St Mary’s School, Cambridge: Year 7 (11+) Entry Assessment Information
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Table of Contents
Introduction
St Mary’s School, Cambridge, is an independent school that educates girls from the age of 3 to 18. It offers boarding from Year 5 (age 9) onwards. Families are expected to support St Mary’s Roman Catholic ethos, which lies at the heart of school life. The school is a Mary Ward school, following the example of Mary Ward, a devout Roman Catholic and a pioneer in girls’ education.
Being a girls-only school, teaching is tailored to suit the way girls learn best. Statistics reveal that girls perform better in public examinations if they go to single-sex schools. Additionally, St Mary’s is a member of the Girls’ School Association (GSA), and research shows that girls who attend a GSA school are significantly more likely to study a science subject at A-Level.
The enrichment programme at St Mary’s is impressive, enabling girls to develop their talents, try new challenges and have fun while making new friends. Sport is a strong feature of the programme, with girls able to choose from a wide range of activities, including rowing, handball, self-defence and basketball.
Pastoral care is a priority at St Mary’s, with Girls on Board being an initiative that the school has embraced for the benefit of its Senior School pupils. It is a programme that teaches girls how to communicate effectively to manage friendships and reduce conflict, empowering them to resolve issues without adult intervention.
Please read on to learn about St Mary’s admissions process.
St Mary’s School, Cambridge: Contact Details and Year 7 (11+) Entry Admissions Process
School Details for St Mary’s School, Cambridge
Address: Bateman Street, Cambridge, CB2 1LY
County: Cambridgeshire
Admissions info: [email protected] or +44 (0)1223 224 167
School type: Independent school for girls aged 3-18, with boarding from Year 5
Number of students: 600 (approx.)
Open Day: October
Entry assessment date: The last Saturday in January of Year 6
Entrance assessments: Online Quest assessment, creative writing assessment and interview
Admissions Process for 11 Plus Entry to St Mary’s School, Cambridge
St Mary’s recommends that you arrange a visit to find out more about the school and see what it has to offer, helping you decide whether it is a good fit for your daughter. An Open Day is held in October, and a personal tour can also be arranged upon request.
The online application form must be submitted by December 1st, when your daughter is in Year 6. An application fee of £120 is required for a day place and £180 for a boarding place. This fee is non-refundable.
On the last Saturday in January of Year 6, your daughter will sit an online adaptive Quest assessment and a creative writing paper at St Mary’s, as well as be interviewed.
A reference from her current school will also be requested and reviewed as part of the admissions process.
To be eligible for a place at St Mary’s in Year 7, your daughter will have to perform well in the entrance assessments and interview. She will also need to have a strong reference.
If there are more eligible candidates than there are available places, girls will be prioritised if they meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Have a sister at the school.
- Have difficult personal circumstances that mean they would particularly benefit from St Mary’s superb pastoral care.
- Have a mother who attended St Mary’s or any other Mary Ward school, of which there are nearly 200.
Within about a week of the entrance assessments, you will find out if your daughter has been offered a place. If she has, you will need to decide by the first Monday in March whether you will accept it. If you do accept it, you will have to pay a deposit (£500 for a day place and a term’s fees for a boarding place). This deposit is refunded in your daughter’s last term at St Mary’s.
St Mary’s School, Cambridge: Scholarships and Bursaries for Year 7 Entry
St Mary’s offers Academic Achievement scholarships for Year 7 entry. They are awarded to those who excel in the entrance assessments. They last for one year, and recipients are given a £25 gift voucher.
There are also a number of other scholarships available (art, creative writing, dance, design, drama, music and sport). You need to apply for these by the beginning of December, the year before entry. These scholarships are typically valid for two years and are worth 5% of the day fees. You can apply for more than two scholarships, but you can only receive the fee remission for a maximum of two.
For more details about scholarships, please click on this link.
St Mary’s also offers bursaries, which are means-tested awards. Girls already at the school are prioritised, so if you know you will need financial help for your daughter to attend St Mary’s, it is worth contacting the school bursar for a confidential conversation before the October of Year 6 deadline for bursary applications. The bursar’s email address is [email protected].
For more information about bursaries, please click on this link.
St Mary’s School, Cambridge: Year 7 (11+) Online Adaptive Quest Assessment
As part of the admissions process, your daughter will sit an online assessment produced by Quest. The assessment will test your daughter’s abilities in the following areas:
- Maths
Questions will cover arithmetic, number, measurement, geometry and statistics, without going beyond Year 5 work.
Your daughter will need to demonstrate a good grasp of mathematical concepts and be able to apply them to solve problems.
The use of a pencil and paper will be permitted to assist with calculations.
- English
Questions will be asked on a given passage that could be fiction or non-fiction.
