About: St Paul’s Girls’ School is an independent day school for girls in Brook Green, Hammersmith (West London). It was founded in 1904 by John Colet as a sister school to St Paul’s School, which is boys-only. It is one of the most academically competitive schools in the nation and is consistently ranked as the top independent school in the UK for academic performance (it often tops the league tables based on students’ exam results).It has a strong track record of sending its students to Oxbridge, teaching self-developed alternatives to some GCSE courses, and offering a broader range of study than A Levels can offer alone. While academic results are important, the school also has a liberal ideology (there’s no school uniform), and individual research, discussion and debate are encouraged. The education is classical yet forward-thinking, incorporating a ‘real world’ creative research programme and Friday lectures from eminent speakers. The school also offers top-quality sports and extra-curricular opportunities despite its highly academic focus.
Address: Brook Green, Hammersmith, W6 7BS
School Website: https://spgs.org/
School Type: Independent school
Day or boarding: Day school (not boarding) aged from 11 to 18
Gender: Girls
Number of students: 798; sixth formers: 227
**National rank (Sunday Times Parent Power): 1
A level results: 99.5% A*–B
GCSE results: 97.9% 9–7
County: Greater London
Acceptance: St Paul’s Girls’ School welcomes approximately 100 children into Year 7 every year from a range of primary and prep schools. While children are welcomed from both the UK and overseas, students are required to live within a 50-minute commute of the school. This is to ensure that the journey is not unrealistically demanding for the child.
Exam Board: CEM and schools own exam paper
Religion: Non-denominational
Registration link: https://spgs.openapply.com/apply
Admissions info: admissions@spgs.org or 020 7603 2288 or https://spgs.org/admissions/entry-at-11/
Cost: £9,982 per term
Exam Date - Stage 1: CEM Select
Exam Date - Stage 2: Maths, English and Comprehension written exams
The maths paper is designed to identify potential and features three 25-minute sections. The first section features questions that are fairly straightforward sums, while the second section covers problem-solving questions. The third section often has multi-part questions based on material that the girls may not have encountered before. Throughout the paper, it is essential that they show their working out.
The English paper involves the close reading of a passage of literary prose (comprehension) and creative writing. Questions will involve the extraction of information; some will ask for comments on the meaning and effect of individual words and phrases, and others will be extended imaginative writing tasks, based on the passage. Careful inference and sensitivity to linguistic effects and evidence of a wide vocabulary will attract high marks.
The SPGS 11 plus comprehension paper is designed to test comprehension in its broadest sense. Questions allow for the demonstration of the skills of deduction, inference, extraction and organisation of information as well as evaluation, comparison, identification of patterns and links, and logic.
How to Prepare: see 11+ Maths Past Papers and navigate to the Durham CEM section.
