Apply to Nonsuch High School for Girls, in plain English.
Nonsuch High School for Girls fills all 210 Year 7 places by competitive test — the Sutton Selective Eligibility Test (SET) plus the Nonsuch & Wallington second-stage exam (NWSSEE) — and is heavily oversubscribed, with more than 1,000 applications for its 210 places. The top 85 places go on combined score from any address, with up to 35 more held for Pupil Premium girls wherever they live; up to 125 places are then linked to a 5.25 km catchment, again by score. Register via the school's admissions page by 31 July 2026 — separately from, and months before, the October CAF deadline.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
There are two tests — and you register for them by 31 July 2026.
Nonsuch uses the Sutton Selective Eligibility Test (SET) in September 2026, shared by six Sutton consortium schools. Girls who reach Nonsuch's pass mark are invited to a second-stage test in early October 2026 — the Nonsuch & Wallington Second Stage Entrance Examination (NWSSEE), a non-multiple-choice maths paper and English paper shared with Wallington High School for Girls. Registration opens 1 May 2026 and closes 31 July 2026 — separate from, and months before, the CAF. (Access-arrangement requests close earlier, on 12 June 2026.)
This is a score-led school — the top places ignore your address.
The first 85 places go to the highest-scoring girls from any address (after looked-after children). A further up to 35 places are held for Pupil Premium girls — again, wherever they live. Your daughter's rank comes from a combined score: her NWSSEE marks plus half her aggregate SET mark, each part equally weighted and adjusted for age.
A 5.25 km catchment shapes up to 125 places — but doesn't shut anyone out.
Up to 125 places are linked to a catchment area: a 5.25 km radius of the school's front door, ranked by test score. It is a priority, not a barrier — girls outside the catchment with a high enough score still win one of the 85 open places (or the remainder). Your daughter must be resident at the home address on the CAF on the closing date, 31 October 2026, for the catchment to count.
Five steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
SET registration (step 1) closes on 31 July 2026 — months before the CAF deadline that catches most families out. Miss it and there is no route to a place at Nonsuch for 2027 entry.
If more girls reach the standard than there are places, these 4 criteria decide.
Girls of selective ability with an EHCP naming Nonsuch are admitted first, within the 210. Everyone else who reaches the combined qualifying standard is then placed in the order below. Within each criterion, girls are ranked by their combined NWSSEE + half-SET score. At every level, a tie is broken by straight-line distance to the school's front door. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Girls in council care, or who were in care before being adopted (including from state care outside England), come first — provided they reach the qualifying standard from the SET and NWSSEE. Looked-after and previously-looked-after girls who are Pupil Premium eligible also qualify if their score is up to 20% below the standard. Tell the school about looked-after status, with documentary evidence before she sits the SET.
What the document says: Children who are Looked After Children — a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) — or who were previously looked after but became subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order immediately afterwards, including those who appear to have been in state care outside England and ceased to be so through adoption, who achieve the pass mark or above in the entrance test (or whose score is up to 20% lower than the standardised pass marks).
In plain English: This is how the first big block of places is filled. 85 places go to the highest combined scorers from any postcode in England, in strict rank order — there's no residence requirement at all. A strong score wins a place from anywhere.
What the document says: 85 places on the basis of the score in the Entrance Test in order of highest score, irrespective of home address.
In plain English: Up to 35 places are reserved for girls eligible for Pupil Premium — ranked by combined test score, and regardless of where they live. Pupil Premium girls also get a wider net: they qualify with a score up to 20% below the pass mark. The GLT Pupil Premium form must be completed by her primary and returned before she sits the SET. Any of the 35 places left unfilled roll into the catchment criterion.
What the document says: Up to 35 places will be available for children eligible for Pupil Premium who achieve the pass mark or above in the entrance test, or whose score is up to 20% lower than the standardised pass mark for the SET and the minimum standardised pass marks in the NWSSEE Maths and English, by rank order irrespective of address. Should there be insufficient eligible applicants, the remaining places (up to a maximum of 35) will be allocated according to criterion 5.2.4 (catchment).