Your daughter can expect to extract information from the passage, make inferences, and deduce the meaning of words from their context.
Additionally, there may be further questions that assess the standard of your daughter’s spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as the maturity of her vocabulary.
- Verbal Reasoning
Questions will involve written information, such as letters and words.
Your daughter will be required to identify patterns, utilise her logical reasoning skills and employ her extensive vocabulary to solve problems.
- Non-Verbal Reasoning
Questions will use visual information, such as pictures, diagrams and shapes.
Your daughter must show that she can analyse the information and apply her logical reasoning skills and spatial awareness to solve problems.
- Creative Comprehension
Questions will be asked about several sources that share a common theme.
Your daughter will have to interpret the sources and answer questions that could require her to consider more than one source at a time.
The test is adaptive, meaning not all candidates will answer the same questions. In some parts, questions will become easier or harder depending on whether a candidate is answering them correctly or incorrectly. In this way, candidates will answer questions that are at an appropriate level for them. The difficulty level that your child reaches in the adaptive sections will be taken into account, ensuring that overall scores are fair.
To perform to the best of her ability in the online adaptive Quest assessment, it will help if your daughter feels confident and fully prepared. For tips to help her, please read on.
Tips to Help Your Daughter Prepare for the St Mary’s School, Cambridge, Online Adaptive Quest Assessment
Here are our top tips to help your daughter have a successful preparation process:
- Schedule study sessions appropriately
It is best to start study sessions months before the entrance assessments so that your daughter has plenty of time to prepare, removing the need for any last-minute panic. Also, keep the sessions short, as children can typically focus effectively for 2-3 minutes per year of their age. A ‘little and often’ approach is best.
- Condense the facts your daughter needs to learn
Your daughter will need to know the key facts she has covered in her maths and English lessons at school, up to the end of Year 5. It can feel much more manageable if these facts are condensed into one small notebook or written out on flashcards.
- Have fun and relax while learning
There are numerous ways for your daughter to enjoy herself while learning. For example, completing puzzles and playing board games that require logic and forward thinking will enhance her reasoning skills. Additionally, she can relax by reading, which will broaden her vocabulary and improve her spelling, punctuation, and grammar without her even realising it.
- Adopt a growth mindset
A growth mindset is a positive approach to learning that embraces the belief that everyone can improve their skills. Mistakes are not seen as setbacks, but as opportunities to learn and move forward. Every achievement, no matter how small, is worth acknowledging and praising. This approach will help your daughter stay motivated.
- Use practice tests
There is no better way to prepare your daughter for St Mary’s online Quest adaptive assessment than for her to work through practice tests, enabling her to become familiar with the question types, format and timings of the test. Our online Quest practice tests will help her identify any areas she needs to focus on, get her accustomed to working under time pressure and alleviate her worries about the Quest assessment, as she will know what to expect.
St Mary’s School, Cambridge: 11 Plus (11+)/Year 7 Online Quest Practice Tests
St Mary’s School, Cambridge, 11+ Online Practice Tests
Our St Mary’s School, Cambridge, 11+ Online Entrance Assessment Practice Tests provide realistic and highly accurate preparation for the actual exam. Each full mock test replicates the modules, timings and question types used in the real assessment, ensuring your child becomes familiar with the format and expectations. Covering Maths, English, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning and Creative Comprehension, these tests are all pitched at the same difficulty level, allowing you to benchmark your child’s progress, track improvement and identify key areas for further practice.
St Mary’s School Cambridge 11+ Practice Test 1
St Mary’s School Cambridge 11+ Practice Test 2
St Mary’s School Cambridge 11+ Practice Test 3
St Mary’s School Cambridge 11+ Practice Test 4
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St Mary’s School, Cambridge, 11+ Skill Practice
Our Skill Practice exercises are designed to focus on one specific question type that will come up in the St Mary’s School, Cambridge, 11+ exam. They are ideal for targeted practice and an efficient way to quickly improve your child’s scores in the relevant topic.
St Mary’s School Cambridge 11+ Mathematics
St Mary’s School Cambridge 11+ Creative Comprehension Pack 1
St Mary’s School Cambridge 11+ Creative Comprehension Pack 2
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If you have any questions about our 11+ exam practice materials or need guidance, please reach out to us! We’re here to help your daughter succeed in her 11+ online exam for entry to St Mary’s School, Cambridge.
The information in this post was believed to be correct at the time of publishing. However, please be aware that there could be future changes. We advise you to contact the school directly if you are unsure of anything. School contact details are provided within the post.
Please note that Pretest Plus is an independent publisher of practice tests and not affiliated with or endorsed by the publishers of the Quest online assessment or any other test publisher.
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