Will your child pass the Highgate 4+ Assessment?

No ballot again this year. Don’t take this to mean what it doesn’t.

Highgate will still have had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of applicants. They will tell you around 480. I think this is pretty accurate (although I do believe it to be far more than this personally).

480 applicants.

60 places.

A 1:8 chance of passing?

Well, not really. Not if you take into consideration that siblings will be favoured and so will children of staff. Siblings are guaranteed to be offered round two. Read that again. In their policy, Highgate states that parents need to be aware that beyond that point no preferential treatment is given. It is my experience that siblings have a far higher chance of being offered a place than non siblings. However, I have seen siblings not be offered a place in my 2 decades doing what I do.

But let’s say 1:8 ratio for now.

Your child has about a 1:8 chance of passing the Highgate 4+ assessment.

After the first round, 300 children will not be invited back.

Highgate say that they will invite around 180 children back for the second round. Again, I believe it to be more than this but for now let’s use this number.

By this point your child will have a 1:3 chance of success. So the ratios improve significantly if your child is able to make it to this point.

In their policy, Highgate state that they assess ‘Learning Readiness’. Basically how able your child is to demonstrate that they are ready to learn.

Highgate will have a reserve list. So if your child does make it to the second round and they are not offered a place, they may be placed on the reserve list. If this is the case, they may or may not be offered a place at the school. It will really depend on how many of the applicants offered a firm place decline their place - and this does happen! Many of our students didn’t accept Highgate last year, for example. They chose the likes of UCS, Westminster, NLCS, South Hampstead etc.

So will your child pass the Highgate 4+ Assessment?

Unfortunately for this school in particular, it’s not going to matter how well prepared they are because of the simple fact that they will ultimately have a lot of siblings attending. It is crystal clear in their policy that siblings will be favoured.

Does that mean that you don’t prepare your child to the best of your abilities? Absolutely not. Undoubtedly, you will have other top schools that you are preparing for. And if you don’t, I strongly suggest that you do. Or that you have strong back ups. I definitely wouldn’t be putting all of my eggs in one basket for Highgate.

Understand the numbers.

Understand the competitive nature of this school (and all other schools and 4+)

Understand that you will need to put in the work for at least 12 months to prepare your child to have the best possible chances for success.

Preparing for Highgate for 2028 entry and beyond? Apply to join our Waiting List Today.