Article written by Luke Ramsden, Senior Deputy Head & Director of Safeguarding at and Mícheál Foley, Assistant Head Pastoral, St Benedict's School

At St Benedict's, we have taken a long, hard look at the 11+ entry process and made some big changes to improve the experience for both students, parents and the school.

We wanted to strip away the parts that added stress without adding value and focus on what really matters: selecting students who will thrive in our community, while ensuring the process itself is as humane and meaningful as possible.

One of the biggest shifts has been scrapping the verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers. For years, these were included alongside English and Maths, supposedly to test logical thinking and problem-solving.

In reality, they had become just as coachable as the other papers, with well-prepared candidates scoring just as highly across the board.

Year after year, the results showed that performance in English and Maths was almost identical to performance in verbal and non-verbal reasoning.

In other words, they told us nothing new. So, rather than making students sit two extra exams for the sake of it, we now focus solely on English and Maths—subjects that actually matter for academic success and give us a clearer picture of a candidate's ability.

St Benedict's has changed its 11+ entry process to improve the experience for both students, parents and teachers (credit: St Benedict's School).

The second major change is how we assess students beyond the written exams. Traditionally, we held one-on-one interviews with candidates, either with the Head or a senior member of staff.

The idea was to get to know them better, but in reality, it had turned into an exercise in how well a child had been coached. Most applicants arrived with polished, pre-prepared answers—usually some version of "I love reading, I play the violin, and I am passionate about football."

We rarely got any real insight into what they were actually like.

So, we replaced the formal interview with something far more revealing: a group activity. This year, upon arrival at the school, pupils were divided into small groups and given a survival challenge.

With a teacher observing how well pupils listened to instructions, worked together and were able to justify their opinions, they were asked to work in 2s or 3s to decide what nine items out of a list of twenty they would take with them to a desert island to ensure survival.

Once they had agreed what nine items they would take, the small group was combined with another, making a larger group of five or six pupils, answers were compared and a final, mutually agreed nine items were 'locked in'.

Candidates applying to St Benedict's now take part in group activities instead of a formal interview (credit: St Benedict's School).

At this point the teacher would ask the pupils why they had chosen the items (or not!) and what the benefit of each might be in the desert island setting.

The advantages of the group activity were that the pupils were taken out of an artificial situation in which they simply regurgitated pre-planned and rehearsed answers and were instead encouraged to have much more organic conversations with their peers and an adult about a situation they had no prior knowledge of and with a group of people they didn't know.

It was very interesting (and lovely in equal measure) to see how the pupils responded.

The pupils almost immediately became engrossed by the task and the idea of what might be waiting for them on the island.

Teamwork, communication skills, reasoning, the ability to see others' viewpoints and argue in a respectful way were all being shown and observed, and the pupils didn't even realise it.

If some students were reluctant to speak up, then the supervising teacher could help to prompt a response to the task. 

This activity also gave them a taste of what a classroom environment in secondary school might be like, not to mention the fact that they have now already met several staff members and potential peers, some of whom seemed to immediately hit it off as friends.

The parents seemed more at ease throughout the day too – there is no longer a 'right or wrong' answer or process to practice or rehearse for.

This new system is much more natural, much more relaxed, much more enjoyable and a much more useful indicator as to how an individual pupil might fit into what we do here at St Benedict's.   

The system puts students at ease and the process is more realistic to a classroom environment (credit: St Benedict's School).

All this ties into the St Benedict's School ethos: that well-being and happiness are at the heart of success.

An 11+ process that piles on unnecessary stress does not tell us which students will thrive; it just tells us which students can handle pressure.

By focusing on what really matters—academic ability in core subjects and how students engage with others—we have created an admissions process that is both rigorous and humane.

At a time when independent schools are under more scrutiny than ever, with parents questioning exactly what they are paying for, this approach reflects what makes St Benedict's different.

We are not just looking for students who can jump through hoops; we are looking for students who will contribute to the life of the school, who will enjoy their time here, and who will leave as well-rounded, confident young people. That starts with getting the admissions process right.

St Benedict's is a leading co-educational day school for girls and boys aged 3-18 in Ealing, London.

For more information on St Benedict's and to attend one of their upcoming open events, please visit www.stbenedicts.org.uk/visit-us

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