North London Independent Schools Quest Assessment Guide 2026

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5. North London Independent Schools Using Quest

This guide covers five North London independent schools. Candidates for Channing School, South Hampstead High School, Francis Holland School Regent's Park and St Margaret's School Hampstead sit the London 11+ Consortium's online assessment, which the Consortium says it designed with its test provider, Quest Assessments; Haberdashers' Boys' School in Elstree uses the same Quest first-round assessment as Haberdashers' Girls' School, sat on paper. North London Collegiate School and Highgate School are not among the Consortium's 13 members and each set their own English and Maths papers. The guide explains what each school tests and sets out places, dates and what each school says about preparation, school by school.

North London's independent school market is unusually dense and unusually varied in how it tests. Across North London and its Hertfordshire border you have schools sharing a single online exam through the Consortium, a school running a paper Quest first round, and two schools setting their own English and Maths papers. Treating "North London 11+" as one exam is a planning mistake — and it is a genuinely different mistake from the one made further south, where the South London Quest schools sit alongside schools on entirely different tests: James Allen's Girls' School and Streatham and Clapham High use the ISEB Common Pre-test, and Alleyn's sets its own written papers.

Which North London Independent Schools Use the Quest Assessment?

This guide covers five North London schools, split between two distinct delivery models. Channing School (Highgate, N6), South Hampstead High School (Hampstead, NW3), Francis Holland School, Regent's Park (NW1) and St Margaret's School, Hampstead (NW3) are four of the 13 member schools of the London 11+ Consortium, which shares a single online assessment across the group; the Consortium says it designed that assessment with its test provider, Quest Assessments. Haberdashers' Boys' School (Elstree, WD6) is not one of the Consortium's 13 members; its 11+ first round is a paper assessment, the same Quest first-round assessment that Habs Boys and Habs Girls both use, with its own component structure. For a full breakdown of the Quest platform itself, see our Quest Assessment preparation hub.

The practical difference matters for preparation. Consortium families sit one 100-minute online assessment, which a candidate only sits once, irrespective of the number of Consortium schools to which she is applying, and the result is shared with every Consortium school at which the candidate is registered; each school then holds its own interview. Haberdashers' Boys' families sit a paper Quest first round that Habs Boys and Habs Girls both use, not the Consortium's — a Consortium result does not replace the Haberdashers' Boys' sitting, because they are different assessments, one taken online and one on paper.

Place figures come from the Channing, South Hampstead and Haberdashers' Boys' admissions pages, and fees are on each school's own fees page linked in the table; "Contact school" marks a figure to confirm directly with the school before planning applications.

What Does the Quest Assessment Actually Test at Each School?

The London 11+ Consortium's assessment is 100 minutes in total and is taken online. It has six components in this order: 20 minutes of Maths, 10 minutes of Non-Verbal Reasoning, 20 minutes of English, 10 minutes of Verbal Reasoning, a break of up to 30 minutes, 15 minutes of Problem Solving and 25 minutes of Creative Comprehension. Maths, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning are adaptive, so the questions are tailored to each candidate's performance, and once a section has been completed, candidates cannot go back to amend it; English, Problem Solving and Creative Comprehension are non-adaptive. The Maths questions are based on the National Curriculum for Year 5, and the English text is a piece of fiction written for the Consortium that assesses comprehension, spelling and grammar. There is no extended writing required.

The Consortium says candidates will either sit the assessment in their current school or at one of the Consortium schools to which they have applied, if their current school is unable to provide this facility, and that they sit it only once. What is school-specific is the reference and the interview: each Consortium school seeks a reference separately from the head of the candidate's current school, the interview is individual to each senior school, and some Consortium schools select for interview from the assessment and some do not. Channing and Francis Holland Regent's Park interview every candidate, while South Hampstead invites candidates who do well in the entrance test. Channing offers places on the basis of the whole picture created by the examination result, the interview performance and the school reference.

Haberdashers' Boys' School's 11+ first round for Year 7 entry is a paper assessment made up of Maths and Non-Verbal Reasoning (45 minutes), English and Verbal Reasoning (40 minutes), Creative Comprehension (20 minutes) and Creative Writing (20 minutes); the Maths and English questions cover topics based on Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum and are multiple choice. The school says Habs Boys and Habs Girls use the same Quest first-round assessment, and that on the basis of the exam results around half of the candidates are invited back for interview. The format differs from the Consortium's: the first round is on paper rather than online, the components are grouped differently, and it includes a Creative Writing task.

Which North London Schools Set Their Own English and Maths Papers — and Why It Matters?

This distinction matters for a family building a North London application strategy: North London Collegiate School (NLCS) in Edgware and Highgate School in N6 are not among the Consortium's 13 member schools and each set their own entrance papers. NLCS's entrance exam is written papers in English and Maths, sat on paper rather than on a computer, each lasting 1 hour and 15 minutes; its English exam includes comprehension and creative writing, the school says it does not use verbal or non-verbal reasoning tests as part of its assessment process, and around 70 to 75 places are available for external applicants joining Year 7 each year. Highgate's entrance exams are an English paper and a Mathematics paper taken at the school in early December; a significant proportion of candidates are then invited back in January for a second-stage assessment consisting of a group interview and taster lessons, and the school hopes to welcome approximately 80 new children into Year 7.

