The exam at a glance
Wellow House School is a non-selective independent school for children aged 2 to 16, and pupils can join Year 7 if places are available. The school says children moving into Prep are assessed for setting, and its admissions page explains that admission is based on a visit, completion of the registration process and review of school reports and a reference from the child’s current school.
For families targeting Year 7 entry in September 2028, the important point is that Wellow House does not publish a standardised grammar-style 11+ process in the way many selective schools do. ElevenReady’s verified information is that the school uses its own assessment, but the format, tested subjects and delivery are not confirmed. Because of that, parents should avoid assuming it follows GL, CEM or any other familiar pattern.
In practical terms, that means your child’s admissions journey is likely to feel more like an independent-school application than a county grammar test. The school’s published process points parents first to an enquiry and visit, followed by registration and the school’s review of supporting information. If the school offers an assessment for Year 7 joiners, the exact structure should be confirmed directly with admissions for your child’s year of entry.
What the day looks like is therefore best checked with the school once you enquire. Families should expect some combination of a visit, time in school, and age-appropriate assessment activity, but the school does not publish a detailed Year 7 test specification on its admissions page. Use the admissions team as your primary source for the current cohort.
Registration and key dates
Wellow House runs its own admissions process. The school’s admissions page invites families to make an enquiry, arrange a visit and then complete a registration form. The same page says the school will also ask for the child’s most recent school report and a reference from the current school.
For Year 7 entry, the school also promotes opportunities to visit before applying. A recent example is the school’s published Year 7 Experience Day on 7 October 2026 for current Year 6 pupils. That is useful as an indicator that autumn events can form part of the Year 7 transition process, but parents should not assume the same date pattern will be identical for 2028 entry unless the school republishes it.
What is confirmed:
- Applications are handled directly by the school, not by a local authority 11+ portal.
- Parents are encouraged to visit the school and complete the school’s own registration paperwork.
- The school asks for school reports and a reference as part of admissions.
What is not currently published on the admissions page:
- A specific registration opening date for Year 7 2028 entry
- A specific deadline for Year 7 applications
- A published assessment date
- A published results date
So the sensible approach is to contact admissions early in Year 5 or the start of Year 6, ask when Year 7 applications open for your child’s cohort, and request the latest admissions timeline in writing. If you want a quick place to watch for updates, you can also bookmark The Wellow House School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) and sign up for Free email alerts for this school's key dates.
Who can apply: catchment and admissions
Wellow House is not a catchment-based school in the way state grammar schools are. Its admissions information and school profile describe it as a non-selective independent school, and new pupils may join Year 7 and other year groups if places are available.
The school’s own admissions page says that places in Pre-Prep are limited and allocated on a first come, first served basis. For older children, including Year 7 entry, the key message is availability and suitability rather than postcode priority. The school also says children entering Prep are assessed for setting, which tells parents that assessment is used to place pupils appropriately rather than to operate a published selective pass mark.
Because Wellow House is an independent school, there is no local-authority catchment rule to navigate here. Instead, parents should focus on:
- whether there is a place available in the target year group;
- whether the school feels it can meet the child’s needs;
- the child’s school report and reference;
- any school-set assessment or taster process used for entry.
The school’s published fees list Year 7 to Year 11 at £5,659 per term for 2026/27. Fees can change year to year, so always check the current schedule before applying.
The school website does not publish a fixed number of Year 7 places, a pass mark, or a cut-off score. If you want a realistic sense of availability for September 2028, ask admissions directly how many external Year 7 places they expect to offer, as this may vary depending on internal progression from the Prep school.
A month-by-month preparation plan
Because Wellow House does not publish a detailed Year 7 test specification, preparation should be broad, steady and low-pressure. The aim is to help your child arrive as a confident, well-organised Year 6 pupil who can read carefully, write clearly, and cope calmly with an unfamiliar assessment or interview-style day.
Below is a sensible plan working back from an autumn Year 6 assessment window. If the school later gives you precise details, tighten the plan around those.
