Surrey has no state grammar schools. So what are Redhill families actually applying for — and when?
For parents of children in Years 4 and 5
Message me on WhatsAppIf you live in Redhill or Reigate and you've started wondering about the 11+, you will have discovered that nobody explains it to you. There's no local grammar school, so the primary school doesn't cover it, and the parents who do know tend to have worked it out the hard way.
I wrote this while taking my own son through it. It's the thing I wish somebody had handed me two years ago.
Start here
The tests are sat in the first two weeks of Year 6. Registration closes during the summer holiday before.
That is the single most important sentence in this guide. By the time your child walks into Year 6, the registration deadline has passed and the exam is a fortnight away.
Which means the real preparation year is Year 5 — and the decision year is Year 4.
Parents who plan to "look at it properly in Year 6" have, without realising, already decided not to apply. It isn't a close call or a tight squeeze; the door is simply shut. This is the most common and most painful mistake in the whole process, and it has nothing to do with how able the child is.
The landscape
Redhill sits in an unusual spot. There are no grammar schools in Surrey, but we are on direct train lines to two separate selective systems, and surrounded by independent schools that examine at 11+. Families here often pursue two or three routes at once, each with its own test, its own paperwork and its own calendar.
| Route | Schools | Test | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sutton grammarsDirect train from Redhill | Sutton Grammar, Wallington County, Wallington Girls, Nonsuch, Wilson's, and selective places at Greenshaw | The SETSelective Eligibility Test, then a second-stage paper | Register by 31 JulyTest mid-September, Year 6 |
| Kent grammarsRedhill–Tonbridge line; open to out-of-county families | The Judd, Skinners', Tonbridge Grammar, Weald of Kent and others | The Kent TestTwo papers plus a writing task | Register June – 1 JulyTest early September, Year 6 |
| Independent schoolsOn your doorstep | Reigate Grammar, Dunottar, Caterham, and the Croydon schools | Each school sets its own entrance examDates vary — check each school | Register in the autumnExams in January, Year 6 |
Two things worth knowing before you plan around this table. First, a qualifying score is not an offer. Passing the SET makes your child eligible to be considered; passing the Kent Test makes them grammar-assessed. Places are then allocated on each school's own oversubscription criteria, and every one of these schools is oversubscribed with qualified children.
Second, distance counts against you. Most of these schools rank children living closer to them above those living further away, and some operate a defined catchment. From Redhill you are applying from the outside on both routes. It is done every year and it is worth doing — but go in knowing that your child needs to be comfortably above the qualifying mark, not just over it.
The papers
These two tests are less alike than people assume, and the difference should shape how you prepare.
The practical consequence: reasoning is a third of the Kent assessment and none of Sutton's. A child who is strong at pattern and logic has a real advantage in Kent that does not exist at all in Sutton. A child whose written English is their strength is better suited to Sutton, where stage 2 is an hour of extended writing.
Most families prepare for both as though they were the same exam. They aren't.
Children not at a Kent primary school sit the Kent Test on a weekend rather than the main Thursday, which is how out-of-county families are accommodated. You register directly with Kent County Council; your Surrey primary school has no part in it.
One further wrinkle: a small number of Kent schools have begun setting an additional test of their own on top of the Kent Test. Check the admissions page of every school you are considering rather than assuming one test covers them all.
The calendar
Dates shift by a few days each year. The shape does not.
Decide whether to try. Visit two or three schools on open days. Work out honestly whether the journey is one your child will make twice a day for seven years — Sutton and Tonbridge are both realistic from Redhill, but they are real commutes.
Start proper preparation. Not cramming — filling gaps. This is when there is time to fix a shaky grasp of fractions rather than paper over it.
Introduce reasoning if Kent is on your list. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are unlike anything taught at primary school, and children improve at them quickly — but only once they've seen them.
Kent Test registration. Opens in early June and closes on 1 July. Miss it and there is no second chance that year. Access arrangements must be requested by the same deadline.
Sutton SET registration closes. Mid-summer, when most families have stopped thinking about school.
Timed practice papers. The content is finished by now; what's left is stamina and pace. Two or three papers a week under real timing beats daily drilling.
Both tests. Kent in the first full week; the Sutton SET around the middle of the month. Out-of-county children sit Kent at the weekend.
Results, then the application. Kent decisions arrive in mid-October; Sutton's second-stage papers are sat in October and the outcome reaches you before the national secondary application closes on 31 October. You get about a fortnight to decide, so think through the scenarios in advance.
Independent school exams, for families running that route as well.
National offer day.
Always confirm the exact dates on the official pages — Kent County Council for the Kent Test, and the London Borough of Sutton for the SET. They publish the coming year's dates in the spring.
Preparation
The honest answer is less than the anxious answer, and it needs to start earlier.
A child who is already secure in Year 5 maths needs perhaps two to three focused hours a week through Year 5, rising a little over the summer. That is enough. Children doing six hours a week from Year 4 are not twice as likely to pass; they are more likely to arrive at the exam tired of the whole thing.
What actually moves the needle, in order: closing the specific gaps a child has rather than re-covering what they can already do; working under timed conditions, because most children lose more marks to pace than to knowledge; and reasoning practice if Kent is on the list, since it's the part that improves fastest from a standing start.
Not every child should sit it. A child who is working comfortably at the expected standard, but not beyond it, may pass and then spend seven years in the bottom set of a school where everyone was in the top set at primary. There are excellent non-selective schools locally. Sitting the 11+ should be a decision, not a default.
Have a plan for the outcome you don't want. Most children who sit these tests don't get a grammar place — that's arithmetic, not pessimism. Deciding in advance how you'll talk about it, and making sure your child knows the plan, is worth more than another practice paper.
I'm Nivitha Vayath. I tutor maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning in Redhill and online — I don't teach English comprehension or creative writing, and I'll tell you if that's what your child needs.
If you'd like to know where your child actually stands, I'll sit with them for 45 minutes, no charge and no obligation, and send you a written report within two days: what's secure, what isn't, how much time is realistically needed, and my honest view on whether the school you have in mind is the right target. Plenty of families take the report and carry on by themselves, which is a perfectly good outcome.
WhatsApp mePrefer email? hello@setsquareprep.co.uk