Entrance Examination

Entrance Examinations for entry in September into Junior and Senior Schools of the Girls' and Boys' Divisions take place in January of the same year.

All applicants for the exam must fill out an application form, which can be obtained from the relevant School Secretary and is enclosed in each prospectus pack. You can also download an application form from our website by clicking here.

Anyone wishing to apply to Bolton School after the January entrance examination date has elapsed should in the first instance call the appropriate secretary to enquire about availability.  Depending on pupil migration, places are sometimes available in other year groups and prospective pupils to these year groups also sit an entrance examination. For further information regarding applying to a particular school within the Foundation, please contact the appropriate secretary

Girls' Division and Boys' Division Senior School Entry

There will be four components to the examination:

  • an English Composition, set by the School (examples of past questions and exemplar answers are available below and will be available at Open Day)

A set of three tests from GL Assessment comprising:

  • verbal reasoning test
  • non-verbal reasoning test
  • mathematical reasoning test

Each of these tests is designed to test "innate" ability. Practice papers are available from any good bookshop (look for GL Assessment 11+ practice papers) or from the GL Assessment website.

As an indication of the required standard, we would normally expect your child's teacher to be predicting Level 5 in the Key Stage 2 SATs test.

Download sample English Composition questions for the Senior School Entrance Exam - Creative Writing Sample Questions

Download some good examples of creative writing by pupils sitting the English Composition part of the Entrance Examination.

Girls' Division and Boys' Division Junior School Entry

Children transferring from Beech House (Bolton School Infant School) into the Junior Schools will not need to take an entrance exam as assessment for entry into Bolton School has already taken place. 

The Entrance Exam will have three components: English, Mathematics and Verbal Reasoning. Full sets of past papers for the junior schools can be requested from the appropriate secretary.

Miscellaneous Heads Up Division