Admissions

Children can be registered from birth for a place starting in Lower Kindergarten in September (Michaelmas Term) or January (Lent Term) once they are two and a half years old. Admission to the Kindergarten is non-selective. Places are offered in order of registration, whilst ensuring an even spread of birth dates, an even number of boys and girls and our sibling priority policy. Places are offered approximately one year before the child is due to start.

Children begin in Lower Kindergarten with three mornings a week. The following September children move into Upper Kindergarten for five mornings a week and the option of afternoon clubs (Monday to Thursday, subject to availability). Once the children in Lower Kindergarten turn three years old, it is possible to increase the number of mornings they attend and to enrol them in afternoon clubs. There is no formal intake into the Upper Kindergarten but places are occasionally available.   

There is no automatic entry from Thomas's Kindergarten to Reception at Thomas's and attending our Kindergarten does not confer an advantage for admission. Please submit separate registrations for the Kindergarten and Reception for your child.

Children may be registered for entry into Reception on 1st September when they are between the ages of one and two years old.  This allows parents time to enjoy their babies, to start visiting schools in their child's first year of life and to make informed decisions about school registration.

Following your child's birth, you may if you wish submit an expression of interest, giving your contact details to the school so that we can be in touch with reminders about the opening date of registration.  Please note that an expression of interest does not guarantee registration and there is no advantage in having made an expression of interest, beyond receiving reminders of the registration opening.  

Registration does not therefore open at birth, but rather on 1st September three years before entry, when children are aged between one and two years old.  Registration remains open for a minimum of 24 hours.  The Main List for each school then closes when there are approximately three children registered for each place available.   Please note that you may not register your child for more than one Thomas's prep school.

Once the Main List is closed your child may still be registered for the Reserve List, but please be aware that pupils will only be drawn from the Reserve List if the year group is not filled from the Main List.   In the event that we do not turn to the Reserve List, you will be given the option to carry your child's application forward to future years.  

Pupils are admitted into our Reception classes, which usually comprise 22 pupils, in the September following their fourth birthday and we aim to admit a balance of boys and girls regardless of race, religious views or physical ability.

Do please contact us at any stage if you would like to discuss your child's application to Thomas's in more detail.

Entry to Years 1 - 6 is dependent on places becoming available during the course of the academic year. You are most welcome to register your child for an occasional place in another year group but do discuss this with the registrar of your chosen school to find out what might be available and before coming to a decision to register. We will assess children on our lists for places as they arise.

There are occasionally opportunities for entry into Year 8 (12+) at Thomas's Battersea Senior School or Thomas's Clapham. Please click here ask our admissions staff for more details.

There are approximately 132 places available at 11+ for Year 7 at Thomas's Battersea Senior School and a further 70 places at Thomas's Clapham. Students may join one of these two schools for two years,  leaving at the end of Year 8 to take up places at a wide range of day and boarding schools in London and across the UK.  Approximately two thirds of Year 8 students will remain at Thomas’s Battersea Senior Schoool for Years 9 to 13 and we also admit additional students into Year 9.   At 11+ (Thomas's Battersea Senior School or Thomas's Clapham) and 13+ (Thomas's Battersea Senior School) boys and girls join us from both maintained and independent sector schools very successfully. 

We ask you to bring your child to a Discovery Day (Thomas's Battersea Senior School) or an entrance assessment (Thomas's Clapham) in the January of Year 6, when most of the 11+ examinations and 13+ pre-tests take place. These are entrance tests but also allow us to get to know the children, show them the school and set them some enjoyable challenges. Candidates are informally interviewed, and sit an online test, join a group discussion and, at Thomas's Battersea Senior School enjoy a group challenge outdoors. Places are offered subject to an unreserved recommendation from the child’s current headteacher. We make offers in February of Year 6, for which the acceptance deadline is the beginning of March for entry at 11+. Offers, conditional only on continued progress and academic excellence through Years 7 and 8,  will also be made for entry at 13+, two years later and for those the deadline is the 1st June in Year 7.  Please note that current Thomas's families should register for Thomas's Senior School by means of a paper registration form, rather than online.  This form is available from the School Offices or in the Parents' Area.  There is no registration fee payable for Thomas's families.

The first cohort of Year 9 students will be admitted to Thomas’s Battersea Senior School this September 2021 following their 13th birthdays. A Year 9 cohort will be admitted every year thereafter and the school will be full in five years. In due course entry to the school into other year groups, including the Sixth Form, will depend upon places becoming available.  

We will admit up to 22 students per form and there will be six forms in Year 7.  There will be up to four forms in Year 9.  

The Director of Admissions for Thomas’s Battersea Senior School is responsible for all registrations. External applicants may be registered online with the payment of a registration fee of £150. Thomas's pupils should be registered using a Registration Form available from the School Offices or on the Parents' Area. There is no registration fee for current Thomas’s pupils.

Students should be registered through our website for the school by 1st November in Year 6 (the academic year in which they turn 11).

Current Thomas’s pupils are given priority and will be offered a place at Thomas’s Battersea Senior School, subject to:
1)  Attendance at a Discovery Day in the January of Year 6
2)  A confidential report from the student’s current school; and
3)  The unreserved recommendation of their current Head in relation to their conduct, values and progress during their prep school years

Further places, if available, will be offered to external applicants, subject to and ranked in order by:

1) Attendance at a Discovery Day in the January of Year 6
2) A confidential report from the student’s current school
3) The unreserved recommendation of their currrent Head in relation to their conduct, values and progress during their junior school years; and
4) the satisfactory completion of an online assessment.

Once Year 9 to Year 13 have been filled there may be the possibility of occasional places being available in the Sixth Form. Details of the admissions procedure will be published in due course.