Trinity School Croydon 11+ Entry for September 2027

Preparing for Trinity School Croydon — Where to Start

Trinity School, in Shirley, Croydon, is a fee-paying school whose 11+ entry point becomes co-educational in September 2027 — the intake families can apply for until Friday 16 October 2026. Every candidate sits one 70-minute computer-based Quest assessment plus a separate 30-minute guided written paper, on Friday 11 December 2026, with interviews in January and offers on Friday 12 February 2027.

The details below come from Trinity's own 2026 admissions documents — its co-education page, its entrance assessment briefing, its key-dates sheet for September 2027 entry, its 11+ admissions page and its fees, bursaries and scholarships page.

Trinity's 11+ Intake Becomes Co-Educational in September 2027

Trinity has admitted girls to its Sixth Form since 2011, and is now extending co-education to the whole school. The school states it plainly: it will welcome its first co-educational intake in Year 6 and Year 7 in September 2027, and will be fully co-educational in 2031. Applications for September 2027 entry are open to boys and girls at 10+, 11+ and Sixth Form. Full detail is on Trinity's own co-education page.

For an 11+ family this is not a distant announcement. Year 7 is one of the two year groups the change starts with, so a child sitting the entrance assessment in December 2026 is competing for a place in Trinity's first fully co-educational Year 7. A daughter is eligible for that assessment; before the September 2027 intake Trinity admitted girls only to its Sixth Form.

The change also alters the size of the intake. Trinity has published its planned first-year composition: between 70 and 100 girls alongside around 100 boys in Year 7, with a similar balance in Year 6. Set that against the school's own description of its year groups — a typical year group of 135 up to GCSE, with Year 6 staying at 48 — and the arithmetic is straightforward. The Year 7 that a successful 11+ candidate joins in September 2027 is planned at roughly 170 to 200 students, against 135 in a typical year group up to GCSE, on the way from 1,050 pupils to 1,400 by 2033. Year groups are capped at no more than 200 once that growth is complete, and class sizes are held at around 21.

Two practical consequences follow. The planned size of the Year 7 intake is rising in the same cycle families are applying for, not after it. And girls, who had no route into Trinity below Sixth Form before September 2027 entry, now have one for September 2027 entry. Figures from earlier admissions cycles, when entry below Sixth Form was boys-only, cannot reflect either change.

One entry point is deliberately excluded. Trinity has said it will not introduce a 13+ entry point for girls until 2029, when the cohort joining Year 7 in September 2027 reaches Year 9 itself. Ask Trinity's admissions team before treating 13+ as an alternative to 11+ for a daughter; our Trinity School Croydon 13+ guide covers the 13+ timetable.

What the Trinity 11+ Assessment Actually Contains

Trinity's entrance assessment briefing for 10+, 11+ and 13+ candidates describes a computer-based assessment built by Quest, running 70 minutes and covering four areas, plus a separate 30-minute guided written paper. Timings and structure are identical at each entry point; the content differs, because each is built to be age-appropriate.

Three details in that table are worth dwelling on, because they change how a child should prepare.

First, the sections are largely multiple choice and require no typing or keyboard skills. A child who is slow on a keyboard does not need keyboard skills for the computer-based half, and Trinity recommends that applicants familiarise themselves with the style of the computer assessment before the exam day.

Second, every section except English adapts in difficulty as the candidate answers. Because the difficulty depends on the answers given, two children sitting the same assessment can see different questions. Maths carries 30 of the 70 minutes and is adaptive, the longest of the four computer-based sections.

Third, the guided written paper is 30 minutes long and asks for a personal response to a range of prompts. What helps with it is the underlying ability to organise a response quickly and write accurately under time pressure.

The computer-based assessment and the guided written paper are sat on the same day, according to Quest's guidance for Trinity candidates.

Key Dates for September 2027 Entry

Every date below is taken from Trinity's own key-dates sheet for 10+, 11+ and 13+ entry in September 2027; the 16 October 2026 closing date is also on Trinity's 11+ admissions page.

