Benenden School Entrance Guide

Following the completion of a registration form and payment of the registration fee (which Benenden recommend you do two years before the proposed entry date (so when your daughter is in Year 5), one year before joining, in the Autumn of Year 6, your daughter will be invited to a preview weekend. This is undertaken prior to ISEB and scholarship exams but will include both an English and Maths assessment and an informal interview with a member of school staff. It also allows your daughter to experience school and boarding life and involves an overnight stay in one of the boarding houses. It is possible to be awarded an academic scholarship at Benenden purely on the basis of performance at preview weekend, so it is worth preparing specifically for this. Benenden will also request a reference from your daughter's current school at this stage, which will include the results of any recent CAT tests.

Benenden use the ISEB (Independent Schools Examination Board) assessments in the Autumn Term of Year 6. Following the preview weekend, girls will sit these exams at their own school or at a recognised test centre (international applicants can sit them at a recognised test centre in their country) and the results will be sent straight to Benenden.

Offers of a place will be then made by the end of December of Year 6.

At 11+, there are Academic, Music and Sport scholarships available. These are extended at 13+ to include Drama, Art, Design and Technology and All-Rounder awards (these are not available at 11+). Scholarship awards do not carry any financial award (so there is no automatic discount on fees) but will carry a certain level of prestige and give access to free music lessons for music scholars and free tennis lessons for sports scholars (assuming they are both interested and proficient in tennis). The deadline for application for both Music and Sports scholarships is the December of Year 6 for Year 7 entry at 11+, and assessments take place in the January following this.

Unlike some schools, Benenden does not require your daughter to hold a scholarship to have access to bursarial support. Bursary application forms need to be submitted early, by the September of Year 6 and before the preview weekend or ISEB assessments.

There are three different types of bursaries at 11+, one of which (a 100% bursary) is only open to girls who attend a very specific list of local state primary schools, all located within a 7.5 mile radius of Benenden School and one of which (a 10% bursary) is open to children of diplomats or servicemen and women only.

The third bursary, the 'Benenden Bursary', is open to all applicants and is subject to means-testing.