Tiffin Girls' School — Complete Guide for Parents 2026

Tiffin Girls' School is one of the most academically selective state grammar schools in England, located in Kingston upon Thames in the Royal Borough of Kingston. If you're considering one of its 180 Year 7 places for your daughter, this guide covers everything you need to know — from the admissions process and entrance exam format to what life at the school is actually like.

School Overview and Status

Tiffin Girls' School is a state-funded selective grammar school for girls aged 11 to 18. It is also one of the most heavily oversubscribed: 1,468 girls sat its Stage One test for 180 places for 2026 entry. It sits close to Tiffin School, whose sixth form also admits girls, but the two are entirely separate institutions with independent admissions processes.

Admission is by academic ability, with priority for disadvantaged girls and for girls living in the school's Inner Area and Designated Area (see below); there is no faith criterion and there are no fees. Ofsted inspected the school on 6 and 7 January 2026 under its new report-card framework, and the school reports 'Exceptional' judgements in Achievement, Attendance and behaviour, Curriculum and teaching, Leadership and governance, Personal development and wellbeing, and Post-16 provision, and a 'Strong standard' in Inclusion.

The Admissions Process for Year 7 Entry

The process runs across the start of Year 6. For September 2027 entry, registration opened on 2 June 2026 and closed at 12.00 noon on 1 September 2026, with no late registrations accepted; Stage One is on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 October 2026 and Stage Two on Saturday 7 November 2026. The dates move each year, so check the school's Year 7 Admissions page for your daughter's year of entry.

The admissions process works as follows:

1. Register online with Tiffin Girls' School, through its supplementary information form, by the published deadline (12.00 noon on 1 September 2026 for September 2027 entry).
2. Your daughter sits Stage One, computer-marked English and maths papers in early October; the highest-scoring girls are invited to the written Stage Two in November.
3. Girls who sit Stage Two are ranked on a Combined Mark of 60% English and 40% maths.
4. Places are allocated in priority order: any girl with an EHCP naming the school, then looked-after girls at or above the 350th-ranked mark, then up to 60 places for Pupil Premium girls in the catchment and girls in the Inner Area whose mark is at or above the 350th-ranked mark, then the rest in rank order, Designated Area girls before everyone else.
5. You must also submit a separate secondary school application to your home local authority by the national deadline, which is 31 October 2026 for September 2027 entry.

There are 180 places, in six forms of 30. For September 2026 entry, 1,468 girls sat Stage One and 474 sat Stage Two, 8.2 girls tested for every place, and every place went to a girl living in the Designated Area or Inner Area: 44 named postcode districts across Kingston and Richmond, parts of south-west and west London (including Merton, Wandsworth, Hounslow and Ealing) and north Surrey. Girls from outside that area may sit the tests, but apart from looked-after girls and girls with an EHCP naming the school they are ranked behind Designated Area girls, and since September 2014 none has been offered a place.

What the School's Own Admissions Figures Show

The Tiffin Girls' School publishes its admissions figures each year, and the latest edition, its Admissions Information 2024-26, sets three years of entry side by side. The school cautions that the figures "should not be used to make comparisons as the school's admissions policy can vary each year and each cohort is different".

Three things stand out, all of them our arithmetic on the school's figures. The first is how early the field narrows: 474 of the 1,468 girls tested at Stage One for 2026 entry reached Stage Two, about 32 per cent, and 180 of those 474, about 38 per cent, were offered a place. The second is geography: 1,322 of the 1,468, about 90 per cent, gave a Designated Area address when they registered, so most of the competition for places comes from inside the area. The third is the Pupil Premium route, which moves from year to year: 31 of the 82 Pupil Premium girls tested at Stage One for 2026 entry reached Stage Two (37.8 per cent, against 32.3 per cent of the whole field), but for 2025 entry it was 18 of 71 (25.4 per cent, against 31.7 per cent), and for 2024 entry 38 of 74 (51.4 per cent, against 31.3 per cent).

Appeals rarely change the outcome. The school heard 8 appeals for 2026 entry, 10 for 2025 and 5 for 2024, and none of the 23 succeeded.

