Getting into St Olave's Grammar School
The St Olave’s entrance tests, set and marked by the school in two stages: what they involve and what to do next, for entry in September 2027.
Every fact on this page is checked against the school’s published admissions information, and nothing is guessed. · View sources · Report an error
Registration for the September 2026 test closed on Monday 29 June 2026 at Midday. 1 weeks to test day.
What to do and when
Sitting the year after (2028 entry)? These are 2027-entry dates, and yours are not published yet: there is nothing you need to do this far out. Sign up for reminders and tick the 2028-entry box, and we’ll email only when your cycle’s dates are out and it is actually time to act.
6 dates as a calendar file, for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. Share the link with anyone who needs them.
Life’s busy, so we’ll email you a nudge before each St Olave's Grammar deadline above. Nothing else: no newsletter, no marketing, and the reminders stop for good after National Offer Day (1 Mar 2027) unless you sign up again for another school.
The test, in one look
St Olave's Grammar sits the school 11+.
This school writes and marks its own 11+ papers rather than buying them from a national provider. That changes preparation in two ways. The format is whatever the school says it is, so its own admissions pages and any sample material it publishes are the only reliable guide to what comes up. And there is usually no bank of past papers to work through, because schools that set their own tests rarely release them. Steady work on the underlying skills counts for more here than drilling a particular format.
When a school writes its own papers there is rarely a bank of past papers, so the school’s own admissions pages and any sample material it publishes are the only reliable guide to the format. Preparation is therefore about the underlying skills rather than a particular paper’s habits, which is what adaptive practice across the four subjects is for.
Each stage 2 paper runs 1 hour 15 minutes. If two boys end on the same aggregate score, the Maths paper separates them first, then the creative writing, then the English multiple choice, then stage 1, and only after that a random number.
How places are decided
124 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: No catchment area, and no distance rule at all. Places go on rank order in the tests, and even ties are settled by the subject scores and then a random number, never by how near you live.
Only boys who reach the required standard in the selection tests are eligible at all.
Places are then reduced by any boys with an EHCP naming St Olave's who meet the School's Admission Standard, who are admitted first.
3 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.Boys who are Children Looked After, or who were Looked After and ceased to be so through adoption, a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order, including those who appear to have been in state care outside England and ceased to be so through adoption, taken by rank order, and all such children placed in the initial top 450 who have taken the subsequent tests will be admitted.
- 2.A maximum of 10 places for boys in receipt of Pupil Premium, by rank order.
- 3.Any remaining places by rank order. Pupil Premium here means registered for free school meals at any point in the six years before the closing date for test registration, evidenced by the current primary school. Ties on aggregate standardised score are broken by the Mathematics paper, then creative writing, then the English multiple choice, then the SET, and finally by an independently run computerised random number generator. Up to four Choristership places may be offered in Year 7 in addition to the admission number.
What an EHCP is: an Education, Health and Care Plan, a legal document from your council for a child with special educational needs. Where a plan names a school, that school has to offer a place, so those places are taken out of the number above before anyone else is ranked. It is not a route most families can apply through.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
How many children actually sit
Schools and councils publish some of this and not all of it. The numbers below came from Freedom of Information requests, which anyone can make, and each one links to the reply it came from.
1,626 children sat for St Olave's Grammar in September 2024, for 124 places, about 13.1:1. Source
1,626 boys sat the school’s own test in September 2024 and 454 went through to the second stage. Most of the field is decided before the paper that families worry about most.
Common questions
One hour, all multiple choice, covering English, logic (both Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning) and Maths. The school’s own sample booklet puts it at around 60 questions in four sections, so the pace is about a question a minute. Answers go in HB pencil on a separate answer sheet. Mobile phones, wristwatches, dictionaries and calculators are not allowed in the room.
The top 450 candidates by rank order are invited back. The school notifies parents of the outcome in October, before the council application form is due, so you find out in time to decide whether to name St Olave’s.
Two written papers, English and Maths, one hour each with a 15-minute break between them, sat before the end of the autumn term. The English paper includes a creative writing element as well as multiple choice questions, and the Maths paper asks for workings. Bring pens in blue or black ink for English, and pencils, an eraser and a ruler for Maths. Our own stage 2 papers adapt those written papers into multiple-choice practice, because that is what we can mark online, so use them for the reading and the Maths and practise the writing on paper.
Yes. Scores from both rounds are standardised and then aggregated, and it is that combined figure which ranks candidates. A strong stage one mark is not just a ticket to the second round, it carries into the final order.
No. The admissions policy states that boys may sit the entrance test once only, and that the tests may only be taken at the school on the appointed dates. There is no alternative venue and no second attempt in a later year.
124 for Year 7, reduced first by any boys with an EHCP naming St Olave’s who meet the school’s admission standard. Up to 10 places are available by rank order for boys in receipt of Pupil Premium.
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.