Our annual open evening is the best opportunity to obtain the majority of relevant information related to joining Bournemouth School in Year 7. Please make every effort to attend this important event, where you get to hear from the Headmaster, meet staff and students, and tour the school site.

Unfortunately, we do not have any on-site parking available. If you are attending the event by car, there is parking in the surrounding roads and at the Sir David English Sports Centre adjacent to the school.

You may also wish to download our Year 7 prospectus and the Headmaster's previous presentation to prospective parents.

If you are unable to attend our open evening, please contact us as brief tours may be arranged at other times.

These dates are for Year 7 entrance in September 2025. 

Students take tests in Mathematics, English and Verbal Reasoning. All the tests are set to be appropriate for the students in their final year of the Key Stage 2 national curriculum. It is acknowledged that candidates are unlikely to have covered all of the work that is tested; the tests take account of this.

These three papers are multiple choice; students mark their answers on a pre-printed sheet. We recommend that parents help their children familiarise themselves with the multiple choice layout of the tests, content, and examples of the type of questions they will face.

Access free GL Assessment familiarisation materials  Purchase GL Assessment practice papers

The entrance tests take place for all schools in the consortium on the same date, in person, at one of the consortium schools. Parents wishing their children be considered for admission to a Bournemouth or Poole Grammar School must register with one of the schools by the date shown in the Key Dates section above.

The eligibility for admission to consortium schools will be determined on the basis of the entrance test results. The tests may only be taken once by any student at any one consortium school. The tests will be taken at the school at which the parent has registered their child. The test outcomes will be used to determine the eligibility of the student for a place at a consortium school. Parents then decide to which schools they will apply for a place for their child.

All applicants to a consortium school must complete a registration form to attend the test day at one of the centres.

A registration after the closing date for test registrations will only be accepted for the entrance tests where the consortium is satisfied that illness, bereavement or other circumstance beyond the control of the parent(s) prevented a timely registration, or the child moved into the area after the closing date for test registration. Evidence will be required in these circumstances.

Late notification of the testing timetable by a child's current school or otherwise will not be accepted as a reason why timely registration was not possible. Where the consortium is not satisfied that a timely registration was prevented, any preference expressed for a consortium school on a Local Authority common application form will not be considered alongside those who registered for testing within the published deadline as they have failed to meet the school’s admission criterion. In such circumstances the application will be considered after the first round of allocations.

For children whose registration or common application form (or both) were submitted after the closing dates, there will be an opportunity to sit the school entrance tests in the following February for consideration after the first round of allocations.

Where a child is unable to sit the entrance tests through illness, bereavement or other circumstance beyond the control of the parent(s), the consortium will make arrangements for testing to take place as soon as practicable. Evidence will be required in these circumstances. Children sitting these tests will be considered alongside those who sat the tests on the original date.

The results of the tests will be emailed to parents. It is therefore vital that parents ensure their email address is correctly entered on the test registration form. The school will advise parents whether, on the basis of the tests taken, their child is eligible or ineligible for a place at a Bournemouth or Poole Grammar School.

It is important to note that being considered eligible for a place at a consortium school does not mean that a place will be allocated as the schools are usually oversubscribed.

After sitting the entrance tests for Bournemouth School, application must be made through your home Local Authority application system (that is, the Local Authority in whose area you reside). In most local authorities it is possible to apply online. If your home authority is not Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole Council (BCP Council), your local authority will pass your expression of interest to BCP Council.

The closing date for completed on time applications to your home local authority is 31 October of Year 6.

Registration for the entrance tests does not replace making an application for admission through your local authority. Application for admission cannot be made directly to the school.

School places are offered by home local authorities on 1 March of Year 6.

Parents whose application for their child to be considered for admission to the school is unsuccessful have a right of appeal to an independent Admissions Appeals Panel.

In the first instance, they are invited to contact the school to discuss their dissatisfaction.  If they remain dissatisfied, they will be given details of the formal appeals procedures and the relevant forms to complete.  Traditionally, very few appeals are upheld and those that are tend to have significant professional supporting evidence.  It must be remembered that for the appeals process to be valid an application to the school must have been made according to the following arrangements:

• submitting on time a valid “Registration for Testing” form;
• the applicant taking all components of the entrance tests;
• placing Bournemouth School on the application form submitted to the Local Authority (if applying for entry into Year 7).

Secondary school age places - Year 7 (2024)

• Appeals lodged after these dates will be heard within 40 school days of the appeal deadline or 30 school days of being lodged, whichever is the later date.
• You will receive at least 10 school days’ notice of your appeal hearing date. School days do not include school holidays, inset days, bank holidays or weekends.
• Appeals are heard during the daytime on weekdays and are not normally heard during school holidays.  Where there are multiple appeals for places at the same school, the hearings may go over a number of days.
• The school’s case will be made available to parents and Panel members at least 5 school days before the start of the appeal hearing.
• Additional evidence may be submitted up to 5 working days before the hearing.
• Any additional evidence received after this date might not be considered at the appeal hearing.  The Appeal Panel must decide whether it should be considered taking into account its significance and the effect of a possible need to adjourn the hearing.
• Following the hearing, decision letters will be sent, where possible, within 5 school days of the end of the hearing.  During busy periods, such as main entry, full decision letters may take longer than this, so the Clerk will send a brief decision summary email in the interim.
• Appeal hearings for in-year places will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

If you wish to discuss appealing for Year 7, please either email [email protected] or telephone the school on 01202 512609 and ask for admissions. We will then be able to provide you with further information about the admissions process, including how to lodge an appeal.