Getting into Tiffin School
The Tiffin School two-stage entrance test, written with Quest and bespoke to the school: what it involves 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 October 2026 test closed on 12.00 noon, Tuesday 1 September 2026. 3 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 Tiffin 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
Tiffin sits the school with Quest 11+.
This school does not sit a single off-the-shelf 11+. It uses papers from more than one source, typically its own alongside a commercial provider’s, and the combination is set out in its admissions arrangements. Because the mix belongs to this school, general 11+ practice books only take you so far. The school’s own guidance on what each stage contains is the thing to read first, and it is usually the only place the weighting between papers is explained.
A school combining papers from more than one source rewards breadth: your child needs to be steady across everything the mix contains rather than sharp in one part of it. Read the school’s own description of each stage first, because the weighting between papers is usually explained nowhere else, then practise across all four subjects rather than the favourite one.
Sport and music aptitude assessments run in July, before stage one, and up to 18 places (nine each) are held for priority area boys who clear the benchmark. Those boys, and looked after or pupil premium boys in the area, get a 10% leeway on the stage one cut.
How places are decided
180 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Places are allocated in this published order.
5 ranked criteria decide the order. Tie-break for the 180th place, and for tied ranks under E, is nearest straight-line distance to the Queen Elizabeth Road pedestrian gate measured by the Kingston Schools Admissions GIS, then random selection by an independent person.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.to a boy who has an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names Tiffin School specifically on the plan (he must still have demonstrated ability through the testing process). Places are then allocated by selection by ability in rank order of the Combined Score, as follows.
- 2.to boys whose Combined Score is higher than or equal to the 450th ranked Combined Score of all applicants who sat the Stage Two Test, in this internal order, (i) currently and previously Looked After Children whose permanent place of residence is within the Priority Area, then (ii) boys whose primary school receives Pupil Premium funding in respect of him and whose permanent place of residence is within the Priority Area. The remaining places, less up to 18 places reserved for Sporting and Music Aptitude under section E, are then allocated in rank order of Combined Score as follows.
- 3.boys whose permanent place of residence is within the Priority Area.
- 4.boys whose permanent place of residence is outside the Priority Area.
- 5.up to 18 reserved places to boys whose Combined Score is higher than or equal to the 450th ranked Combined Score and who have not been offered a place under A–D, (i) up to 9 places to boys who demonstrated aptitude in sport (scoring above the benchmark threshold in the Sporting Aptitude Assessment), by rank order of that assessment, whose permanent place of residence is within the Priority Area, then (ii) up to 9 places to boys who demonstrated aptitude in music (scoring above the benchmark threshold in the Musical Aptitude Assessment), by rank order of that assessment, whose permanent place of residence is within the Priority Area.
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.
1,677 children sat for Tiffin for September 2025 entry, for 180 places, about 9.3:1. Source
How pupils here do at GCSE
This is based on how pupils at this school go on to perform in their GCSEs, five years after the 11+. Attainment 8 is their average result across eight subjects. Read it as a description of outcomes rather than of teaching: a selective school admits children who were already scoring well at ten, so a high position here reflects who the school takes in as much as what it does with them.
Scores from Compare school and college performance data in England, Department for Education, 2024/25, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The Department publishes the scores and does not publish a ranking: the position above is ours, calculated over state-funded schools with a published score. See the full table.
Common questions
English and Maths, typically 40 to 60 minutes each with a short break between them, sat in either a morning or an afternoon slot. Answers go on an OMR sheet marked by computer. English is multiple choice; Maths may be multiple choice or a numerical answer.
The school works in partnership with Quest to create a bespoke test for Tiffin each year, and the papers change annually. Stage one is marked by computer; stage two is marked by Quest’s English and Maths specialists.
Everyone who sits stage two is ranked on a Combined Score of 50% English and 50% Maths. English comes from the stage two paper. Maths combines stage one and stage two in a ratio of 2 to 3, so the sifting test keeps counting. Boys in the priority area are ranked above those outside it.
Everyone living within 10km of the school in a straight line. The school states that in recent years all places have been offered to applicants inside it. Kingston’s admissions team measures the distance and the school cannot tell you in advance which side of the line you fall.
The school says it cannot give guidance on that, and that the tests are designed not to require knowledge beyond the Year 5 National Curriculum in English and Maths. Its own suggestion is practice at working independently for an hour at a time. Boys who read widely and enjoy puzzles tend to enjoy the papers.
No. The school publishes illustrative stage one and stage two questions so you can see the format and level, but never its real papers, and the number of questions, timings and question types change every year.
Three weeks out is exactly when a timed mock helps.