7+ Entrance Exams: What Year 2 Parents Need to Know This September
By Billie Geena Hyde
SEO Lead
, Tutorful
Contents:
Share this post
7+ Entrance Exams: What Year 2 Parents Need to Know This September | Tutorful
Independent School Entrance
If a September just started with your six or seven-year-old in Year 2, and a prep school place is on your mind, here’s exactly what the process actually involves — and when it happens.
The 7+ is one of the least understood parts of the UK independent school system, mostly because it happens quietly and early — long before the more widely discussed 11+ that most people have at least heard of. If your child is in Year 2 this year and a selective prep school is on the horizon, September is when this process properly gets moving.
The Basics
What the 7+ Actually Is
The 7+ is an entrance assessment sat by children in Year 2, aged 6 to 7, for entry into Year 3 at selective independent prep schools — most commonly in London and other areas with a dense concentration of prep schools. It’s a genuinely early entry point in the private school system, well before the more familiar 11+ or 13+ stages.
Format varies by school, but most 7+ assessments combine written English and maths papers with verbal and non-verbal reasoning, alongside more informal one-to-one elements — spelling, dictation, and mental arithmetic assessed verbally rather than on paper, given the age group. Group exercises are also common, used to observe how a child works with others rather than testing academic content directly. Many schools also request a reference from the child’s current school, and some interview parents as part of the process.
This is the practical start of the exam season itself. Registration windows for many schools close in the early autumn term, and this is when families confirm their shortlist and finalise which schools they’re actually sitting exams for.
Results and offers are typically released, giving families time to accept a place before the following September.
September of Year 3
The new school year begins at the new school, for children who’ve secured and accepted a place.
Every school runs its own timetable
Unlike grammar school 11+ testing, which often shares a regional date, 7+ exams are set independently by each school. Registration deadlines commonly fall in November of Year 2 for exams sat in January or February — but plenty of schools work to entirely different timings. The individual school’s admissions page is the only reliable source for its specific dates.
This Month
What’s Actually Worth Doing in September
Check registration status for every school on the shortlist — some may already be closed for this cycle, others may still be open, and this varies enormously school to school
Confirm exact exam dates and format directly from each school’s admissions office — don’t rely on general guides like this one for the specifics of any single school
Let the current school know a reference may be needed, and roughly when, so there’s no last-minute scramble
Get a realistic sense of what each school’s assessment actually covers — some lean more academic, others weight the interview and group exercise more heavily
Start any preparation gently, not intensively — there’s still a reasonable runway before most exams, and pacing matters more at this age than volume
Worth holding onto: a six or seven-year-old doesn’t need to feel the weight of “an exam” the way an older child might. Framing this as a fun challenge, a couple of new schools to visit, or “just doing your best” tends to serve children far better at this age than any sense of high stakes — and it doesn’t affect how well they actually do on the day.
Gentle, targeted support
If English, maths or verbal reasoning feels like the area to focus on before an exam date, a bit of age-appropriate, low-pressure tutoring can build genuine confidence without turning September into months of stress for a six-year-old.
The 7+ can feel like a lot to navigate precisely because it happens so early and so quietly compared to the more talked-about entrance points later on. Get the practical basics sorted this month — registration, dates, references — and there’s genuinely time to approach the rest calmly, at a pace that suits a child this age.
