How to prepare for the Wellington School 11+ exam

The exam at a glance

For September 2028 entry, Wellington School uses a GL Assessment entrance assessment for Year 7 applicants. The assessment is computer-based and covers Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, so preparation needs to be broad rather than heavily focused on one subject.

For Year 7 admissions, the school’s process is wider than the online test alone. Wellington School says candidates also submit recent school reports, complete the online assessment at school, write a short handwritten piece and join an observed team-building activity. That means parents should think about preparation in two strands: academic fluency for the assessment itself, and confidence for the wider assessment day.

The school also runs Year 6 taster days for children interested in joining Year 7 during the Autumn Term. These are not the same thing as the entrance assessment, but they can help a child feel more familiar with the school environment before their formal assessment day.

Because the test is taken on screen and timed, children should get used to working accurately and briskly on a computer. Paper practice still helps for building skills, but it should be matched with screen-based practice so the format does not feel unfamiliar on the day.

Exam board	GL Assessment
Format	One computer-based assessment covering four areas
Subjects	Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Other assessment elements	Recent school reports, short handwritten task, observed team-building activity
Where it is taken	At Wellington School on the school’s assessment day

Registration and key dates

Wellington School manages Year 7 admissions directly through its own admissions process rather than through a local authority 11+ portal. The school’s Year 7 admissions page asks families to contact the Admissions Department, and the school’s registration form is available through its admissions area.

For the exact registration opening date, deadline and assessment day date for September 2028 entry, parents should check Wellington School’s Year 7 admissions page and contact admissions directly. At the time of writing, we have not found a published 2028 timetable on the school site, so it would be wrong to state exact dates here.

What the school does make clear is the overall sequence. Year 6 taster days take place in the Autumn Term. The online assessment is completed at Wellington School on the school’s assessment day. For successful applicants, a Welcome Evening is held in the summer before entry, and an induction day takes place the day before the start of term.

In practice, parents should do three things early:

Register interest with the school and ask to be kept informed about the Year 7 assessment cycle for 2028 entry.
Prepare supporting school information, including recent school reports, since the school says these form part of the admissions process.
Ask what paperwork is currently needed at registration, such as reports or any other supporting documents, because requirements can change from year to year.

If you want reminders as soon as the school publishes dates, you can use Free email alerts for this school's key dates. For a quick overview page, see The Wellington School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Wellington School is an independent co-educational day and boarding school for pupils aged 2 to 18. For Year 7 entry, it does not operate like a state grammar school with a local-authority allocation system based around a published 11+ standardised score. Instead, the admissions process is run by the school itself.

We have not found a published catchment area or distance-based priority rule on the school’s Year 7 admissions information. If the school applies any priority criteria, these are not clearly set out on the pages we reviewed, so parents should ask admissions directly rather than relying on assumptions.

Likewise, we have not found an official published figure for the number of Year 7 places available each year on the sources reviewed for this guide. As an independent school, Wellington School considers applicants through its own assessment and admissions process rather than through grammar-school-style pass marks or local authority cut-offs.

What is clear from the school’s published information is that Year 7 applicants are considered using several pieces of evidence:

recent school reports
an online GL Assessment completed at school
a short handwritten piece
an observed team-building activity

That broader approach matters. A child does not need to look flawless in every element, but they do need to arrive ready to engage sensibly, listen carefully and show they can cope with the pace of the assessment day.

If you need the latest school-published overview in one place, see The Wellington School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).

A month-by-month preparation plan

For a child aiming for Year 7 entry in September 2028, the assessment will be in the autumn of Year 6. A calm preparation plan usually works better than a late rush. The aim is steady skill-building, then familiarity with timing and screen-based work.

January to March of Year 5

Keep it light: around 1 to 1.5 hours a week split across short sessions. Focus on reading stamina, secure arithmetic, vocabulary growth and basic reasoning habits. At this stage, avoid lots of timed work. Build confidence first.

