Introduction
School Name: St. Paul’s Girls’ School (SPGS)
Description: Girls; day school
Acceptance Ages: 11+
Overview
St. Paul’s Girls’ School fosters academic excellence, high aspirations and independence of mind. In 2016, it was top of the A-level league tables, with pupils scoring an average 54.52 points (A+) per academic entry, with a total of 89.6 percent of pupils obtaining AAB.
As a school, it embraces what is termed ‘a liberal ideology’ in which the girls are given freedom to grow and pursue their own passions and studies. Rules are described as ‘few’ and ‘relationships are relaxed, yet respectful’. There is no uniform.
Entry to St. Paul’s Girls’ School is by competitive examination and interview. The school suits some girls but not all and it actively invites families to visit to find out if it is right for them.
Admissions Process for St. Paul’s Girls’ School Eleven Plus (11+) for Year 7 entry
Entry to St. Paul’s Girls’ School is by competitive examination and interview. The school suits some girls but not all and it actively invites families to visit to find out if it is right for them.
Open Days
The best way to experience St. Paul’s Girls’ School is to visit on an open day, where you can tour round the facilities and meet some of the staff and students. The open day includes an address by the High Mistress together with a tour of the school led by current students. Upcoming dates can be found on the website.
Booking is necessary and booking form is available on the school’s website.
Registration
You can submit an application at any time up until November before the proposed year of entry. Please check the website here for current dates and deadlines.
You can find the SPGS registration form on the school’s website.
Entrance Exams
In the first stage, all applicants are asked to complete an online pre-test, testing verbal, non-verbal and numerical ability. See below for further details on this test.
Girls who performed well on the test will be informed in December and invited back to take the 11+ exams in January. Papers are set in Mathematics, English and comprehension. This last paper is a multi-disciplinary paper, unique to SPGS, and incorporates source-based questions.
Maths
The maths paper is outlined to identify potential. The paper has three 25-minute sections. First section consists of questions that are fairly straight-forward ‘sums’. Second section involves problem-solving questions and the third section often has multi-part questions based on material the girls may never have seen before.
Questions are based on a range of topics all of which are part of the National Curriculum up to KS2 which aims to evaluate technique and insight.
It is essential that applicants show their working out. (A wrong answer cannot be given any credit if it is not supported by working – this way, girls may pick up some marks even if the final answer is incorrect).
English
The English paper involves the close reading of a passage of literary prose (comprehension) and creative writing. Questions will involve the extraction of information; some will ask for comment on the meaning and effect of individual words and phrases and others will be extended imaginative writing tasks, based on the passage. Careful inference and sensitivity to linguistic effects and evidence of a wide vocabulary will attract high marks.
Comprehension
The comprehension paper is based on a theme and is outlined to evaluate comprehension in its broadest sense. Demonstration of the skills of deduction, inference, extraction and organisation of information as well as evaluation, comparison, identification of patterns and links, and logic are being evaluated. No prior knowledge is required although KS2 scientific enquiry skills may be needed in the evaluation of material and presentation of data.
There are some sample papers available on the school website. Furthermore, here’s an older sample comprehension paper that is no longer available on the school’s site.
