam setter: the school’s own assessment
Subjects named by the school: Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, English and a written task
Delivery: mixed
Other parts of the process: family meeting with a Deputy Headteacher and a confidential school reference

In practical terms, that means preparation should focus on secure literacy and maths foundations, careful reasoning work and enough written practice for your child to produce clear, organised answers under pressure. Because the school sets its own assessment, it is sensible to prepare broadly rather than relying on one publisher’s style.

Registration and key dates

Salesian College runs its own admissions process. The school’s admissions pages ask families to complete its application process directly and explain that candidates for Year 7 entry sit the school’s entrance examination, attend an informal interview with family and provide a confidential school reference.

For the current admissions cycle we found the following verified dates on official school pages and materials:

Open Evening: 21 October 2026
Application deadline: 11 November 2026
Entrance examination: early January; the school’s published timeline and admissions material indicate 5 January 2027 for this cycle
Offers: by the end of January
Offer Holders’ Evening: in February
Deadline to confirm a place: 3 March 2027

For children starting Year 7 in September 2028, the exact dates may not yet be published. Based on the school’s current admissions information, families should expect the process to follow a similar pattern: open events in the autumn of Year 6, an application deadline in the autumn term, the entrance examination in early January of the year of entry, and offers by the end of January.

Documents and steps mentioned by the school include:

the school’s own application or registration process
a family meeting with a Deputy Headteacher
a confidential reference from your child’s current school

Because independent-school admissions can update from year to year, it is worth checking the school’s admissions page regularly and signing up for Free email alerts for this school's key dates. You can also bookmark The Salesian College 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) for updates.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Salesian College says it attracts pupils from a broad area rather than operating a narrow catchment in the way some state schools do. The school describes its intake as coming from places including Reading, Guildford, Ascot, Woking, Basingstoke, Farnham, Fleet, Camberley and Farnborough.

That is helpful for families coming from outside Farnborough itself: the school presents itself as drawing from a wide geographical area. However, parents should still read the admissions policy closely, because independent schools may apply their own oversubscription, faith or suitability criteria alongside entrance assessment performance and school references.

For Year 7 entry, the school’s published process includes:

an application to the school
an informal family meeting with a Deputy Headteacher
a confidential school reference
the entrance examination

We did not find an officially published pass mark, qualifying score, cut-off score or distance criterion for admission on the sources reviewed. If you are looking for the latest admissions policy detail for your child’s year, check the school’s admissions page directly.

As with many independent schools, the best way to judge suitability is to combine the formal criteria with a realistic look at your child’s academic profile, confidence in English and maths, and readiness for a selective exam in the spring term of Year 6.

A month-by-month preparation plan

Because the exam is typically held in early January of Year 6, most families do best by preparing steadily through Year 5 and the start of Year 6. The aim is not endless tutoring; it is calm, regular practice.

Month	What to do
January to March (Year 5)	Build habits. Spend 1 to 2 hours a week on core maths accuracy, reading comprehension, vocabulary and short reasoning tasks. Read widely every day.
April to May	Increase to 2 to 3 hours a week. Identify weaker areas early: arithmetic fluency, multi-step maths, vocabulary gaps, inference in reading, or slow working speed.
June	Begin mixing subjects in one sitting. Introduce one short timed task each week, but keep most work untimed while methods are still settling.
July	Move to 3 hours a week if your child is coping well. Add short written responses and one longer writing task every week or two. Start practising transitions between papers or sections.
August	Use the summer for consistency rather than overload. Aim for 3 to 4 hours a week across several short sessions. This is a good time for the first half-length or mixed mini-mock.
September	Step up structure. Work on timing properly now, especially for reasoning, reading and maths sections. One timed paper or one timed section each week is usually enough at first.
October	Consolidate. Sit more realistic timed practice, review errors carefully and keep one session each week for pure skills teaching rather than testing.
November	After registration deadlines, keep momentum but avoid panic. Aim for 4 hours a week in total, including timed work, corrections and one writing task.
December	Focus on polish. Practise exam stamina, neat working, checking strategies and calm starts. Reduce workload slightly in the final week or two so your child goes in fresh.
Early January	Light touch only: reading, mental maths, vocabulary review and early nights.

A useful rule of thumb is this: do not start full timed papers too early. In the first half of Year 5, most children gain more from learning methods properly than from racing the clock. Timed papers become more valuable from late summer onwards.

If your child is bright but anxious, keep sessions short and finish on a success. If your child is confident but careless, prioritise checking routines and showing method clearly. If your child is slower to warm up, use a five-minute starter in every session so they learn to settle quickly.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Because Salesian College sets its own assessment, the most sensible approach is broad preparation based on the subjects the school itself names.

Mathematics

Focus on secure Key Stage 2 content first: number facts, the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, averages, measures, perimeter, area and straightforward data interpretation. Then move on to multi-step problems, because selective independent-school maths often rewards careful reading as much as calculation.

Good practice includes:

mental arithmetic and times tables fluency
written methods done accurately and neatly
word problems with more than one step
checking whether an answer is sensible
showing method clearly, not just writing a final answer

If your child loses marks through rushing, train them to underline key numbers, estimate first and check the final line before moving on.

Verbal Reasoning

The school names Verbal Reasoning, but we did not find an official published breakdown of question types on the sources reviewed. For that reason, prepare broadly rather than narrowing down too soon. Build vocabulary every week and practise spotting patterns in language quickly.

