Specialist coaching for St Olave's own two-stage Selective Entrance Test
Book a Free ConsultationSt Olave's Grammar School is a Voluntary Aided grammar school for boys aged 11 to 18 in Orpington, in the London Borough of Bromley. The school sets its own Selective Entrance Test (SET): a one-hour, multiple-choice paper covering English, Logic (Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning) and Mathematics. For September 2027 entry it offers 124 places plus up to four Wakeham Choristership places, against 1,595 applications.
Our expert 11+ tutors help boys across Bromley and beyond prepare specifically for St Olave's two-stage Selective Entrance Test — the Stage 1 SET and the Stage 2 paper for boys who reach the top 450.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppUpdated for 2027 entry - the SET explained in full
St Olave's own admissions pages now confirm the Year 7 Selective Entrance Test (SET) is a one-hour, multiple-choice paper in English, Logic and Mathematics, with a separate Stage 2 paper for the top 450 performers only.
For September 2027 entry the Published Admission Number is 124, plus up to four Wakeham Choristership places, against 1,595 applications - and the school's own admissions FAQ states plainly that it has no catchment area, no sibling policy and no feeder-school link.
This page now reflects the school's own published Entrance Test Information and Admissions FAQ, read in September 2026.
St Olave's uses its own two-stage testing process rather than a single GL Assessment or CEM-style paper, and Stage 1 is not the paper many families expect. The Stage 1 Selective Entrance Test (SET) lasts one hour and is entirely multiple choice, covering three areas in a single sitting: English, Logic — meaning both Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning — and Mathematics. Answers to the SET questions are entered in HB pencil on the Answer Sheet provided. There is no extended writing task at this stage, which surprises parents who have prepared their son on GL-style verbal and non-verbal papers alone without adding a mathematics and English multiple-choice element to the same hour.
Only boys who reach the required standard in the SET are invited to Stage 2 — the school's own published figures put that group at the top 450 performers. Stage 2 is a different kind of test: candidates bring pens for a written English paper, and pencils, an eraser and a ruler for a Mathematics paper, both marked for depth rather than for speed alone. This is where St Olave's diverges most sharply from a standard 11+ format — the Stage 1 SET screens for reasoning speed and accuracy across three domains, and Stage 2 then tests sustained written English and multi-step mathematical problem-solving among boys who have already cleared that bar.
Boys who do not reach the Stage 2 invitation are not eligible for an offer at St Olave's, whatever their score elsewhere. That makes early groundwork in reasoning speed as important as depth: a child who is strong at written English but slow through the reasoning questions in an hour can lose the chance to sit the paper where that strength would actually count.
Our specialist 11+ tutors build a programme around both stages of the St Olave's test — reasoning speed and accuracy for the SET, then extended written English and mathematics for Stage 2.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppSt Olave's is a Voluntary Aided grammar school, its admission authority is its own Governing Body, and its religious character is Church of England within the Diocese of Rochester. The school teaches boys aged 11 to 18, has an official sixth form, and its roll runs to around 1,084 pupils in total. Selection is on academic performance in the school's own entrance tests alone: as the school states, it selects "purely on the basis of high academic performance in our Entrance Tests".
The Published Admission Number for Year 7 is 124, plus up to four further places reserved for boys joining via the Wakeham Choristership scheme — a maximum cohort of 128 if every chorister place is filled; any unfilled chorister place returns to the ordinary rank order. Up to ten of the 124 places are set aside for boys in receipt of Pupil Premium — defined in the school's admissions policy as boys who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the six years prior to the closing date for test registration — still allocated by rank order among eligible applicants rather than by address. For September 2027 entry the school recorded 1,595 applications for those 124 places; across the 2025 and 2026 application seasons it reports an average of around 1,600 applicants a year.
The Department for Education's own school performance tables — which state that most of the measures published there, in April 2026, relate to students who completed key stage 4 in the summer of 2025 — record an Attainment 8 score of 83.6 for St Olave's, against an England state-school average of 46.1, and show that 100.0% of pupils reached grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSEs, against an England state-school average of 45.4%. That combination of an unfamiliar Stage 1 format and a demanding Stage 2 is why generic 11+ preparation, aimed at a standard GL or CEM paper, under-prepares a boy for St Olave's specifically.
Two assumptions trip up families new to St Olave's, and the school addresses both directly on its own admissions FAQ. Asked "Does St. Olave's have a catchment area?", the school answers: "No." Asked about a sibling policy, the answer is the same: "No." And on feeder schools: "No. Entry to the school is based solely on performance in our entrance tests" — the school notes that a typical Year 7 cohort arrives from around 90 different primary schools. A family a long way from Orpington is assessed on exactly the same rank order as a family living close to the school.
The second assumption is that St Olave's shares a single entrance exam with other Bromley grammar schools. It does not: the school sets and administers its own Selective Entrance Test and its own Stage 2 paper, run at the school on its own published dates and ranked on its own results. Other Bromley grammar schools publish separate arrangements for their own admissions, so a family considering more than one Bromley grammar school should check each school's own published policy rather than assume one test covers more than one school. Our Bromley 11+ guide sets out the wider borough picture, and families weighing St Olave's against Newstead Wood School, the borough's other well-known grammar, should note it is a girls' school running its own separate admissions process.
The practical effect of "no catchment" is that address plays no part in the rank order St Olave's uses to allocate its 124 places, though distance remains a genuine logistical factor on test day. For the full published timetable and tie-break rules for 2027 entry, our St Olave's Designated Area Guide sets out the detail this page does not need to repeat.
Our 11+ tutors help boys prepare for both the reasoning demands of the SET and the extended written papers of Stage 2, wherever in London or beyond a family is applying from.
