The part nobody warns you about
Everyone tells you the exam is the hard part. The exam is the visible part. The part that quietly removes boys is administrative, and it happens in a summer when most families have not started thinking about any of this.
Registering for the test is not the same as applying to the school. They are two different forms, sent to two different places, months apart. A boy can sit the test, pass it comfortably, and still receive nothing in March, because the council form that actually asks for a place at Wilson's was never filled in with Wilson's on it.
None of this is hidden. The school publishes all of it. It is just spread across several pages, in a year when you are also trying to work out whether your son is ready, and no one sends you a reminder.
Two applications. One to sit the test, one to ask for the place. Passing the first without doing the second gets your son a very good mark and no school.
The whole thing, in order
Dates below are the published ones for entry in September 2027. Each step shows where you are in the cycle right now.
Two routes in that most families never hear about
Wilson's sets aside priority places outside the ordinary academic queue. Both have to be applied for, and both are missed by families who never knew to look.
Sport and music aptitude places
Nine music and nine sport priority places, with their own assessment day in October. The school describes both as looking for potential rather than for what a child has already achieved, and the music assessment includes a prepared performance of roughly two minutes. If your son plays or has been picked out on a pitch, this is worth reading the school's own page on before the registration window.
Free school meals places
The school reserves up to fourteen Year 7 places for boys eligible for free school meals. The academic standard still applies, so this is a priority route and not a separate door, but it is real, it is sizeable, and a great many eligible families have simply never been told it exists. If your son qualifies, check it before you do anything else.
What does not help, whatever you have been told
- Moving house. Wilson's states that it applies no catchment and no distance criteria. Living in the borough only separates boys as a tiebreak, after everything else. Nobody gets in for being close.
- An older brother already there. The school explains that the statutory Admissions Code does not let grammar schools prioritise siblings, and says it regrets that. A younger brother sits the same tests on the same terms.
- Hunting for the school's past papers. There are none to find. Wilson's says plainly that it does not "provide specimen papers". Time spent chasing them is time not spent on the thing that does move a score.
- Drilling non-verbal reasoning. The Sutton test contains none. That is worth reading twice if your son has been working through reasoning books all year.
Since the school does not publish papers, we do
Forty original practice papers with full answer sheets, in both the formats this entry uses: multiple choice for the first stage, written papers with working shown for the second. Free to download and print, no sign up, no email address.
Then the real question: is he actually ready?
Once the dates are handled, the fear underneath comes back, and it is a fair one. Wilson's does not reward a boy who has done a lot of papers. It rewards one who is fast, calm and correct under a clock, in a hall full of other prepared boys, on a paper that is not multiple choice and where his working is read.
A mock score cannot tell you whether he is there yet. It counts his mistakes and stops. What actually helps is knowing what the mistakes have in common, because eight questions lost to one habit is a single problem with a name and an end, not eight separate weaknesses.
That is what WAJD marks for. Every wrong answer is tagged to an authored misconception, so you get "he divides by the bottom and stops before multiplying by the top" instead of "he is weak at fractions". There are 471 of those published free, and you can read the whole library without an account.
The companion page to this one sets out what the SET and the second stage actually ask, paper by paper, and how the marking works.
What we do not promise
- A place. Nobody can sell you one, and anybody offering has told you something untrue in the first minute.
- That this page is the school. WAJD Academy has no connection to Wilson's School. Everything here is drawn from the school's published pages and can change. Confirm every date and rule with the school before you rely on it.
- Anything behind a payment. We do not sell tutoring or subscriptions. The practice, the papers and the mistake library are free, which is why we have no reason to keep you anxious.
Questions parents ask
How do you apply to Wilson's for Year 7?
Twice, to two different places. Register for the Selective Eligibility Test on the Sutton consortium form, which the school states opens on 1 May and closes at midnight on 31 July. Then name Wilson's School on the Common Application Form you send to your home local authority by 31 October. Both are required, and the second is the one families forget.
What are the dates for entry in September 2027?
SET on Tuesday 15 September 2026, second stage for boys on Saturday 3 October 2026, sport and music aptitude tests on Saturday 10 October 2026, council form by 31 October 2026, offers on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027.
What is in the second stage exam?
An English paper and a maths paper, each roughly 45 minutes to an hour, and neither is multiple choice, so working and writing are marked. Wilson's shares the paper with Wallington County Grammar and Sutton Grammar, so an eligible boy sits it once, though each school applies its own criteria to the result.
Is there a catchment area?
No. The school applies no catchment or distance criteria. Living in the London Borough of Sutton is used only as a tiebreak when places have to be separated.
Does a brother at the school help?
No. The school explains that the statutory School Admissions Code does not allow grammar schools to prioritise siblings, and adds that it regrets this. Every boy sits the same tests on the same terms.
What are the aptitude places?
Nine music and nine sport priority places, assessed on their own day in October and described by the school as looking for potential rather than achievement so far. They are applied for separately, so they need deciding before the registration window closes, not after.
Are there places for boys on free school meals?
Yes, up to fourteen in Year 7 for boys eligible for free school meals. The academic standard still applies. It is a priority route rather than a separate entrance, and it is badly under-known.
Where are the school's past papers?
There are none. Wilson's states that it does not provide specimen papers, pointing instead to sample questions. That is why our 40 free papers exist, written in both the formats this entry uses.
Where the facts on this page come from
Dates, formats, aptitude places, free school meal places and the admissions rules are taken from Wilson's School's own pages: Year 7, applying for a place and Admissions FAQs, with the shared test format from Sutton Grammar School's admissions FAQs. National Offer Day and the 31 October application deadline are the standard England secondary transfer dates set by your local authority. Checked on 2 September 2026. WAJD Academy is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Wilson's School, and the school's name is used only to describe the admissions process it publishes.