Hertfordshire 11+ 2027: a Year 5 guide for 2028 entry
If your child is in Year 5 this year and you're looking at Hertfordshire selective schools, the test falls in the autumn of 2027 and the secondary place starts in September 2028. This page covers the 11 schools we hold data for in the area, what they test, and how to use the year ahead.
Hertfordshire 11+ at a glance
11 active selective or independent schools in our data for Hertfordshire.
Assessment routes used: GL Assessment, own paper, ISEB Common Pre-Test.
Subjects tested across those schools: maths, verbal reasoning, English, non-verbal reasoning.
Test months recorded: September, November - for a child in Year 5 now, that means autumn/winter 2027.
Exam boards, formats and test dates change between admissions rounds, and schools sometimes move between consortia. Confirm the arrangements for the 2027 round directly with the school or admissions authority before relying on any single source, including this page.
What this means for a Year 5 child
Hertfordshire's consortium schools, including Watford Grammar School for Boys and Girls, Parmiter's, Queens' School, Rickmansworth and St Clement Danes, are recorded in our data as testing maths and verbal reasoning rather than the full four-paper set. Dame Alice Owen's runs its own paper and adds English.
That narrower subject list is the thing to know in Year 5. A Hertfordshire family generally gets more out of deep verbal reasoning and maths practice than out of splitting the same hours four ways.
Watford Grammar School for Boys - GL Assessment, Hertfordshire
Watford Grammar School for Girls - GL Assessment, Hertfordshire
Dame Alice Owen's School - own paper, Hertfordshire
Berkhamsted Senior School - ISEB Common Pre-Test, Hertfordshire
Haberdashers' Girls' School - own paper, Hertfordshire
Queens' School Watford - GL Assessment, Hertfordshire
Rickmansworth School - GL Assessment, Hertfordshire
St Clement Danes School - GL Assessment, Hertfordshire
St Albans High School for Girls - own paper, Hertfordshire
A term-by-term plan
Autumn term, Year 5 (now) - build the habit. Short, daily practice beats weekend cramming. Focus on gaps in core maths and reading, not on exam technique yet.
Spring term, Year 5 - introduce the reasoning papers (verbal and non-verbal) if the target schools test them. These are the least familiar formats and take the longest to click.
Summer term, Year 5 - check which schools you're actually applying to and what they test. Registration windows for autumn 2027 tests generally open around this point, so this is the term to get the admissions details right.
Summer holidays 2027 - the last long run of uninterrupted practice before the test. Timed papers become useful here.
Autumn term, Year 6 (from September 2027) - most state grammar tests are sat in this window. Practice shifts to timing, accuracy under pressure and staying calm.
March 2028 - National Offer Day for secondary places.
September 2028 - your child starts secondary school.
How much practice is enough
Fifteen to twenty minutes on a school day is a realistic target for the autumn term of Year 5, done at a consistent time so it stops being a negotiation. Consistency matters more than volume at this stage - a child who does twenty minutes five days a week covers far more ground over the year than one who does two hours every other Sunday, and hates it.
Keep at least one day a week clear. Reading for pleasure counts for more than another worksheet, especially for the English and verbal reasoning papers, where vocabulary is doing most of the work.
Watch what's actually going wrong rather than the raw score. A child getting 60% because they're rushing needs something different from a child getting 60% because they haven't met the topic. Any decent practice tool should show you which of those it is.
Try four real Year 5 questions
Pulled straight from PipPrep's own question bank, from the questions tagged for Year 5 - not written for this page.
Question 1
Find the mean of these numbers: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Answer: 16. Sum = 80. Mean = 80 ÷ 5 = 16
Question 2
In the sentence: "He had to face the music for his actions." — what does the word or phrase "face the music" mean here?
Answer: accept the unpleasant consequences. "Face the music" is an idiom meaning to accept punishment or consequences.
Question 3
Find the next term: 2 6 18 54 ?
Answer: 162. ×3 each time.
Question 4
A filled circle transforms into a striped circle. By the same rule, a filled hexagon transforms into a ?
Answer: striped hexagon. Fill rule: filled → striped. Applied to hexagon: striped hexagon.
Start the prep year properly
PipPrep adapts to your child's target school with 80,000+ questions across maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Free to start, no card needed.
Not sure where they actually stand? Take the free 11+ readiness check - 10 questions matched to your exam board, and a scored report on their weak topics. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
When will my Year 5 child sit the Hertfordshire 11+?
In the autumn or winter of 2027, at the start of Year 6, for a secondary place beginning in September 2028. Exact dates are published by the admissions authority closer to the time.
Which subjects are tested in Hertfordshire?
Across the 11 schools in our data for the area, the subjects tested are maths, verbal reasoning, English, non-verbal reasoning. Individual schools differ, so check each school you are applying to rather than assuming the area-wide pattern applies everywhere.
When do we need to register?
Generally in the summer term of Year 5, well before the test itself. Check the admissions authority's pages in the spring term of 2027 so the window does not pass unnoticed.
Is it worth starting now rather than in Year 6?
For most families, yes. The reasoning papers use formats that are not taught in primary school and take months rather than weeks to become familiar, and spreading the work across Year 5 turns it into fifteen minutes a day instead of a lost summer.