The co-education change is already visible in that timetable, and it is the quickest way to confirm it for yourself. Trinity's own sheet lists 11+ Girls Sports scholarship assessments on Thursday 21 January 2027, separately from the Boys Sports assessments three days earlier. A school that admitted no girls below Sixth Form would have no reason to schedule a Girls Sports assessment.

Everything on this page describes the process for September 2027 entry; confirm the dates against Trinity's own key-dates sheet before working to them. The first deadline is the October one. Applications close on Friday 16 October 2026, eight weeks before the assessment on Friday 11 December 2026. A family that starts thinking seriously about Trinity after that date has missed the application deadline for September 2027 entry. Trinity's school fee from September 2026 is £30,468, inclusive of VAT and other applicable taxes. Bursary registrations through The John Whitgift Foundation opened on Wednesday 2 September 2026 and close on Friday 6 November 2026, and Trinity states that a bursary application must be indicated with the application to the school.

How Trinity School Croydon Selects Its Pupils

Entry is selective: candidates sit the entrance assessment and, if successful, are invited to an academic interview with a member of Trinity's teaching staff. The vast majority of students who join Trinity do so from co-educational primary schools and prep schools.

What Trinity says it is looking for goes beyond the assessment score. Candidates who perform well are invited to an academic interview with a member of teaching staff, and the school describes that conversation as focused on the child's interests, in and out of school, and on the ability to think laterally — with nothing to prepare in advance. In practice that suits a child who can hold an unrehearsed conversation about something they genuinely care about.

Scholarship assessments sit alongside the main route rather than replacing it, across Sport, Music, Art, Drama and Design Technology, on dates in January 2027 (above). All students entering at 11+ are considered for an Academic Scholarship, and students may apply for scholarships in Music, Sport, Drama, Art and Design Technology.

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How Leading Tuition Prepares Students for the Trinity 11+

Leading Tuition provides specialist 1-to-1 tutoring for children preparing for the Trinity School Croydon entrance assessment. Because Trinity's assessment is a Quest-built computer-based test with a separate guided written paper, the most useful preparation matches that format. Preparation typically covers:

• Adaptive practice — working through computer-based questions that adjust in difficulty, and rehearsing the on-screen interface so test day is not the first encounter with it
• Mathematics, 30 of the 70 minutes, adaptive in difficulty and the longest of the four computer-based sections
• English, 20 of the 70 minutes, at fixed difficulty
• Verbal and non-verbal reasoning, introduced systematically for children with little prior exposure
• The guided written paper — organising and writing an accurate personal response to a range of prompts within 30 minutes
• Interview preparation for shortlisted candidates: holding an open conversation, not delivering prepared answers

Every child begins with an honest assessment of where they are and what they need, and preparation is structured around that rather than a fixed programme. For families weighing Trinity against other Quest schools, our Quest Assessment tutoring page covers the platform itself in more depth.

Supporting the Whole Family Through the 11+ Process

The 11+ process is not just demanding for children — it places real pressure on parents too. Managing preparation alongside school, activities and family life takes planning, and it takes honest conversations about what your child finds difficult and what motivates them.

We work with parents as well as pupils: clear, regular feedback on progress, concerns flagged early, and help making informed decisions — including whether Trinity is the right fit, and how to manage applications to more than one school at once. For official entry requirements and registration details, see Trinity School's 11+ admissions page.

Why Families Choose Leading Tuition for Trinity School Croydon

91% of our students achieve their desired grades. That is a practice-wide figure across every level we teach, not a Trinity School Croydon cohort — we do not publish a school-by-school offer rate for Trinity, because we do not hold one we could evidence. What we can say specifically is what our tutors work on for this assessment, and it is set out above: the adaptive Quest sections, the guided written paper, and the open academic interview.

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 October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Trinity School's 11+ admissions page, key-dates sheet for September 2027 entry, co-education page, entrance assessment briefing and fees page, and Quest's Trinity guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions