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Unlocking Year 7 Entry at Latymer Upper School: The Bespoke Written Route

Latymer Upper School is a premier co-educational independent day school in Hammersmith, highly sought after for its progressive outlook and stellar academic results. To navigate their admissions process successfully, families must understand that Latymer chooses to use its own independent, traditional testing structure rather than relying on standard digital consortium pre-tests.

The Core Timeline

  • Registration Opens: May of Year 5

  • Registration Deadline: Mid-October of Year 6

  • Bespoke Entrance Exams: Early December of Year 6

  • Interviews & Assessment Days: January of Year 6

  • Offers Emailed: Mid-February of Year 6

The Detailed Exam Format

All registered candidates sit traditional, fast-paced written papers over a single morning in December. The testing block is divided into three key elements:

  • Mathematics (60 Minutes): This paper is based entirely on the National Curriculum Key Stage 2 syllabus. However, it intentionally pushes beyond standard classroom exercises into multi-step problem-solving, data interpretation, and advanced arithmetic.

  • English Reading and Analysis (35 Minutes): A high-speed reading comprehension test that assesses a child's advanced inference, contextual vocabulary, and text-analysis skills.

  • Creative Writing (45 Minutes): A handwritten continuous prose task. Candidates are given a specific stimulus prompt and are marked intensely on original narrative flair, paragraph structuring, varied sentence types, and flawless spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

The Interview Workshop

Following the written round, shortlisted candidates are invited back in January for an immersive interview day. This involves a collaborative group learning workshop and a short 1-to-1 interview with a senior teacher to assess natural engagement, listening skills, and academic curiosity.

Prepare with Exceptional Academics

Because Latymer Upper values genuine intellectual resilience over rote learning, candidates must be completely comfortable tackling unfamiliar, multi-step problems under pressure. Exceptional Academics provides targeted 1-to-1 tuition that sharpens creative prose, text decoding, and problem-solving stamina. Contact our London admissions team at info@exceptionalacademics.com to secure your child’s preparation plan.