How to prepare for The Godolphin and Latymer School 11+

The exam at a glance

For Year 7 entry in September 2028, The Godolphin and Latymer School says applicants sit a London 11+ Consortium entrance examination. ElevenReady’s verified information for 2028 entry confirms that the test uses a consortium-set paper and that parents should expect preparation across all four usual areas: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Because consortium papers can vary in the exact subject mix and structure from one school or sitting to another, it is sensible to check the school’s own admissions page again when the 2028 registration form is released.

The school’s admissions information for the most recent published cycle shows that girls may be offered one of two test dates. After the written exam, shortlisted candidates are invited back for interview, and there are separate music scholarship auditions for families applying on that route. In practice, that means the admissions process is usually in stages: registration, the written paper, shortlisting, interview and then offers.

The school’s website does not clearly state on the published 11+ page whether the test is paper-based, computer-based or delivered in mixed format, so parents should treat delivery as to be confirmed until the school publishes the entry paperwork for 2028.

School type: independent day school for girls
Entry point covered here: 11+ for Year 7
Exam for 2028 entry: London 11+ Consortium paper
Subjects to prepare: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Likely process: written exam first, then interview for shortlisted candidates
Delivery: not confirmed on the school’s published admissions page

Registration and key dates

For this school, registration is run by the school itself, not a local authority. The school’s 11+ admissions page says the examination entry form is issued in September/October. For the latest published cycle, the application for Year 7 entry had to be submitted by noon on Friday 6 November 2026, with a £210 registration fee. The school also gave two possible exam sittings for that cycle: Friday 27 November 2026 or Tuesday 1 December 2026.

If you are planning for 2028 entry, treat those as the most useful guide currently available. In other words, registration paperwork is usually issued in September or October, the deadline is likely to fall in early November, and the written exam is typically in late November or early December. Do still check the school page carefully as soon as the 2028 cycle opens, because independent schools can change dates year to year.

The same published admissions information gives further dates for the later stages of the process in the current cycle: bursary assistance applications by noon on Friday 13 November 2026, interviews on Friday 15 January 2027, music scholarship auditions on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 January 2027, offers on Friday 12 February 2027 and acceptance by noon on Wednesday 3 March 2027.

Parents applying for financial help should note that the school offers means-tested bursaries of up to 110% of fees. If that may be relevant to your family, read the bursary guidance early so that you are ready with any financial documents the school asks for.

Who you register with: The Godolphin and Latymer School
How: the school issues its examination entry form in September/October
Registration fee: £210
Latest published deadline: noon Friday 6 November 2026
Latest published exam dates: Friday 27 November 2026 or Tuesday 1 December 2026
Latest published offers date: Friday 12 February 2027

If you want a simple reminder system, you can also sign up for Free email alerts for this school's key dates.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

The Godolphin and Latymer School is an independent school, so entry is not run through a grammar-school catchment system. On the published Year 7 admissions page, the school does not set out a state-style catchment area for 11+ entry. Instead, admission is through the school’s own assessment and selection process.

The school’s broader admissions information explains that financial support is available through means-tested bursaries, and ElevenReady’s verified information confirms that bursaries can cover up to 110% of school fees. That is worth knowing early, because bursary applications usually have their own deadline in the autumn and often involve separate forms and evidence.

The school’s published pages reviewed for this guide did not clearly state the number of Year 7 places offered each year, nor any published cut-off score, pass mark or distance rule. If you are looking for those figures, the safest assumption is that the school does not publish them in the material currently available online. Check the admissions page directly each year rather than relying on forum estimates.

In practical terms, families should think about three strands of competitiveness here:

Academic performance in the consortium entrance paper
Interview readiness if shortlisted
School fit, including whether your child seems likely to thrive in a busy, academically strong independent girls’ school

Because there is no local-authority allocation system for this school’s Year 7 offers, families should follow the school’s own deadlines closely and make sure all supplementary steps, including bursary or scholarship applications where relevant, are completed on time.

A month-by-month preparation plan

For most Year 5 families, a calm start in the spring or early summer is enough. You do not need to recreate school at home. What matters most is steady habit, secure core skills and a gradual move into timed work in the run-up to the exam.