Useful areas to cover include:

word relationships such as synonyms, antonyms and analogies
letter and word patterns
codes or sequences involving letters
careful reading of instructions
working accurately under time pressure

Vocabulary matters a great deal here. Daily reading and short word-study sessions often help more than large quantities of worksheets.

English

For English, prepare both comprehension and technical accuracy. A strong candidate should be able to read a passage carefully, retrieve information, explain meaning, infer feelings or motives and support answers from the text. Spelling, punctuation and grammar also need regular attention.

Practise:

reading fiction and non-fiction passages
answering in full sentences where needed
finding evidence in the text
explaining vocabulary in context
sentence control, punctuation and paragraphing

Children often improve fastest in English when they read a little every day and discuss what they have read out loud.

Written task

The school also specifies a written task. We did not find an official description of the exact format, so it is best to prepare your child for a range of possibilities: short discursive writing, descriptive writing, narrative writing or a structured response to a prompt.

Build confidence by practising:

planning quickly before writing
writing a clear opening and ending
organising ideas into paragraphs
varying sentence types without becoming overcomplicated
leaving time to check spelling, punctuation and missing words

Keep the emphasis on clarity and control. Examiners usually prefer a well-organised, accurate piece to something over-ambitious and unfinished.

Practice papers and mock exams

When a school sets its own paper, practice papers are most useful when they train skills rather than pretending to predict the exact exam. Use them to build stamina, timing, error-checking and confidence across the subjects the school has confirmed.

A sensible routine is:

teach the skill first
practise a small group of questions
time a short section
review every error carefully
repeat the same skill a week later to check it has stuck

Mock exams can help, especially in the autumn of Year 6, because they show whether your child can settle quickly, manage nerves and keep going when a section feels unfamiliar. After any mock, spend more time analysing mistakes than counting scores.

Use these ElevenReady resources as part of your preparation:

One final point: avoid doing full papers every weekend for months. That can make children score-conscious and tired. A smaller number of well-reviewed papers is usually far more effective.

On the day

Keep the morning simple. Lay out clothes, stationery and any paperwork the night before, and aim for a calm start rather than extra last-minute revision. A normal breakfast and plenty of time to travel are usually more helpful than one final worksheet.

Remind your child of a few practical habits:

listen carefully to instructions at the start of each section
if stuck, do not freeze for too long
keep handwriting legible
show working in maths
leave a short check at the end if time allows

For children who feel nervous, it helps to rehearse a simple reset routine: feet flat on the floor, slow breath in, slow breath out, read the question again. Familiar routines make an unfamiliar room feel manageable.

Parents can help most by staying matter-of-fact. The message to your child is: this is a chance to show what you can do, not a test of your worth.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

Salesian College’s admissions information for the current cycle says that offers are sent by the end of January, followed by an Offer Holders’ Evening in February. Families then need to confirm acceptance by the school’s stated deadline, which for the current cycle is 3 March 2027.

As an independent school, the process is different from local-authority secondary allocation on 1 March. The school communicates directly with families about outcomes and next steps. If your child is offered a place, read the offer paperwork carefully and note any acceptance deadline, deposit information or conditions set out by the school.

If your child is not offered a place, the best next step is to ask the school courteously whether it holds a waiting list and whether there is any further information about the admissions process for that year. We did not find a published independent appeals process on the sources reviewed, so parents should check directly with the school if they need clarification.

Try to keep perspective after results. One exam outcome does not define your child, and many families receive good news from more than one school later in the admissions season.

What has changed recently

From the official sources reviewed, we found the school’s currently published Year 7 admissions timeline for the 2027 entry cycle, including the autumn 2026 application deadline, early January 2027 entrance examination, end-of-January offers and March 2027 acceptance deadline. We did not find an official announcement of a change in exam board, format, catchment or admissions structure over the last two years beyond the publication of the current cycle’s timetable.

Because the school sets its own assessment, families should check the admissions page again when 2028 entry opens in case the school adds more detail about the papers or updates dates for the new cycle.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Salesian College entrance exam?

For the current cycle, official school information indicates an early January test date, with 5 January 2027 published for that year. For 2028 entry, check the school’s admissions page when dates are released.

What subjects are in the Salesian College 11+?

Official school information names Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, English and a written task. The school sets its own assessment.

Does Salesian College use GL or CEM?

We do not have official confirmation of GL, CEM or another commercial provider. The verified position is that the school sets its own assessment.

Is there a catchment area for Salesian College?

The school says it attracts pupils from a broad catchment area including towns such as Reading, Guildford, Ascot, Woking, Basingstoke, Farnham, Fleet, Camberley and Farnborough. We did not find a narrow distance-based catchment published in the sources reviewed.

Does Salesian College interview families?

Yes. The school says families are invited to an informal meeting with a Deputy Headteacher in the autumn term of Year 6 as part of the admissions process.

When do Salesian College offers come out?

For the current cycle, the school says offers are sent by the end of January. Exact dates for 2028 entry should be checked on the school website when published.

📄 Free Salesian College practice papers Start free and track readiness for Salesian College 🔔 Email me this school's key dates

Sources

Salesian College Admissions: Entrance Examination: The Year 7 admissions process includes an entrance examination, an informal family meeting with a Deputy Headteacher, and a confidential school reference; the exam is for admission to Year 7; the school sets its own admissions process directly.
Salesian College website: Salesian College is an independent Catholic boys’ school in Farnborough with a co-educational sixth form.
Salesian College Admissions: The school describes attracting pupils from a broad catchment area including Reading, Guildford, Ascot, Woking, Basingstoke, Farnham, Fleet, Camberley and Farnborough.

Preparing for other schools in Hampshire

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.