Admission to Kindergarten at 4+

Our admissions process

Firstly, and most importantly, we wish to be as caring as possible in our approach to you and to your child as we go through the admissions process together. What matters to us is that St John’s College School will be right for you and for your child and our admissions process is designed to help us all reach the right decisions without creating anxiety.

So that you can see us truly as we are, whether you come to an Open Morning or a private tour, we hope you will get a feel for the normal daily life of the school. You will spend time with the Head and/or with the Head of the Junior Department (Byron House), discussing your child, your and our educational hopes and aims, and getting answers to any questions you may have. By the time you leave, you should have a real sense of whether the distinctive education St John’s provides is right for you and for your child.

Once you have seen the School and met with the Head and registered, they will write to you offering a place on a first-come, first-served basis, taking into consideration our priority for siblings (see below) and the number of boys and girls in the year group. You will be asked to confirm your acceptance of the place at this point.

In order finally to check St John’s, with its rich curriculum, is right for your child, we invite them to spend some time with us at school, usually in the February or March in the calendar year of entry, to get to know them as individuals and possibly visit them in their nursery if this is necessary. This is not a formal assessment and we do not give children interviews or tests at such an early age.

Admitting siblings

When it comes to offering places, we give priority to the siblings of children already in the school and the number of places available to non-siblings will therefore vary from year to year. The number of brothers or sisters we take will also determine the number of places left for girls and boys as we aim to have an equal mix of girls and boys within a maximum of 40 places. If we can only offer a waiting list place at this stage, we keep in touch with parents as circumstances change.