- January to March in Year 5: Start gently with 1 to 2 hours a week. Build reading stamina, secure arithmetic facts, and encourage neat, complete written answers. Keep practice varied rather than heavily test-based.
- April in Year 5: Increase to around 2 hours a week. Add short comprehension tasks, spelling review, vocabulary-building and mental maths. If your child finds timed work stressful, do not rush into full papers yet.
- May to June in Year 5: Work at 2 to 3 hours a week. Begin short timed sections rather than whole papers: a comprehension extract, a maths reasoning set, or a short writing task completed to a simple time limit.
- Summer holidays before Year 6: Keep it light but consistent, around 2 to 3 hours a week. This is a good time for regular reading, a little revision of core maths, and one or two mixed practice tasks each week. Avoid turning the holiday into constant exam drilling.
- September in Year 6: Move to 3 to 4 hours a week if your child is coping well. Introduce fuller timed practice only now, once foundations are secure. If the school confirms an assessment date or format, tailor preparation to that information.
- October in Year 6 and up to the assessment: Focus on accuracy, routine and confidence. Do one or two timed pieces a week, review mistakes calmly, and keep the final week lighter. Prioritise sleep, normal schoolwork and a settled routine over last-minute cramming.
If your child is already at Wellow House Prep and is likely to move internally to Senior, preparation can be even lighter: focus on strong everyday literacy, numeracy and classroom confidence rather than assuming a high-stakes external 11+ model.
Subject by subject: what to practise
Because the school does not publish a subject-by-subject specification for Year 7 entry, the safest plan is to cover the core areas most commonly used in independent-school admissions and school-set assessments, without assuming a fixed paper structure.
English
Practise careful reading, retrieval, inference and explaining answers in full sentences. Your child should be comfortable reading a short passage, spotting meaning from context, and supporting opinions with evidence from the text. Also work on spelling, punctuation and grammar in normal school-level tasks. A little regular writing helps too: short descriptions, diary pieces, narratives and clear factual paragraphs.
Good practice habits include reading widely, discussing unfamiliar vocabulary, summarising paragraphs aloud and editing simple writing for capitals, commas and verb tense consistency.
Mathematics
Secure number skills matter most: the four operations, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, times tables and written methods. Then build reasoning by asking your child to explain how they worked something out. If the school uses an internal assessment, clear working and confidence with everyday Year 5 and early Year 6 topics are likely to be more useful than racing through very advanced material.
Practise a mix of straightforward arithmetic and multi-step worded problems. Encourage neat layout, checking, and estimating whether an answer looks sensible.
Writing
Some independent schools use a short writing task even when they do not publish a separate writing paper. It is sensible to prepare for that possibility. Your child should be able to plan quickly, keep to the point, organise ideas into paragraphs and finish with time to check. Focus on clarity before flair: a simple, well-structured response is better than an over-ambitious piece with errors.
Useful routines include planning in bullet points, using varied sentence openings, and proofreading the final few lines before stopping.
Reasoning or broader school-set tasks
The school does not publish whether it uses verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning or any other specific paper. Rather than drilling one commercial style, build transferable skills: spotting patterns, following instructions carefully, working systematically and staying calm when a question looks unfamiliar.
Puzzles, sequencing tasks, vocabulary work and short logic activities can all help without locking your child into the wrong exam format.
Practice papers and mock exams
When a school does not publish a detailed specification, practice papers should be used as general familiarisation tools, not as a promise of the exact exam content. The goal is to help your child become comfortable with reading instructions, managing time and recovering from trickier questions.
A sensible approach is:
- Start with untimed practice to build confidence.
- Move to short timed sections once accuracy is steady.
- Review mistakes slowly and talk about why they happened.
- Repeat weak topics after a few days rather than immediately.
- Use mocks sparingly so they stay useful rather than discouraging.
