The St Paul’s Girls’ School admissions process
St Paul's Girls' School (SPGS) is one of the most selective day schools in the country. This guide walks parents through everything they need to know about applying – from the 11+ entry process and the assessment itself, to fees, bursaries and what SPGS is genuinely looking for in candidates.
By Anya Davies
Pro mentor and former Head Girl at SPGS
Founded in 1904 by the Worshipful Company of Mercers, St Paul's Girls' School – known almost universally as SPGS – sits on Brook Green in Hammersmith, west London. It is an independent day school for around 800 girls aged 11 to 18. In 2025 it was named both the Sunday Times Independent School of the Year for Academic Excellence and London Independent School of the Year for Academic Excellence, and in 2026 it was named Sunday Times Independent School of the Year for GCSE results.
Liz Hewer, previously Head of St George's Ascot, became High Mistress in September 2025. The headship is one of the most closely watched in British education, and her appointment marks the start of a new chapter for the school.
SPGS doesn't try to fit every clever girl. It explicitly looks for what it calls intellectual curiosity – pupils ('Paulinas') who are creative, independent-minded and willing to think out loud. That ethos shapes everything about the admissions process, which is why preparation by rote rarely works. This guide explains what to expect, when to apply and how to prepare.
Entry routes into SPGS
SPGS has two main points of entry:
11+ entry into Year 7 – the main intake. Up to 115 places across five classes.
16+ entry into Year 12 – a small additional intake for Sixth Form.
There is no 13+ entry route at SPGS. Almost all Paulinas come in at 11+ and stay through to A levels.
The SPGS 11+ admissions process
The 11+ process at SPGS has three distinct stages: a computer-based cognitive ability assessment, a set of written papers, and an interview for shortlisted candidates. Each stage is designed to find girls who can think – not girls who have been drilled.
An important note for 2027 entry and beyond: SPGS has confirmed that from 11+ entry in September 2027, it will replace its current Stage 1 assessment, the Cambridge Select Insight (CSI), with the ISEB Common Pre-Test. Parents of girls applying for 2027 entry will need to register directly with ISEB from 9 June. There is no additional charge to register. For September 2026 entry, the existing Cambridge Select Insight process still applies – the details below cover both, with the differences flagged.
Stage 1: the cognitive ability test
For September 2026 entry, every applicant sits the Cambridge Select Insight (CSI). The CSI is the same test that schools previously knew as CEM Select – it has been renamed, not redesigned. It is an on-screen, hour-long, time-limited assessment in verbal ability, mathematical ability and non-verbal ability. It is conducted on-site at SPGS in November of Year 6.
The test is non-adaptive, which means every girl sees the same questions in the same order. Section timings are tight. Question types include multiple choice, drag-and-drop and auto-complete. The school does not publish specific practice materials. SPGS is upfront that the assessment is designed to measure underlying aptitude, not pre-taught knowledge – but familiarity with the test format genuinely helps. Girls who have never sat a timed on-screen assessment can lose minutes to navigation alone.
From September 2027 entry, the CSI is replaced by the ISEB Common Pre-Test, taken online. The ISEB Pre-Test can be sat at SPGS, at a girl's current school if it is an approved ISEB test centre, or at any approved ISEB centre worldwide – useful for international applicants.
Stage 2: the written papers
Girls who perform well in Stage 1 are invited back in early January of Year 6 to sit three written papers, on site at SPGS. They are demanding, distinctive, and very much SPGS's own – these papers do more than any other part of the process to define who gets a place.
English (1 hour 15 minutes). A close reading of a literary prose passage, followed by questions that grow in length and depth of required response. There are no short-answer questions. Some questions ask for standard inference and analysis of language; others ask candidates to extrapolate from the text, take positions, form hypotheses and write creatively. Unlike many 11+ English papers, the answer is rarely found in the passage itself.
Mathematics (1 hour 15 minutes). Split into two sections. Section A (35 minutes) tests fundamentals from the National Curriculum up to KS2 – straightforward sums alongside more problem-solving questions. Section B (40 minutes) is more unusual: multi-part questions that often introduce a brand-new concept and then ask the candidate to apply it. The point isn't technique; it's mathematical flexibility.
