St Paul's Girls’ School ADMISSIONS
St Paul’s Girls’ School (SPGS) is an independent school for girls in Year 7 (Lower School), Year 9 (Middle School), and Sixth Form (Senior School). Since being founded in Hammersmith, West London in 1904, SPGS has demonstrated an exceptional record for academic achievement as well as for preparing girls for bright and successful futures.
What sets the school apart from many other schools is its forward-thinking, liberal focus whereby girls are encouraged to express themselves creatively and artistically. The girls are free to develop their own passions in a safe, comforting environment.
School Information
Address: St Paul’s Girls’ School
Brook Green
Hammersmith
London
W6 7BS
Telephone: telephone: 020 7603 2288
Email address for prospective students: admissions@spgs.org
Visitors should bring photo ID and can easily reach the school via public transport by the District, Piccadilly, Circle, and Hammersmith & City lines.
Exam Dates for 2021/2022
The deadline for applying to SPGS for 2021 entry was on Friday 13 November 2020. A cognitive test on maths, verbal ability, and non-verbal ability was held on 25 November 2020.
Entrance examinations in English, Mathematics, and Comprehension were held on 4 January 2021. Interviews for successful candidates were held between 18 January and 29 January 2021.
Little information has been published thus far on entry to St Paul’s Girls School for 2022, but the school does welcome applications for 2022 entry at any time provided that all paperwork is received prior to the closing date in November 2021.
It is likely that the entry process for 2022 will have similar dates and deadlines to that of 2021.
The school is committed to handling the difficulties posed by the current global pandemic, however delays or modifications to the schedule are within the realm of possibility for 2021 going forward, so do endeavour to check the school website frequently.
Why Should You Apply for St Paul’s Girls School?
If your daughter wants to know how to get into St Paul’s Girls’ School, the good news is that the school strives to provide a place to any girl with the requisite potential, regardless of financial background. This is done with the aid of their bursary and outreach schemes, as well as through scholarships for up to £1,650 per annum.
Academic achievements for Senior School students have been tremendously promising year over year. Preliminary results for 2020 examinations show that nearly 65 per cent of students achieved A* results, 92.4 percent received A, and 98.4 per cent of students achieved either B or greater. The majority of these academic results were in Maths, English, and the natural sciences. These results are sufficient for most students to proceed to Russell Group universities or to prestigious universities abroad.
Paulinas (students at St Paul’s Girls’ School) have gone on to reach success in their later academic years and professional lives, with many having contributed to the arts, science, journalism, politics, and to education. Famous music composer Gustav Holst was director of music from 1905-1934.
St Paul's Girls’ school admissions welcomes applications from all girls, however parents should be aware that entry is competitive and the entrance examination and interview require rigour and plenty of preparation.
Tips on How to Prepare for the Exam
The entrance examination at St Paul’s Girls’ School contains three core components: English, Mathematics, and Comprehension. Each examination paper will likely take about 45 minutes to complete. The school provides sample papers which are highly recommended for prospective students as preparation material.
English
Applicants will be asked up to 10 questions based on a reading of literary prose. The questions will be asking for inference, meaning, and the extraction of information. Reading is therefore essential, so students should spend plenty of time reading literature in preparation.
Proper grammar and spelling are helpful, but technical accuracy will not be graded. There is no creative writing section, however students may find it helpful to stimulate their imagination and explore their English writing skills with creative writing tasks before sitting the examination.
Mathematics
The mathematics component of the examination is itself broken into three sections: arithmetic, problem-solving, and multi-part problems. The former two sections should be familiar to students that have completed the KS2 level of the National Curriculum, but the latter may be new for your daughter. Critical analytical thinking will be required, and attention to showing proof of work is essential for all maths problems.
A mathematics tutor can provide your daughter with problems in all three areas of interest and help her to solve them whilst showing her proof of work. Geometry, logic, and algebraic problems can also greatly assist your daughter to develop her analytical skills. Over all, your daughter should be prepared to solve numerical arithmetic problems and word problems comfortably.
Comprehension
The comprehension section is quite unique, as it is not commonly found on entrance examinations to other schools in Britain. Material is not covered in the National Curriculum, however students claim that they enjoyed this section as it engages a broad range of stimuli.
Keep in mind that this section was designed to understand the capacity and potential of each candidate in a way that they simply cannot prepare for beforehand. Applicants who have studied too intensely yet do not demonstrate original thought and creativity are not the ideal fit for candidacy, so the school wishes to gauge each applicant’s comprehension to account for this.
Students will be tested on, you guessed it, comprehension. This includes deduction, drawing conclusions, identification of patterns, logic, and inference. Consequently, preparing your daughter for this section could include introductions to philosophical concepts such as logic and deduction. Please take a look at the school’s sample comprehension papers to get a better idea of what the school is looking for.
11+ Interview Tips
St Paul's Girls’ School interviews for the 2021 entry were held on Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is possible that this may be the case for 2022 as well.
Interviews last approximately 15-20 minutes and are crucial in the assessment of each candidate just as much as the entrance examination. The school states that memorising pre-learnt answers to specific topics will not be of any benefit. Rather, the school’s senior staff will engage your daughter through “creativity, engagement, and the capacity for critical thought.”
Interviews at SPGS 11+ can be a stressful experience, particularly if your daughter goes in unprepared. Preparation is possible, however, through engagement in public speaking whether via Zoom with friends or with family members.
Your daughter should be able to demonstrate a sense of engagement and creativity on a wide range of topics. This will be far more helpful than memorising answers as the interviewer will draw from stimulus material that may be completely new to your daughter.
Rather than providing your daughter with answers to questions such as “why do you want to study at St Paul’s?” consider instead engaging her with current events and ask for her opinion and why she believes what she believes to train her ability to infer information and to deduce conclusions.
Example Questions From Previous St Paul’s Students
Why do you want to go to St Paul’s Girls’?
Have you applied to any similar schools?
Have you applied to any other schools?
Why should we offer you a place when there are so many other applicants?
Which hobbies do you enjoy most?
Who is your favourite author?
Who is your greatest role model?
If you were Prime Minister for a day, what would you do to transform the country?
What do you want to be when you’re older?
What book would you recommend to a child in Year 5?
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