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In working with boys preparing for St Olave's, certain patterns of weakness appear consistently. Being aware of them early allows you to address them before they cost marks on the day.
One further pattern is specific to St Olave's format: boys who have only practised written maths and English can be caught out by the Logic component of the Stage 1 SET, which blends Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning into the same hour as the Mathematics and English multiple-choice questions. A boy who has never timed himself across four question types in sixty minutes often runs out of time on the last section, whichever section that happens to be for him — so practice should rotate the order of sections, not always place the same one last.
September to December (Year 5): This is the time to build foundations without pressure. Focus on reading widely — fiction, non-fiction, quality journalism — to develop vocabulary and comprehension instincts. In Maths, identify and close any gaps in core topics: fractions, percentages, ratio, and written methods. This stage is about breadth and confidence, not exam technique.
Our expert 11+ tutors work with boys targeting St Olave's on both stages of its Selective Entrance Test, building the reasoning speed the SET rewards and the extended written English and mathematics that Stage 2 then tests. Our students have achieved a 95%+ offer rate across selective school entry, and we're rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppJanuary to April (Year 6): Begin structured preparation in earnest. Introduce past papers and specimen questions, but do not simply complete them — analyse every error carefully. Work on the specific skills the St Olave's test demands: inference and language analysis in English, multi-step problem solving in Maths. Begin timed practice in short bursts to build stamina and pacing awareness.
May to July (Year 6): Increase the intensity of timed practice. Simulate exam conditions as closely as possible. Focus on the areas where errors are still occurring and resist the temptation to only practise what your child already does well. Written English work should be reviewed and refined regularly at this stage.
August to September (Year 6): In the final weeks before the exam, maintain momentum without creating anxiety. Short, focused sessions are more effective than long, exhausting ones. Revisit strong areas to build confidence alongside continued work on weaker points. Ensure your child is well-rested and calm going into the test.
Leading Tuition provides 1-to-1 specialist tutoring for boys preparing for St Olave's Grammar School. Our tutors are familiar with the specific demands of the St Olave's own test — not just the subject content, but the style of questioning, the pace required, and the particular skills that distinguish a strong performance from an average one. Every preparation plan is built around the individual child: their current strengths, the areas where they need to develop, and the timeline available before the exam.
1-to-1 tutoring allows a tutor to identify exactly where a child's reasoning breaks down — something that group classes and workbooks alone cannot do. For a school as selective as St Olave's, that level of precision in preparation is not a luxury. It is what makes the difference between a child who is broadly able and a child who is genuinely ready for this exam.
For official entry requirements and registration details, see the St Olave's Grammar School admissions.
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
Reviewed September 2026: the SET/Stage 2 format, admission numbers and catchment policy checked against St Olave's Grammar School's own admissions pages and GIAS.
The Selective Entrance Test (SET) is St Olave's own Stage 1 paper for Year 7 entry. It lasts one hour and is entirely multiple choice, covering English, Logic — both Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning — and Mathematics in a single sitting, with answers entered in HB pencil on the Answer Sheet provided. There is no written or creative-writing element at this stage. Only boys who reach the required standard in the SET are invited to sit Stage 2, so reasoning speed across three subject areas in one hour matters as much as accuracy in any one of them.
Stage 2 is a separate, more demanding test that only the top 450 performing boys from the SET are invited to sit. Candidates bring pens for a written English paper and pencils, an eraser and a ruler for a Mathematics paper — both marked for depth rather than for speed of reasoning alone. Where the SET tests breadth across three subject areas in one hour, Stage 2 tests sustained written English and multi-step mathematical problem-solving among a group who have already cleared the first hurdle. A boy who does not reach Stage 2 is not eligible for an offer, whatever his overall promise.
The Published Admission Number for Year 7 is 124, plus up to four further places through the Wakeham Choristership scheme, taking the maximum cohort to 128 if every chorister place is filled. For September 2027 entry the school recorded 1,595 applications for its 124 places, and across the 2025 and 2026 application seasons it reports an average of around 1,600 applicants a year. Up to ten of the 124 places are reserved for boys registered for Pupil Premium, still allocated by rank order rather than by address.
No. St Olave's own admissions FAQ states directly that it has no catchment area, no sibling policy and no affiliation with any feeder primary school — entry is based solely on performance in its own entrance tests, and a typical Year 7 cohort arrives from around 90 different primary schools. A family living a long way from Orpington is ranked on exactly the same test scores as a family living close to the school. Distance can still matter logistically on test day, but it plays no part in how places are allocated.
No. St Olave's sets and administers its own Selective Entrance Test and its own Stage 2 paper, run at the school on its own published dates and ranked on its own results. Other Bromley grammar schools, including Newstead Wood School, publish separate admissions arrangements for their own entrance tests, so a family should check each school's current published policy directly rather than assume one test or one set of dates covers more than one school.
Most boys benefit from 12 to 18 months of structured preparation, beginning in Year 5, because the SET tests reasoning speed across English, Logic and Mathematics together rather than any one subject in isolation. Starting earlier allows time to build genuine fluency in Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning — a skill rarely taught explicitly in primary school — rather than cramming technique in the weeks before the test. Boys who begin serious preparation only in the summer before Year 6 are at a disadvantage, particularly on the reasoning components, which reward familiarity with question format as much as raw ability.
Leading Tuition provides 1-to-1 specialist tutoring for boys preparing for both stages of the St Olave's process: reasoning speed and accuracy for the Stage 1 SET, and extended written English and mathematics for Stage 2. Every programme is built around a boy's current strengths, the areas where he needs to develop, and the time available before the test, rather than a generic 11+ course aimed at a standard GL or CEM paper. Book a free consultation to discuss a preparation plan for St Olave's.
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