Comprehension. Unique to SPGS. Each paper has a single theme – past examples include 'food', 'ships and shipping', 'clothes' and 'Richard III' – explored through a wide range of source material. Questions might draw on science, history, art or literature. The school is looking for candidates who can respond perceptively and interestingly to stimuli they have never seen before.
Shortlisting for interview is based on performance in these written papers.
Stage 3: the interview
Shortlisted candidates are invited back to SPGS in mid- to late January for an interview with a senior member of staff. The interviews last around 20 minutes and should feel like a stimulating, friendly conversation rather than an interrogation.
Candidates are given stimulus material – a poem, an image, a mathematical puzzle, an object – and asked to discuss it. The school is looking for evidence of creativity, intellectual engagement and independent thinking. There is no script to learn. The girls who do best are those who feel free to share what they actually think.
For parents preparing their daughter for this stage, our three-session interview package takes girls through the kinds of stimulus and discussion they're likely to meet at SPGS.
The SPGS admissions timeline
The dates below are indicative of a typical year. Always check the official SPGS admissions page for the current year's confirmed dates.
Early November (Year 6): Registration deadline. Parents submit the registration form, a copy of the candidate's passport, and the registration fee. Late applications are not accepted. The bursary deadline for September 2026 entry was 7 November 2025 – bursary applicants need to flag their interest at this point.
November (Year 6): Stage 1 cognitive ability test (CSI for 2026 entry; ISEB Pre-Test from 2027 entry).
Mid-December: Parents are informed whether their daughter has progressed to Stage 2. A confidential reference is requested from the current school.
Early January (Year 6): Stage 2 written examinations in English, Mathematics and Comprehension.
Mid- to late January: Shortlisted candidates attend Stage 3 interviews.
Mid-February: Final decisions are communicated to parents by email.
Early March: Acceptance deadline. A deposit (half of one term's fee) is payable; overseas families pay an additional overseas deposit.
Summer Term: SPGS sends out an information pack and invitations to introductory events such as the new students' tea in June.
SPGS fees and the cost of attending
For the 2025-26 academic year, the school fee was £12,414 per term for continuing students (Years 7 to 11), including VAT. New entrants to the Sixth Form (Year 12) pay £13,409 per term. The fee covers lunch and personal accident insurance; textbooks, public examination fees, music lessons and trips are extra. SPGS publishes its fees in line with the wider independent school cycle and updates them annually – current figures are on the SPGS fees page.
On accepting a place, parents pay a deposit equal to half a term's fee, credited against the final bill. Families resident outside the UK also pay an overseas deposit of the same value.
Scholarships and bursaries at SPGS
SPGS does not award academic scholarships. The school's view is that admission itself is the academic recognition. It does, however, offer:
Music scholarships at 11+ and 16+, awarded on audition for girls of outstanding musical ability.
Art and drama scholarships at 16+, awarded via workshop, audition and interview.
Scholarships at SPGS are honorific rather than financial – they bring distinction and responsibility, but no automatic fee reduction.
Where SPGS has invested significantly is in means-tested bursaries. The school is a member of the London Fee Assistance Consortium and offers bursaries from partial to full fee remission, depending on a family's financial circumstances. Bursaries are assessed via detailed income and asset declarations, supported by a home visit from the Bursar.
The bursary timeline runs in parallel with the main admissions timeline. For September 2026 entry the bursary deadline was noon on Friday 7 November 2025, with application forms returnable by 5 January 2026 and home visits in late January or early February. Where a girl is offered a bursary place, the family is notified at the same time as the place offer itself. Always check the SPGS bursaries page for current dates and eligibility.
Entry at 16+ into the Sixth Form
SPGS admits a small number of girls at 16+ for entry into the Lower Eighth (Year 12). The process is highly selective and aims to bring in candidates who will contribute actively to the school community and excel in the A-level subjects they have chosen.
Applicants register in advance, then sit a 45-minute written assessment in each of the four subjects they intend to study at A level. Each paper tests subject knowledge, problem-solving and analytical thinking. Successful candidates are invited to two interviews – one general, and one focused on their chosen subjects, references and current school report. Detailed information on each subject's assessment is published on the SPGS 16+ entry page.
For families preparing for Sixth Form entry, our A Level and IB tuition is built around exactly this kind of subject-specific stretch.
How competitive is SPGS?