In plain English: Up to 125 places are linked to the catchment — a 5.25 km straight-line radius of the front door — and are filled by combined test score among girls who live inside it. The number shrinks by the places already taken by EHCP, looked-after and Pupil Premium girls. Your daughter must be resident at the home address on your CAF on the closing date, 31 October 2026. Catchment girls who miss out still compete for everything else on score.
What the document says: Up to 125 places linked to our catchment area circle, in order of highest score, to those whose permanent place of residence on 31 October 2026 is 5.25 km or less from the front door of Nonsuch measured in a straight line. Distances are verified by the London Borough of Sutton using a Geographical Information System (GIS). The number of places allocated under this criterion will be reduced by the number of places offered under sections 3.4, 5.2.1 and 5.2.3.
A real 5.25 km catchment — but a score-led one.
Nonsuch measures its catchment as a 5.25 km radius of the front door on Ewell Road (a straight line, verified by the London Borough of Sutton's computerised mapping). Living inside it gives a girl priority for up to 125 of the 210 places — but only by test score, and only after the 85 open places and the Pupil Premium quota are filled. It does not guarantee a place, and it does not shut out girls living elsewhere: 85 places (plus up to 35 Pupil Premium places) are decided on combined score from any address. A girl in Croydon, Kingston or Surrey with a high enough score gets in regardless of distance.
Distance is also the final tiebreaker: where two girls have the same rank at the cut-off in any criterion, the place goes to the girl living closer to the school's front door, measured in a straight line using the London Borough of Sutton's GIS. If two girls tie on score and live exactly equidistant, the final place is decided by an independently witnessed random draw.
See the catchment on the GrammarBound mapInside the 5.25 km ring: a real edge. Outside: still very much in the race.
Girl A lives in Cheam, inside the 5.25 km ring — so she can take one of the up to 125 catchment places if her score ranks her there, and otherwise competes for everything else on score. Girl B lives in Kingston, outside the ring, so she skips the catchment criterion and competes for the 85 open places. If Girl B's combined score is high enough, she gets a place; her address never disqualifies her. The catchment is a genuine edge — it shapes more than half the places — but a high score still wins from anywhere.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
The school holds ranked waiting lists of eligible girls who weren't offered a place, under the open-score, Pupil Premium and catchment criteria. When a place comes free between March and December 2027, it goes to the next girl under the same oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served, and with no need to re-sit the tests. The ranked lists are deleted at the end of the autumn term, on 31 December 2027; after that you can ask to join the open (non-ranked) waiting list, and the separate in-year admissions route applies via Sutton Council.
Contact Nonsuch's admissions team after National Offer Day to confirm waiting-list placement.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the Trust's decision not to offer a place. Appeals are heard by an Independent Appeal Panel under the School Admission Appeals Code, and can only be lodged after National Offer Day. The Girls' Learning Trust publishes the appeal timetable on the school website each year. Appealing does not affect your daughter's waiting-list position.
Joining Year 12.
Most Nonsuch students continue into the sixth form, which also admits external girls — a minimum of 20 external places is offered each year. Formal offers are made after GCSE results day, on the combination of subjects chosen and the places available in each.
The grade floor.
There are three requirements, all of which must be met: an average point score of 6.00 or above across the best eight GCSEs (you must be sitting eight subjects); and at least a grade 6 in both Maths and English (Language or Literature). Individual A-level courses publish their own subject entry requirements on top of this floor. English-as-a-second-language IGCSE is not accepted as meeting the English requirement.
Apply direct to the school.
Sixth-form applications go directly to Nonsuch — not through the CAF. External applicants apply on the school's form and are considered on receipt of their actual GCSE grades. If external applications exceed the places available, they are ranked first by looked-after status, then Pupil Premium / young-carer status, then by attainment and subject-course availability. Internal students who meet the minimum criteria are offered a place. See the school's admissions page for the sixth-form form and deadline.