Admissions

The Kindergarten is for children aged between two and a half and four years old. We have two intakes a year in Lower Kindergarten; the September intake is for children born from September to March; and the January intake is for children born from April to August. 

Children can be registered from birth and applications are considered based on the number of days after birth that the registration was received. We encourage parents to register their child as early as possible. Tours are available to parents at any point before and after registration. 

Places are offered approximately fifteen months before entry into Lower Kindergarten in the September or January intake and parents must accept and pay a deposit by the given deadline.

Priority is given to siblings of current or former Kindergarten pupils and to siblings of current Thomas's main school pupils.

There is no formal intake into the Upper Kindergarten but places are occasionally available.

Children begin in Lower Kindergarten with three mornings a week. 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.

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).

Please note that a place in Kindergarten does not guarantee a child a place in the Thomas’s Prep Schools, however if an application to one of the Thomas’s Prep Schools is submitted whilst a child is in Lower Kindergarten, they will automatically be placed on the Reception Main List at the school applied to. A separate registration must be completed during Lower Kindergarten, and the child will progress through the Reception Admissions process. 

If you would like to book a tour of the Kindergarten please call: 020 7738 0400

Children may be registered for entry into Reception 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 in September, three years before entry, when children are aged between one and two years old. The Main List for each school 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.

Do please contact us at any stage if you would like to discuss your child's application to Thomas's in more detail. Please click the link below to read about registration for Reception entry 2026.

Entry to other years 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 admissions staff 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 and Thomas's Clapham and into Years 10 and 11 at Thomas's Putney Vale. Please click here to ask our admissions staff for more details.

There are approximately 40 places available at 11+ for Year 7 at Thomas's Battersea and a further 5 to 10 places at Thomas's Clapham. Pupils may join Thomas’s Battersea or Thomas’s Clapham 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 or to join Thomas's Putney Vale for Years 9 to 11.      At 11+ (Thomas's Battersea and Thomas's Clapham) and 13+ (Thomas's Putney Vale) boys and girls join us from both maintained and independent sector schools very successfully. Places in Year 7 at Thomas's Clapham are limited - please talk to our admissions staff there before registering your child.   It is not possible to register at more than one Thomas’s school.

We ask you to bring your child to an entrance assessment at  either Thomas's Battersea or 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, sit an online test and join a group discussion. Places are offered based on performance at the entrance assessment,  subject also to an unreserved recommendation from the child’s current headteacher. We make offers in the February of Year 6, for which the acceptance deadline is the beginning of March for entry at 11+.   

The first cohort of Year 9 pupils were admitted to Thomas’s Putney Vale in September 2021 following their 13th birthdays. Year 9 at Thomas's Putney Vale comprises pupils transferring from Thomas's Battersea and Thomas's Clapham, our prep schools, which finish at the end of Year 8 but we admit a further 22 external candidates at 13+.

The Director of Admissions for Thomas’s Putney Vale is responsible for all registrations. External applicants may be registered online with the payment of a registration fee of £150.  Pupils should be registered for the school through our website by 1st November in Year 6 (the academic year in which they turn 11).  Thomas's pupils should be registered using a form available from My School Portal. There is no registration fee for current Thomas’s pupils. 

Current Thomas’s pupils are given priority and will be offered a place at Thomas’s Putney Vale, subject to:
1)  Attendance at a Discovery Day in the January of Year 6
2)  A confidential report from the pupil’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 (including an online test, an interview and participation in a group challenge)
2) A confidential report from the pupil’s current school
3) The unreserved recommendation of their currrent Head in relation to their conduct, values and progress during their junior school years.

Offers are made, conditional only on continued progress and academic excellence through Years 7 and 8, for 13+ entry at Thomas’s Putney Vale two years later and for those offers the deadline is the end of Year 7.  

Occasional places may be available to children who have missed the entrance assessment process in Year 6.   Please contact the Director of Admissions for further details.