Very. Across recent years SPGS has received around seven applicants for every Year 7 place. The combination of academic reputation, location and ethos means demand has stayed consistently high. The multi-stage process is designed to find girls who will not just survive at SPGS, but thrive there.
The most important thing for parents to internalise is that SPGS is not a school you crack through preparation alone. The 11+ written papers actively penalise rote-learned approaches. Girls who do best tend to be those who read widely, who talk to adults about ideas, who have time and space to think – and who arrive on the day genuinely curious about the questions in front of them.
Notable Old Paulinas
SPGS's alumnae are known as Old Paulinas. They include:
Dodie Smith (author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians and I Capture the Castle)
Rosalind Franklin (chemist and X-ray crystallographer; central to the discovery of the structure of DNA)
Alexandra Shulman (former editor of British Vogue)
Imogen Stubbs (actor)
Bronwen Maddox (journalist and Director of Chatham House)
Natasha Richardson (actor)
Dame Kate Bingham (Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, 2020)
Rachel Johnson (journalist)
Sophie Raworth (BBC news journalist and broadcaster)
Stephanie Flanders (Bloomberg, formerly BBC News)
Rachel Weisz (actor)
Susanna Reid (broadcaster, Good Morning Britain)
Emily Mortimer (actor)
Victoria Coren Mitchell (journalist, broadcaster and professional poker player)
Grace Beverley (founder of Tala, Forbes 30 Under 30)
Gustav Holst was Director of Music at SPGS from 1905 until his death in 1934, and composed St Paul's Suite for the school's string orchestra. The music tradition runs deep.
How to prepare for SPGS
A good preparation programme for SPGS does three things at once. It builds the technical foundations – comfortable timed work in English and Maths, exposure to non-verbal reasoning, familiarity with on-screen assessment. It develops what the school actually values – wide reading, articulate discussion, willingness to take an unexpected view. And it builds confidence, so a ten-year-old can walk into the interview room and enjoy the conversation rather than perform.
That mix is exactly what mentoring is for. Our 11+ Journey pairs girls with mentors who have themselves come through schools like SPGS, and who know what the papers and interview actually feel like. We work on the academic mechanics and on the harder-to-coach qualities – curiosity, conversational range, the confidence to be interesting – that SPGS is genuinely looking for. If you'd like to think through whether SPGS is the right fit for your daughter, our school search and placement team can also help.
Frequently asked questions
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Registration for 11+ entry typically closes in early November of Year 6, with the cognitive ability assessment that month, written examinations in early January, interviews in mid- to late January and final decisions in mid-February. The bursary timeline runs in parallel and closes earlier, in early November. Always check current dates on the official SPGS admissions page.
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The 11+ process has three stages. Stage 1 is an on-screen cognitive ability test – the Cambridge Select Insight (CSI) for September 2026 entry, switching to the ISEB Common Pre-Test from September 2027 entry onwards. Stage 2 is three written papers at SPGS in English, Mathematics and Comprehension. Stage 3 is a 20-minute interview with a senior member of staff, built around stimulus material. The school is looking for genuine intellectual curiosity, not rehearsed answers.
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For the 2025-26 academic year, SPGS fees were £12,414 per term for Years 7 to 11 and £13,409 per term for new Sixth Form entrants, both including VAT. The fee includes lunch; textbooks, music lessons, public examination fees and trips are charged separately. Fees are published on the SPGS fees page and updated annually.
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SPGS does not award academic scholarships. It offers music scholarships at 11+ and 16+, and art and drama scholarships at 16+; these are honorific and do not carry a fee reduction. It runs a substantial means-tested bursary programme, with awards up to full fee remission. The bursary deadline runs slightly ahead of the main admissions deadline, and applications are assessed via financial documentation and a home visit from the Bursar.
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Around seven girls apply for every Year 7 place. The multi-stage assessment is designed to identify girls with strong underlying aptitude and intellectual flexibility, rather than the most heavily-coached candidates. Many strong applicants don't receive offers; many girls who do receive offers had not assumed they would.
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No. SPGS's main entry point is 11+ into Year 7. There is a small additional intake at 16+ into the Sixth Form, but no 13+ route.
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SPGS is on Brook Green in Hammersmith, west London (W6 7BS). It is an independent day school for around 800 girls aged 11 to 18, with up to 115 places at 11+ across five Year 7 classes.