January to March (Year 5)

Keep it light: around 1 to 2 hours a week in total is plenty. Focus on reading quality fiction and non-fiction, secure arithmetic, times tables, mental maths and a first look at vocabulary-based Verbal Reasoning and pattern-based Non-Verbal Reasoning. At this stage, do not worry about speed.

April

Increase slightly to 2 hours a week. Start identifying strengths and weaknesses by subject. In English, work on comprehension habits: retrieving evidence, inferring meaning and writing concise answers. In Maths, make sure number methods are reliable before moving into harder problem solving.

May

Move to 2 to 3 hours a week. Introduce short, untimed practice tasks in all four areas. Keep sessions brief and regular. One good pattern is four short sessions each week rather than one long Saturday block.

June

This is a sensible point to start more exam-shaped practice. Aim for 3 hours a week. Begin mixing subjects so your child learns to switch gears. You can also introduce mini timed sections of 10 to 15 minutes, especially for reasoning, where pace matters.

July

Stay at 3 to 4 hours a week. Use the summer term to build familiarity rather than pressure. Complete a first full paper in each subject area over time, but treat these as diagnostics. Review mistakes carefully: was the issue knowledge, attention, timing or nerves?

August

Use the holiday sensibly. Around 3 to 4 hours a week is realistic for many families, with a few lighter weeks if you are away. This is often the best month for consolidating vocabulary, arithmetic fluency and reading stamina. Start doing some properly timed sections, but not every day.

September

Now move into more deliberate exam preparation at 4 to 5 hours a week. Once the school releases the current year’s registration materials, check whether it confirms anything more precise about paper structure. Begin doing timed papers in realistic conditions, followed by thorough review the next day.

October

Keep to 4 to 5 hours a week. This is usually the month to sharpen timing and technique. Alternate between full papers and targeted correction work. If interview preparation may be needed later, continue broad reading and gentle conversation practice, but do not let that distract from the written test.

November

In the final weeks, quality matters more than volume. Stick around 4 hours a week, tapering slightly in the last few days. Focus on confidence, routines and accurate execution. Avoid cramming new topics. A child who feels steady and rested will usually perform better than a child who is over-drilled.

Build accuracy first
Introduce timing gradually
Review every mistake properly
Keep one day each week free from 11+ work
Protect reading for pleasure throughout

Subject by subject: what to practise

Because the consortium format can vary, prepare across all four usual areas unless the school later confirms otherwise.

Maths

Focus on secure Key Stage 2 arithmetic first: place value, the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures and multi-step word problems. For independent-school papers, the challenge is often not obscure content but applying familiar maths carefully under time pressure.

Practise mental arithmetic daily in short bursts
Work on word problems with more than one step
Get comfortable choosing the right method independently
Check working neatly so errors are easier to spot

A good routine is one fluency task, one reasoning task and one review task each week.

English

English preparation should cover both comprehension and writing control. In comprehension, children should be able to retrieve information, explain vocabulary in context, infer character and mood, and support answers with evidence. In writing, focus on clarity, sentence control, punctuation accuracy and thoughtful vocabulary rather than forced sophistication.

Read demanding fiction and non-fiction regularly
Practise answering in full but concise sentences
Build vocabulary through reading, not word lists alone
Write short pieces with clear structure: opening, development, ending

It is also helpful to practise proofreading, since small technical errors can creep in under pressure.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning usually rewards familiarity with recurring question types and careful timing. Children often improve well once they learn how each task works. Vocabulary matters here too, so wide reading remains useful.

Practise codes, sequences, letter patterns and word relationships
Build speed only after methods are understood
Keep an error log of question types that repeatedly go wrong
Strengthen spelling and word knowledge alongside formal practice

If your child finds VR difficult, keep sessions short and frequent rather than long and draining.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning is about recognising visual patterns, transformations and spatial rules. Many children need explicit teaching at first because the style can feel unfamiliar. Once the common patterns are known, regular timed practice helps.

Practise rotations, reflections, symmetry and shape sequences
Learn to scan systematically for one changing feature at a time
Use brief, repeated sessions to build visual stamina
Review wrong answers by identifying the exact rule missed

Children often gain confidence quickly in NVR once they stop guessing and start checking for pattern rules in a fixed order.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used as a learning tool, not just a score generator. Start with untimed or lightly timed work so your child can understand the style. Only later should you move to strict timings and full exam simulations.