April to July of Year 5

Move to around 1.5 to 2 hours a week. Introduce each of the four tested areas separately so your child learns the question styles. Start very short timed bursts on screen: five or ten minutes is enough at first. The goal is not pressure; it is familiarity.

Summer holiday before Year 6

A good target is 2 hours a week, with plenty of breaks and days off. Use this period to plug gaps in number skills, comprehension and reasoning methods. If your child is new to GL-style questions, this is the right time to learn techniques. Keep sessions short and varied.

September of Year 6

Increase gently to about 2.5 to 3 hours a week. Begin mixed practice across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Now is the time to add proper timed sections, especially on screen. Review mistakes carefully: rushing past them is what slows progress later.

The month before the assessment

Use one or two realistic mixed papers each week, not one every day. Spend at least as much time reviewing as answering. Practise logging in, reading instructions calmly and moving on from tricky questions. If the school has offered a taster day, it can help your child feel more settled about the environment.

The final week

Reduce the volume. A little light practice, some reading, mental maths and an early night are usually more useful than cramming. Also prepare for the handwritten piece and team-building activity: talk about listening well, speaking politely and joining in, rather than trying to perform.

One practical rule helps most families: consistency beats intensity. Three short, focused sessions each week usually produce better results than one long weekend session that leaves everyone tired.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For Wellington School, Maths preparation should focus on secure Year 5 arithmetic and problem-solving carried out at speed on a computer. Children should be comfortable with the four operations, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, time and interpreting simple data. GL-style maths often rewards quick recognition of the method needed, so short timed drills are useful once understanding is secure.

Good practice includes mental arithmetic, one-step and multi-step word problems, checking methods and choosing when to move on rather than getting stuck. Because the assessment is computer-based, do some work on screen so your child gets used to reading carefully without circling or jotting beside every question.

English

English preparation should cover both reading and the wider language skills that GL assessments commonly draw on. Build vocabulary steadily, encourage careful reading of short passages and practise finding evidence for an answer. Children should also work on spelling patterns, punctuation awareness and understanding how words change meaning in context.

Alongside the online assessment, Wellington School also asks candidates to produce a short handwritten piece. That means your child should practise planning quickly, writing neatly enough to be read comfortably and expressing ideas in clear sentences. There is no need for overblown writing; simple, accurate and well-organised work is much more convincing.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning usually tests how well a child can spot patterns and relationships in language. Preparation often includes letter and word codes, synonyms and antonyms, sequences, classifications, vocabulary-based logic and instructions that must be followed precisely. The biggest gains usually come from learning the common question types, then practising accuracy before speed.

A practical approach is to keep a notebook of new vocabulary and recurring patterns. Encourage your child to identify exactly what the question is asking before answering. In timed work, the discipline of moving on from one difficult question can make a real difference.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning focuses on visual patterns rather than language-heavy content. Children commonly need to identify shape changes, rotations, reflections, codes, similarities, sequences and odd-one-out patterns. This is one area where method matters a lot: once a child knows what to look for, performance often improves quickly.

Practise by teaching your child to check the same features in order each time: shape, size, position, shading, number and direction. Because Wellington School’s assessment is taken on screen, it is worth including digital practice so visual scanning on a computer feels normal.

Practice papers and mock exams

Use practice papers to build familiarity, not to create panic. The best pattern is usually:

Learn the question type untimed.
Try a short timed set.
Review every mistake carefully.
Repeat the same type later to make sure the method has stuck.

For Wellington School, make sure practice reflects the actual balance of the assessment: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, completed on a computer. A child who only practises paper questions may still know the content but feel slower on screen.

Use full-length mixed papers sparingly. They are most useful in the final stretch, once your child already understands the question types. Earlier on, shorter targeted sets are better because they allow proper teaching and review.

