The 11+ From Abroad

Applying to London day schools from another country, with the timing, the costs and the paperwork that nobody explains

Applying to a London day school from another country is a different problem from applying to one down the road. Almost nothing written about the 11+ acknowledges that.

Your child's school report is excellent and unreadable to a London registrar. Your head has never written this kind of reference and doesn't know what's expected in it. The deadlines are set for families who can drop in. The exams fall in December and January while you're several time zones away. The fees are quoted in a currency you don't earn.

Twenty two pages on exactly that.

It comes with a planner spreadsheet you fill in with your own shortlist, including a currency stress test, so you can see what seven years of fees does if the rate moves against you.

What is inside

• The shape of the year, and which deadlines close a full year early
• Why an international school report reads as unplaceable here, and what to do about it Building a shortlist with no grapevine to ask
• The one trip, and how to get four schools out of it
• What it costs, part one and part two, with VAT and every extra the prospectus leaves out Bursaries, scholarships and the currency problem
• Tutoring from another time zone
• The reading list that was actually read, not the one that gets recommended
• Exam week, interviews and February, when you are not in the country
• What I would do differently
• The eighteen month checklist
• Using the planner
• Sources, and the honest limits of all of it

What it isn't

This isn't admissions consultancy and I'm not an admissions consultant. It predicts nothing about any particular child. It isn't tutoring and it doesn't teach maths. Schools change their fees, their deadlines and their assessment formats every year. Where this guide and a school's own page disagree, the school is right.

Instant download. Yours to keep. Nothing expires and nothing renews.



There are two versions of this guide. One for families already in London, one for families applying from abroad. The overlap is large, so buy the one that matches your situation, not both.