For school-specific practice and updates, use these ElevenReady resources:
- Free Wellow House School practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers)
- The Wellow House School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates)
- Free email alerts for this school's key dates
If the school later confirms that Year 7 entrants will sit a particular assessment, switch from broad practice to targeted practice. Until then, avoid buying large bundles of one exam-board style on the assumption that they will match.
On the day
Keep the day calm and ordinary. Your child does not need a dramatic pep talk; they need food, sleep, time and a parent who sounds steady.
- Check the arrival time, parking arrangements and what to bring the day before.
- Choose comfortable school-appropriate clothes if the school has not specified otherwise.
- Have a normal breakfast with plenty of time.
- Bring any requested documents and a named water bottle if allowed.
- Remind your child to listen carefully to instructions and ask if they are unsure.
- If a question feels hard, they should move on and return if there is time.
For a school-set assessment or taster-style day, confidence in manners and communication matters too. Encourage your child to greet adults politely, answer in full sentences, and show willingness rather than trying to appear perfect. Independent schools are often looking at how a child will settle into school life, not just how quickly they can complete a paper.
After the exam: results, allocation and appeals
Wellow House does not publish a grammar-style ranked allocation process. As an independent school, it handles decisions directly through its own admissions team. In general, families can expect the school to review the child’s application materials, any assessment outcome, and whether a place is available in the year group.
The admissions page does not currently publish a specific Year 7 results date or a formal appeals timetable. If your child is assessed for entry, ask when you should expect a decision and whether the offer will be conditional on receipt of further school information.
Once an offer is made, independent schools usually ask families to accept the place and pay any required deposit by a stated deadline. Because those details can change by cohort, always rely on the offer letter and admissions paperwork for the exact next steps.
If your child is unsuccessful, it is reasonable to ask politely whether the year group is full, whether the school keeps a waiting list, and whether re-application for a later point of entry is possible.
What has changed recently
From the official information available, the clearest recent Year 7 admissions update is the school’s promotion of a Year 7 Experience Day on 7 October 2026 for current Year 6 pupils, showing that the school is actively using transition events to engage prospective senior pupils.
The school’s published 2026/27 fee schedule lists Year 7 to Year 11 at £5,659 per term.
I did not find an official announcement in the sources reviewed of a recent change to a published 11+ exam board, a new test format, a catchment policy, or a change in published Year 7 place numbers. If the school announces a new assessment structure for 2028 entry, parents should treat the school’s admissions page as the primary source.
Frequently asked questions
Does Wellow House School have a standard 11+ exam?
The school does not publish a standard grammar-style 11+ process. ElevenReady’s verified information is that it uses the school’s own assessment, but the format is not currently confirmed on the admissions page.
Is Wellow House selective for Year 7 entry?
No. The school describes itself as non-selective, although it may assess children for suitability and setting, and entry depends on places being available.
Is there a catchment area for Wellow House School?
No catchment is published for Year 7 admissions. It is an independent school, so admissions are handled directly by the school rather than by postcode priority.
When should I apply for Year 7 2028 entry?
The school does not currently publish a confirmed application opening date or deadline for that cohort. Contact admissions early in Year 5 or at the start of Year 6 and ask for the latest Year 7 timeline.
What documents does Wellow House ask for?
Its admissions page says families complete a registration form and provide the child’s most recent school report, with a reference from the current school.
How should my child prepare if the test format is unknown?
Focus on strong English, maths, reading stamina, clear written answers and calm timed practice. Broad preparation is safer than assuming the school uses GL, CEM or another published style.
Sources
- Wellow House School Admissions: The school is non-selective; admissions are handled directly by the school; parents are invited to visit and complete a registration form; the school asks for recent school reports and a reference from the current school; places in Pre-Prep are limited and allocated on a first come, first served bas
- Wellow House School website: Wellow House School is in Newark, Nottinghamshire and caters for ages 2 to 16; pupils may join Year 7 and other year groups if places are available.
Preparing for other schools in Nottinghamshire
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.