Nearly every child will be fine at nearly every school. A bit of a generalisation, but broadly realistic. ‘Fine’ is not very ambitious. But it’s an improvement on ‘unhappy’. Or ‘bored’. Or ‘crushed by pressure’.
So most girls will enroll somewhere, and emerge at the other end, feeling that their school was ‘fine’. And nobody chooses a school thinking their daughter will be unhappy, bored, or crushed by pressure, but that is how some girls will emerge.
Some parents choose St Margaret’s School for their daughters. Given the vast selection of schools round here, from domestic house to hothouse, why would they do that?
Well, it’s possibly because no girl is ‘crushed by pressure’ here, yet they will still end up far more likely to have more A grades at the end of their educational journey than any other grade…
Well, it’s possibly because being ‘bored’ is not something you hear girls complaining about. In lessons, the classes are very small, and so this gives our teachers the time to look at each girl’s needs and work out what she will find just the right level of challenge to keep her engaged and constantly moving forward. Out of lessons, she will have a wide choice of things to do. But in or out of lessons, our culture is for every girl to have a go at everything, so ‘bored’ really isn’t an option.
Or, it’s possibly because ‘unhappy’ is not an adjective we come across very often. The girls have a justified reputation for their kindness and supportiveness towards each other. Bullying happens, but it’s very rare, mainly because the girls themselves won’t stand for it.
So, you could choose somewhere where your daughter will hopefully be absolutely ‘fine’, or you could choose for her to join the St Margaret’s family.
Why not come and visit us, meet some of the girls, and ask them what adjectives they would use to describe their life here?
4+ Admission for September
There are approximately 12 places available for our Reception class each year. There is a three-step process to a 4+ application for a place at St Margaret’s: The Registration Form and Fee, The Reference and The Assessment.
The Registration Form and Fee
Fill in the Registration Form online and pay a Registration Fee of £150.00 by BACS or cheque (the bank details are on the Reference Form). At this time, please can you also send in a recent digital photograph of your daughter, a copy of either her birth certificate or the information page on her passport, and a copy of her most recent nursery report if she has one to enquiry@st-margarets.co.uk.
The Reference
We ask your daughter’s current nursery (if they attend one) to provide a reference for feedback on her general performance over the previous year.
The Assessment
We will invite candidates into the School for a play-based assessment that will take around 45 minutes.
The Offer
The School will send out offers a few days after each assessment.
Key Information for 4+ (Reception) Entry
We accept Reception applications throughout the academic year
There are approximately three new places available for our Year 3 class each year. There is a three-step process to a 7+ application for a place at St Margaret’s: The Registration Form and Fee, The Reference and The Test.
The Registration Form and Fee
Fill in the Registration Form online and pay a Registration Fee of £150.00 by BACS or cheque (the bank details are on the Reference Form). At this time, please can you also send in a recent digital photograph of your daughter, a copy of either her birth certificate or the information page on her passport, and a copy of her most recent nursery report if she has one to enquiry@st-margarets.co.uk.
The Reference
We ask your daughter’s current school to provide a reference for feedback on her social and academic performance over the previous year.
The Test
This will be held at the School and will involve a Mathematics test, as well as a short piece of free writing and a comprehension task for the English component. The teacher taking the assessment will chat to your daughter at some point, but we will use her school reference as the main source of information about her character. The girls will be with us for an hour and 45 minutes.
11+ Admission for September
Each year we welcome around five new girls to join those moving up from our Junior School into Year 7. For 11+ entry in September , girls must be born between 1st September and 31 August.
There is a four-step process to an 11+ application for a place at St Margaret’s School: The Registration Form and Fee, The Reference, The Test and The Interview.
The Registration Form and Fee
Fill in the Registration Form online and pay a Registration Fee of £150.00 by BACS or cheque (the bank details are on the Reference Form). At this time, please can you also send in a recent digital photograph of your daughter, a copy of either her birth certificate or the information page on her passport, and a copy of her most recent nursery report if she has one to enquiry@st-margarets.co.uk.
The Reference
We ask your daughter’s current nursery (if they attend one) to provide a reference for feedback on her general performance over the previous year.
The Test
St Margaret’s is part of the London 11+ Consortium, along with 13 other schools. To see a list of the other schools and to find out more about the Consortium, please visit (https://london11plus.co.uk/).
All 11+ applicants applying to St Margaret’s will need to sit the Atom Assessment, either at their current school (if it is holding the test) or at one of the other Consortium schools (candidates may only sit the exam once regardless of how many of the above schools they have applied to). Once you have registered with us, we will contact you to inform us of where you want your daughter to sit her Atom Assessment. If you have applied for schools that are not on the Consortium list, please refer to their websites for their exam details.
If your daughter needs access arrangements for the Test (such as extra time), please ensure we have her EP report by the requested deadline. If it is submitted after this, we cannot guarantee that the arrangements will be in place for the day of her test.
Entry Criteria
St Margaret's operates a policy of selection based on the following basic criteria:
Demand for places often exceeds supply. In these circumstances, the following criteria will be applied when deciding priority:
Please note that the above are not in order of importance. For example, a girl with test results that are a little higher than another, but whose parents show little understanding of, or commitment to, St Margaret's aims and ethos, may not be the one offered the place.
Entry to Reception
Parents who have registered with the school will be invited to bring their daughters for an assessment with the Reception teacher, which will take place in the Spring Term preceding the September of entry. Offers of places to successful applicants will normally be made in the first half of the Spring Term or early in the second half.
Entry to Years 1 and 2
Places in Years 1 and 2 are offered if space is available, following an assessment with the relevant form teachers. Reception, Years 1 and 2 will usually have approximately 12 pupils in each class.
Entry to Year 3
Places are offered, if space is available, in Year 3 on the basis of the 7+ examination in Mathematics and English, usually administered by the class or subject teacher, together with a short informal interview. There is a maximum of 16 pupils in the class.
Entry to Years 4, 5 & 6
Occasional places are offered, if space is available, in Years 4, 5 and 6 on the basis of tests in English and Mathematics. A pupil will only be accepted into the school at this stage if she is considered to be a suitable candidate for transfer to the Senior School at the end of Year 6. There will be a maximum of 16 pupils in each class.
Entry to Year 7
We are pleased to announce that for September we have joined the collective North London Consortium of girls’ schools who run a single entrance examination, reducing the number of entrance exams that girls applying to private schools will have to take for 11+ entry.
Entry to Years 8, 9 & 10
Girls may take entrance tests to the school at any time, provided there are spaces. Applicants will be tested in English and Mathematics. Entry to Year 10 will be on the basis that the entrant's chosen options match those of the current Year 10 and will depend on satisfactory performances in the English and Mathematics papers.
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