How the 60 Priority Places Work

The admissions arrangements for September 2027 entry set aside up to 60 of the 180 places before the general rank order runs. After any girl with an EHCP naming the school, and looked-after or previously looked-after girls whose combined mark is at or above the 350th-ranked mark of everyone who sat Stage Two, those 60 places go to girls at or above that 350th-ranked mark in this order: first, girls who qualify for Pupil Premium and live in the Inner Area or Designated Area; then girls who live in the Inner Area. If more than 60 girls qualify and there is a tie for the 60th place, it goes to the girl who lives nearest the school, and after that to an independently verified random draw.

The Inner Area is 13 electoral wards: Berrylands, Canbury Gardens, Coombe Hill, Coombe Vale, Green Lane & St James, Kingston Gate, Kingston Town, New Malden Village, Norbiton, St Mark's & Seething Wells, Surbiton Hill, Tudor, and Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside, the last of them in Richmond upon Thames. Disadvantaged girls also receive a 10% leeway, applied at both stages but never doubled: at Stage One it widens the invitation to Stage Two for looked-after girls and for Pupil Premium girls living in the Designated Area, and at Stage Two it lets those girls qualify for the priority places with a mark up to 10% below the 350th-ranked mark. The school does not alter any girl's individual marks.

What the Entrance Exam Covers

The Tiffin Girls' School names no outside test provider for its entrance exam: Stage One is computer-marked, and the school says it sets and marks the Stage Two papers itself. This is an important distinction. It tests English and maths only, and the school says it assumes girls have completed the Year 5 National Curriculum in both and nothing beyond it, although some questions come in unfamiliar formats.

It runs in two stages:

• Stage One: an English paper (multiple choice) and a maths paper (some multiple choice, some numerical answers), each under 60 minutes and answered on a computer-marked OMR sheet.
• Stage Two: written English and maths papers of similar length. The English paper includes a reading comprehension task and a creative writing task. The Combined Mark is 60% English, taken from Stage Two, and 40% maths, from Stage Two and Stage One in a ratio of 3:1.

The school does not publish past papers, makes changes each year, often to the number of questions, time limits and question types, and does not run mock tests of its own. Preparation should begin well in advance — many families start focused practice at the beginning of Year 5, about 13 months before Stage One — and should concentrate on comprehension, writing and maths, because the tests contain no verbal or non-verbal reasoning.

Academic Life and Curriculum

Once admitted, students follow a broad and rigorous curriculum. Lessons are an hour long and total 25 hours a week, with departments ranging from Classics and Modern Languages to Computer Science, Economics and Psychology.

Our 11+ specialists prepare students specifically for the Tiffin Girls' assessment, helping them prepare for both stages. 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 here.

At GCSE (Years 10 and 11), students study 10 examined courses. English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics are compulsory, so every girl takes the three separate sciences, and each chooses four options, which must include French or Spanish; Latin is among the options. Exam boards vary by subject, and the school's GCSE options booklet lists them.

At A-level (Years 12 and 13), the sixth form offers a wide range of subjects. Students choose their A-levels from a wide range of subjects, and the school supports applications to competitive university courses including Medicine, Law and Engineering. For Medicine applicants, students will need to sit the UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) in the summer before Year 13, as this is now the standard admissions test used by most UK medical schools.

What Parents Should Realistically Expect

Tiffin Girls' is academically demanding. Homework loads are significant from Year 7, and the pace of teaching assumes a high level of prior attainment and independent study habits. Parents often note that girls who thrive here are not just academically able but genuinely curious and self-motivated.

The school has a strong co-curricular programme including music, drama, sport, and an extensive range of clubs and societies. Many students take graded music exams and participate in national competitions. The school also has an active Duke of Edinburgh Award programme.

Travel is worth considering practically. Because the Designated Area stretches from Ealing to Epsom, some students commute significant distances by train or bus. Kingston upon Thames is well connected by South Western Railway, and many families factor in journey time when deciding whether to apply.

Leading Tuition works with families preparing for selective school entrance exams including Tiffin Girls', and one consistent observation is that early, structured preparation — rather than last-minute cramming — makes the biggest difference to a child's confidence and performance on the day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tiffin Girls' School represents one of the most competitive grammar school admissions processes in England, but for the right student it offers an exceptional state education with no fees attached. Understanding the timeline, the exam format, and what the school genuinely expects of its students is the best starting point for any family considering an application.