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Entry to Year 7 September 2025 entry

If you are interested in a place for Year 7 in September 2025, please see below for the admissions timeline:

Saturday 5 October 2024: Taster Day for girls registered for Year 7 2025

Sunday 3 November 2024: Deadline for scholarship applications

Saturday 9 November 2024: Entrance assessments and interviews and Sports Scholarships assessments

12 November 2024: Scholarship assessments (The Arts, STEM)

November 2024: All-round (Miss Comrie) Scholarship for St Mary’s Lower School pupils interviews by invitation

W/c 9 December 2024: Offers of places and scholarships

Tuesday 4 March 2025: Deadline for acceptance of places and scholarships

July 2025: New Pupils’ and Parents’ Afternoon

Visit

Families are invited to book an individual tour with Admissions by telephoning 01206 594256 or by emailing registrar@stmaryscolchester.org.uk

Register

The next step is to register your daughter by completing the online registration form and paying a non-returnable Registration Fee of £125.

Scholarships

St Mary’s Scholarships are available to girls wishing to join St Mary’s Senior School in Year 7 in the following areas: Academic, Art, Music, Sports, STEM and the All-round (Miss Comrie) Scholarship for outstanding St Mary’s Lower School pupils wishing to progress to the Senior School.

Taster Day

Once registered, your daughter will be invited to join other Year 6 pupils to be a ‘St Mary’s girl for a day’ at our Taster Day. These Taster Days offer prospective Year 7 pupils to take part in a day of lessons at St Mary’s Senior School.

Entrance Assessment, interview and report

St Mary’s is not an academically selective school, but we do ask girls who might like to join us in Year 7 or any other year to sit an Entrance Assessment. This enables us to ensure that St Mary’s is able to offer just the right amount of challenge and support to every new student. We also identify our Academic Scholars on the basis of their performance in the Year 7 Entrance Assessment.

The one-hour online Entrance Assessment takes place at St Mary’s Senior School and ascertains candidates’ underlying potential in literacy, numeracy and verbal reasoning. It is not possible to coach for the assessment.

The Entrance Assessment is just one element of St Mary’s admissions process. We also request a report from the current school and invite each candidate to take part in an informal interview with the Principal, Mrs Nicola Griffiths.

Acceptance of a place

Once a place is offered, parents are asked to complete and sign the Acceptance Form, issued by the Registrar, and return it to the school along with an Entry Deposit of £400, which is returned when your child leaves us (subject to meeting the terms and conditions issued along with the offer). See further information on the how to pay page. If your daughter is transferring from St Mary’s Lower School, the Entry Deposit paid when she joined the Lower School continues to the Senior School, so there is no need to pay it again. Year 7 Scholarships are offered at the same time as the offer of a place. Bursaries may be applied for once a place has been offered.

Joining

At the New Students’ and Parents’ Induction in July, girls joining Year 7 in September are introduced to their form teachers, their forms and their Buddies (older girls who will help them to settle into the school). Meanwhile, their parents hear talks by the Principal, Head of Senior School, Head of Year 7 and Heads of School on life at St Mary’s. This is followed by tea and cakes in the Dining Hall and an opportunity to chat informally to members of staff and ask any remaining questions.

Once your daughter is a student of St Mary’s, her form teacher will keep in touch with you as she settles in and will be happy to answer any questions.

To register your child for a place at St Mary’s please complete and submit the Registration Form below and pay the non refundable £125 Registration Fee if registering for a place at the school.

Please ensure the fee is received by the Registrar within seven days of the Registration Form being submitted. For information on paying the Registration Fee, please click the link below:

How to Pay

St Mary’s is an academic school and our students’ achieve impressive exam results. This is despite the fact our school has a broad academic intake.

St Mary’s Lower School is the 12th highest performing Prep School in England, as ranked by the Sunday Times. Alongside English, Maths, Science, ICT, Languages and Humanities, pupils follow a rich Personal Social Health, Citizenship and Economic Education programme, including philosophical enquiries.

Our pupils perform significantly higher than the national average in SATs. We also have a high 11+ pass rate for those who choose to sit the exam, alongside a consistently strong record of scholarship offers to independent secondary schools, including our Senior School, where Lower School girls along with siblings are given priority for places offered.

We’re able to achieve such success by tailoring the education to suit the needs of each individual in our small classes, and by giving the pupils the encouragement and support they need to aim high.

St Mary’s Senior School has strong GCSE success, with half or more of the results graded at 9-7 or equivalent (comparable to grades A*-A) in eight subjects including Physics, Art and Design and Religious Studies in 2024.

The key to our academic success is the fact that every student is well known in our close-knit community. For example, our classes are small and we are experts in girls’ education. In addition, our teachers are passionate about their subjects. They do all they can to support the girls with their learning on an individual basis. Whether this is in the classroom, in specific sessions or by suggesting extension work tailored to suit the student’s needs.

We proactively challenge stereotypes, particularly around what girls can achieve, by providing positive role models and examples.

We provide opportunities for the girls to take positive risks and we create a culture where girls are not afraid of failure in a variety of ways, from taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to public speaking.

We encourage individuality by celebrating individual successes and supporting girls to pursue their passions. We provide opportunities for the girls to develop leadership skills with the variety of positions of responsibility available to girls including Head Girls opportunities.

Please note the fees outlined above are exclusive of VAT.

There are three terms per academic year. Further information can be found on the Fees page of our website.

You can also spread your fees and pay monthly through My School Fee Plan.

Girls travel from far and wide to St Mary’s, on St Mary’s own fleet of school buses or on services run by other operators.

NEW FOR 2024: due to demand, our Senior School transport will be expanding from September 2024, with new routes from Frinton and Ipswich and an extended service to Sudbury. Stops will depend on interest but may include Great Bentley, Frating, Wivenhoe, Capel St Mary, East Bergholt, Dedham and Leavenheath.

Our St Mary’s bus routes currently include Great Horkesley, West Bergholt, Braiswick, Danbury, Chelmsford, Maldon, Witham, Felsted, Great Notley, Coggeshall, Mersea, Peldon, and Layer. New stops and routes are considered each year. Please contact us to discuss further.

Other providers of school transport stop right outside St Mary’s Senior School – please contact the transport provider direct for information on routes, timetables and prices.