A sensible sequence is:

Learn the question types
Do short practice sets by topic
Try mixed sections under light timing
Sit full papers under realistic conditions
Spend as long reviewing as you spent completing the paper

When reviewing, sort mistakes into four groups: knowledge gap, misunderstood question, timing problem or careless slip. That makes the next week’s practice much more productive.

For this school, use these free resources:

If you use mock exams, treat them as rehearsal, not judgement. They can help with pacing, stamina and nerves, but they are only helpful if followed by calm feedback and a clear plan for what to improve next.

One final tip: do not burn through every paper too early. Keep some fresh material for the six to eight weeks before the exam, when realistic timed practice becomes most valuable.

On the day

Keep the morning simple. Your child does not need last-minute teaching. They need predictable routine, a decent breakfast, plenty of travel time and a calm parent.

Check the reporting instructions the night before
Pack any required documents and stationery if the school asks for them
Aim to arrive with time to spare, without rushing
Avoid doing a full paper that morning
If your child likes a warm-up, use only a few easy questions

Helpful reminders for children are usually practical rather than motivational: read the instructions carefully, keep an eye on time, move on if stuck and return later if allowed, and check work if there is time at the end.

After the exam, try not to conduct a detailed post-mortem in the car home. Most children feel better if they can decompress, eat something and move on with the day.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

For The Godolphin and Latymer School, the process is the school’s own admissions cycle rather than local-authority National Offer Day. In the latest published timetable, shortlisted candidates were interviewed in January and offers were made in February, with acceptances due in early March.

If your child is not offered a place, the next step depends on the school’s own admissions policy and communications for that year. Independent schools may operate waiting lists, and they also have their own complaints or appeals procedures rather than the statutory school-admission appeal system used for state schools. The school’s terms and admissions documents for the relevant year are the right place to check.

If you are also applying to state schools, keep those applications and deadlines completely separate in your planning. Many families apply to a mix of independent and state schools, but the systems run on different timetables and rules.

For bursary applicants, make sure you follow any additional requests for financial evidence promptly after the exam, as that process can run alongside the academic admissions timetable.

What has changed recently

The clearest recent published point is that the school’s latest Year 7 admissions information gives two possible written exam sittings for the current cycle, on 27 November 2026 and 1 December 2026, rather than a single date. The same published information also sets out separate dates for interviews, music scholarship auditions, offers and acceptances. Families should therefore expect a staged process and should check whether the school keeps the same arrangement for 2028 entry.

ElevenReady’s verified information also confirms that for 2028 entry the exam is a consortium-set paper via the London 11+ Consortium. If the school later publishes a more detailed breakdown of the exact paper mix or delivery method, use that as the final word for your child’s sitting.

Beyond that, no other clearly announced recent change to exam board, catchment, places or admissions rules was found on the school pages reviewed for this guide.

Frequently asked questions

Does The Godolphin and Latymer School use the London 11+ Consortium exam?

Yes. ElevenReady’s verified information for 2028 entry confirms a consortium-set paper via the London 11+ Consortium.

What subjects should my child prepare for?

Prepare for Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning unless the school later publishes a narrower subject mix for your child’s sitting.

When do registrations usually open?

The school says the examination entry form is issued in September/October. For 2028 entry, check the school’s admissions page from early autumn 2027 onward.

What is the registration deadline?

The latest published deadline is noon on Friday 6 November 2026 for the current cycle. Check the school website for the 2028 deadline when it is released.

How much is the registration fee?

The school’s published 11+ admissions information gives a £210 registration fee.

Does the school have a catchment area?

The published 11+ admissions information reviewed for this guide does not set out a state-style catchment area. Admission is through the school’s own independent-school process.

Are bursaries available?

Yes. ElevenReady’s verified information confirms means-tested bursaries of up to 110% of school fees, and the school publishes a separate bursary application deadline.

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Sources

The Godolphin and Latymer School – 11+ Entry: School runs Year 7 registration itself; examination entry form is issued in September/October; latest published deadline noon Friday 6 November 2026; latest published exam sittings Friday 27 November 2026 and Tuesday 1 December 2026; bursary assistance application deadline noon Friday 13 November 20
The Godolphin and Latymer School – Home: School is an independent girls’ school in Hammersmith; general school identity and context.

Preparing for other schools in Hammersmith and Fulham

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.