11 Plus Exams Forum

My son passed the independent school exam and we have already been asked to pay a £500 deposit to secure a place. Is this normal, given that we may lose it if he gains a grammer school entry.

you may be able to try and get away with not paying until you hear about the grammar school exam but they will probably pressure you to pay to "confirm" the place and guarantee that they will hold it for you.

It is a way of them making money as they know that a proportion of the kids who pass will go to the grammar school, but parents will want to have to have the reassurance of another place available.


Ultimately it depends how over subscribed the independent school is - if they have a huge waiting list you will probably have to pay up to have the security of the place - if you think they don't have loads of kids waiting for places then may be you can risk not paying.

Thank you very much for your views. Ill be calling them today to discuss.

My son is doing the entrance exam for Colfe's an independent school in South East London. It's our back up plan in case he doesn't pass the 11+. Results of the entrance exam come out in February and you have to accept a couple of days after the 11+ results are out. I asked what would happen if there was a delay in receiving the 11+ results (not unheard of for letters to go astray in the post!) and the bursar said that, in that case, we just needed to ring her and she would give us a few days grace.

The difficulty is if he passes the entrance exam but not the 11+ we will appeal for a grammar but will have to pay the first term's fees to secure his place at the independent school which we will lose if his appeal is successful!

I was talking at lunch with a group of mothers who have in the past had children apply to state and independent schools at the same time. They said that the independent schools are always very helpful when they know that the children are applying to granmar schools and waiting for the results in March and have not pressurised for deposits in fact one mother did not pay it until the last day of the summer term!

I realise it may vary around the country - hope you get sorted

All, thanks for your comments. School has asked us to confirm the day after the results come out in the first week in March. Very reasonable!