Why this matters practically: families often research "North London 11+ schools" as a single category and assume the entrance process is the same for geographically close schools. It is not: the Consortium assessment is taken online, NLCS's English and Maths exams are sat on paper, Highgate's papers are taken at the school in early December, and Haberdashers' Boys' first round is on paper. Families applying to a mix of these schools in the same admissions cycle should read each school's own admissions page rather than treat "North London 11+" as one process.

How Does the London 11+ Consortium Work for North London Families?

The London 11+ Consortium is, in Francis Holland Regent's Park's words, an association of 13 independent London day schools for girls operating one exam across the group. The Consortium says the exam was designed with its test provider, Quest Assessments. Its members are Channing School, Francis Holland (Regent's Park), Francis Holland (Sloane Square), Godolphin and Latymer, More House, Northwood College for Girls, Notting Hill and Ealing High School, Queen's College, Queen's Gate School, South Hampstead High School, St Augustine's Priory, St Helen's School and St Margaret's School. This guide covers four of them in North London — Channing School, South Hampstead High School, Francis Holland School Regent's Park and St Margaret's School Hampstead. None of the 13 is in South London, as our South London Quest Assessment guide sets out school by school.

The practical benefit for families is that a candidate only sits the assessment once, irrespective of the number of Consortium schools to which she is applying, and the results are shared with all schools at which she is registered, so a girl applying to three North London Consortium schools sits it once rather than three separate times. The assessment does not decide outcomes alone: each Consortium school seeks its own reference and holds its own interview. Some Consortium schools select for interview from the assessment and some do not — the Consortium names Godolphin and Latymer and South Hampstead as schools that select for interview from the assessment — and Channing offers places on the basis of the whole picture created by the examination result, the interview performance and the school reference.

For the official current list of Consortium member schools and exam-cycle dates, see the London 11+ Consortium's own website, and for background on the Quest platform itself, see Quest Assessments.

How Should Families Plan Travel Across These North London Schools?

Channing's transport page lists London Underground: Archway and Highgate Station (Northern Line) and says "over 90% of our families live within a 4 miles radius of the school". South Hampstead says its sites are well-connected to postcodes across London, with various tube lines, bus routes, London Overground and Thameslink stations all within easy reach.

Haberdashers' Boys' School says its coach network serves communities across Hertfordshire and North London, with routes extending from Harpenden, Redbourn and Welwyn Garden City in the north to Camden, Belsize Park and St John's Wood in the south, and that around 70% of students use it; its coach service page links the network map, bookings and prices.

When Should You Register and Sit the Quest Assessment for 2026/2027 Entry?

Across North London's Consortium schools, the admissions calendar follows a consistent shape. For September 2027 entry, registration closes on Friday 6 November 2026, and the shared assessment is taken on one of Friday 27 November, Tuesday 1 December or Thursday 3 December 2026. Channing and Francis Holland Regent's Park each hold their sitting on 27 November 2026 (Channing offers the assessment at Channing on that one day only), and South Hampstead hosts the test on the first two dates, 27 November and 1 December, for candidates whose school cannot host it. Interviews are held on each school's own date — for example Francis Holland Regent's Park on Monday 4 January 2027, Channing on Tuesday 5 January 2027 and South Hampstead on Wednesday 20 January 2027 — and offers are sent on Friday 12 February 2027, with the deadline to accept at 12 noon on Wednesday 3 March 2027.

Haberdashers' Boys' School, running its own Quest first round outside the Consortium, keeps its own dates for Year 7 entry: a registration deadline of Friday 6 November 2026, the first round assessment for Year 7 entry on Friday 20 November 2026, second round assessments from Friday 8 to Friday 15 January 2027, offers sent by email on Friday 12 February 2027 and an acceptance deadline of 9am on Wednesday 3 March 2027. Families should confirm exact dates directly with each school.

What Do North London Schools Themselves Say About Preparation?

The London 11+ Consortium recommends that all candidates look at the familiarisation materials on its website, and says that beyond that, the exam tests knowledge of the Year 5 Maths National Curriculum and candidates will need to know how to read an extended passage of fiction and answer questions on it; it adds that "your daughter does not need special tuition or intensive practice for this assessment". For Non-Verbal and Verbal Reasoning it says "We do not, however, recommend intense preparation as any gains quickly become very marginal", and for interviews it says "We actively discourage preparation for the interview."

Haberdashers' Boys' School invites candidates to try its familiarisation test to see the format and style of questions, and says "Since the 11+ paper is based on skills taught within the National Curriculum, no tutoring or preparation is needed to demonstrate these qualities."

North London Collegiate School publishes sample papers for its Maths and English exams without answers, and Highgate provides English 11+ sample test papers, a Mathematics 11+ sample test paper and tutorial films; Highgate describes its Mathematics paper as designed so that "no specific syllabus or preparation is desirable or necessary".

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