Free resources for this school:

If you use mock exams, treat them as a diagnostic tool. Afterwards, ask:

Which question types are still unfamiliar?
Is timing the issue, or understanding?
Does your child lose marks through misreading?
Are screen-based tasks noticeably slower than paper ones?

That kind of review is what turns practice into progress.

On the day

Keep the morning simple and calm. Aim to arrive in good time, with your child knowing only the essentials: where they are going, that they will complete an online assessment, and that the school also wants to see how they write by hand and take part with others.

Practical reminders help more than last-minute teaching:

eat a steady breakfast
bring anything the school has asked for
wear what the school has advised for the assessment day
use the loo before the assessment starts
listen carefully to instructions on screen and from staff

For the test itself, encourage your child to:

read every instruction fully before starting
keep an eye on time without panicking
move on if a question is taking too long
stay focused on the question in front of them rather than wondering how others are doing

For the handwritten task, neat and clear beats over-ambitious. For the team-building activity, the qualities schools usually value are sensible ones: listening, joining in, being kind, taking turns and responding well to others. A child does not need to dominate to make a good impression.

Afterwards, try not to interrogate them question by question. Most children feel better if the day simply ends with something ordinary and reassuring.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

Because Wellington School is an independent school, the post-exam process is different from state grammar school allocation. Families are not waiting for National Offer Day in the same way; instead, the school runs its own admissions decisions and offers.

We have not found a published official statement on the exact results timetable for Year 7 entry on the sources reviewed, so parents should ask the Admissions Department when to expect an outcome after the assessment day.

If your child is offered a place, the next steps are likely to include responding by the school’s deadline and then attending the events the school has described for joining pupils: a Welcome Evening in the summer and an induction day just before term starts.

If your child is not offered a place, ask politely for feedback on the process and whether there is any waiting list or review route. Independent schools do not follow the same statutory admissions appeal framework as state schools, so the correct process is to ask Wellington School directly about its own procedure.

The main point for parents is to get the specifics from the school itself, because independent-school timelines and next steps can vary from one school to another.

What has changed recently

For 2028 entry, Wellington School’s Year 7 process is described by the school as including an online assessment completed at Wellington School, alongside recent school reports, a handwritten piece and an observed team-building activity. We found no school-published announcement on the pages reviewed giving a dated change log for the last two years, and no official published notice of a new catchment policy, place number change or revised admissions timetable.

If the school publishes a specific update for the 2028 cycle later in 2026 or 2027, parents should rely on the Year 7 admissions page and direct emails from admissions rather than older summaries elsewhere.

Frequently asked questions

Does Wellington School use the 11+ in the same way as a grammar school?

No. Wellington School is an independent school and runs its own Year 7 admissions process, which includes a GL Assessment plus other elements such as school reports, a handwritten task and a team-building activity.

What subjects should my child prepare for?

For 2028 entry, prepare for Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Because the assessment is computer-based, include on-screen practice as well as paper work.

Is the Wellington School Year 7 test taken online?

Yes. The verified format for 2028 entry is a computer-based GL Assessment taken at Wellington School on the school’s assessment day.

Does Wellington School have a catchment area for Year 7?

We did not find a published catchment area on the sources reviewed. Ask the school directly if you want to check whether any location-based priority applies.

When should my child start preparing?

For most children, a gentle start in Year 5 works well. Build core skills first, then add timed mixed practice in Year 6, especially on screen.

Are there taster days for Year 6 children?

Yes. The school says Year 6 taster days for children interested in joining Year 7 take place in the Autumn Term.

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Sources

Wellington School – Year 7 Admissions: School-run Year 7 admissions process; Year 6 taster days take place in the Autumn Term; candidates provide recent school reports, complete an online assessment at Wellington School, hand write a short piece and take part in an observed team-building activity; Welcome Evening is held in the summer fo
Wellington School – Home: Wellington School is an independent day and boarding co-educational school for children aged 2-18 in Somerset.

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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.