James Allen's Girls' School

Entry points and who can apply

James Allen's Girls' School (JAGS) is a girls' day school in Dulwich. Its main entry point to the Senior School is Year 7 (11+), where the school says it has "a sizeable intake of external students".

• 11+ (Year 7). For girls in Year 6 now, for entry in September 2027. Registration closes on Tuesday 10 November 2026, and the school says it cannot accept late applications.
• Chance vacancies (Years 8 to 10). There is no main intake in these years. The school says it "occasionally" has a small number of chance vacancy places in Years 8, 9 and 10. Registration closes on Tuesday 10 November 2026. Candidates sit the CAT4 online reasoning test and English and maths papers on Thursday 7 January 2027, and those who do well are invited to interview.

The rest of this guide covers 11+.

You register online, with scans of your daughter's full birth certificate and passport. The fee is £240 (£360 for overseas applicants). If you are applying for a bursary and receive Universal Credit or Pupil Premium, use the Pupil Premium registration form, which waives the fee. If both parents have parental responsibility, the school needs contact details for both.

Before you register with JAGS, register your daughter with the Independent Schools' Examination Board (ISEB) for the Common Pre-test. It is free, opens in June, and gives you an ISEB Applicant Code that you need for the JAGS form.

If she needs extra time, send an educational psychologist's report (no more than three years old) when you register. The school says extra time requests must meet the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) criteria.

The assessment: what your daughter will do

There are two separate parts: a Welcome Morning at the school in the autumn term, and the ISEB Common Pre-test, which must be finished by Wednesday 9 December 2026.

Part 1: a Welcome Morning at JAGS

The school runs ten Welcome Mornings between mid-October and late November and gives each girl a date. If she can't make it, the school can suggest another. The morning has three parts:

• a one-to-one interview with a senior member of staff
• a short creative writing task
• an interactive group task

The school does not publish timings for the morning or its tasks.

Part 2: the ISEB Common Pre-test

JAGS describes the Pre-test as online multiple-choice tests in maths, English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, each age-standardised. The school says no preparation is required, and it does not publish test lengths.

She can sit it:

• at her current school, if it hosts the tests, up to Wednesday 9 December 2026. The school says girls whose schools host the tests should sit them there.
• at JAGS, on Tuesday 8 or Wednesday 9 December 2026, allocated alphabetically, if she can't sit it at her own school.
• at another senior school she is applying to, by Wednesday 9 December 2026.

You choose the invigilation centre when you register with ISEB. You don't need to ask JAGS before choosing it; the school approves the request. Overseas applicants can sit the Pre-test and the creative writing task abroad, with the interview on Zoom.

What this means in practice

• Welcome Mornings have started. They began in mid-October, so your daughter's date could come soon after you register. Watch your email.
• Work to the earliest Pre-test deadline. The school warns that another senior school may have a shorter window. If so, you may need to choose that school as her invigilation centre.
• The autumn is busy. The Welcome Morning, the Pre-test and the bursary and scholarship deadlines all fall between mid-October and early December.

References and the decision

JAGS asks the Head of your daughter's current school for a reference. The school says these reports are confidential and are not discussed with candidates or parents.

All results letters go out by email on Thursday 11 February 2027. Some offer a place on a short waiting list. The school does not give waiting list positions and says it cannot predict whether it will offer from the list.

The acceptance deadline is in the offer letter: 12 noon for fee-paying places, 9am for places with a bursary. If you don't reply in time, the school will assume you have declined.

Help with fees: bursaries and scholarships

Senior School fees from September 2026 are £10,146 a term, including VAT, plus lunch. When you accept a place you pay a £3,000 acceptance deposit, which is refunded in the final bill or can be donated to the bursary fund.

Bursaries

The means-tested James Allen Bursary is offered at 11+ and 16+. It can cover up to 100% of fees, plus a contribution to uniform, travel, trips and lunches. The school says it receives around 150 bursary applications a year for 11+, with a budget for about 20 awards.

1. Tick the bursary box on the registration form by Tuesday 10 November 2026.
2. Submit the full bursary application, with all documents, by Sunday 15 November 2026. Incomplete forms, including a missing second parent's section, will not be assessed.
3. The school ranks bursary applicants by their entrance assessment results. On Monday 14 December 2026 it tells some families it can't go further. They can switch to a fee-paying application.
4. Remaining families have a video interview with Bursary Administration Ltd about their finances.
5. Any award comes with the offer on Thursday 11 February 2027 and is reviewed every year.

Scholarships

Every 11+ candidate is considered for an academic scholarship without applying. The strongest performers in the entrance assessments are invited to an assessment afternoon on Wednesday 27 January 2027. Up to 20 academic scholarships may be awarded each year.

Art, music and sport scholarships need an application by 4pm on Monday 30 November 2026, after registering. Girls must also do well in the entrance assessments to be invited. Music auditions are on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 January 2027; sport rounds are on Tuesday 26 January and Tuesday 2 February 2027. Art photos are due by Monday 4 January 2027. Families hear by Monday 18 January 2027 whether they have been selected.

The school's documents give both Friday 22 and Friday 29 January 2027 for the art scholarship exam, so if your daughter is applying for art, check the date with the admissions team.

Most scholarships are worth 10% of fees, and you can apply for a bursary as well.

How to prepare

JAGS says it aims to attract girls "demonstrating spark, curiosity and potential (rather than pre-prepared knowledge)", and that no preparation is required for the Pre-test. With that in mind, these steps are mostly about organisation and everyday habits.

1. Get the admin right. ISEB registration, the Applicant Code, the JAGS form by Tuesday 10 November 2026, and the right invigilation centre.
2. Get used to answering on screen. The Pre-test is multiple choice on a computer, so it may help if she has answered questions on screen before. ISEB's parent pages, linked from JAGS's Apply page, explain how the tests work.
3. Write short pieces regularly. The school does not publish the creative writing format, so practise writing to varied prompts in clear paragraphs, then read the work back together.
4. Read widely and talk about it. Fiction and non-fiction, with conversations about ideas. This helps with English, reasoning and the interview.
5. Work with others. The school doesn't describe the group task. Everyday chances to take turns and build on someone else's idea give her experience of working in a group.
6. Talk about her interests. The interview is one-to-one with a senior member of staff. Chatting at home about what she enjoys, and why, can make it easier to talk about those things with an adult she doesn't know.

Akiru makes prep packs one school at a time. Join the waitlist on this page and we'll email you when there's a James Allen's Girls' School pack.