If your child's school has closed, is closing, or if the fees have risen to a point where the plan has had to change — you are not alone, and you are not starting from scratch. You are starting from somewhere, and that somewhere is often better than it feels right now.
Since January 2025, when the government applied 20% VAT to independent school fees, the independent education sector has been through one of its most turbulent periods in living memory. Schools that had served communities for generations have closed or merged with almost no warning. Families who had built a long-term plan around private education have had to rethink it, quickly, under pressure.
This article is for those families. It explains what has happened, what it means practically, and what parents who are considering the 11+ for the first time need to know about where to begin.
The scale of what has happened
The numbers are striking. More than 100 independent schools closed in the first year after VAT was introduced, affecting over 25,000 children (Conservative Post, 2026). That figure compares to an average of 42 school closures per year in the preceding years — 2025 saw 57 mainstream independent school closures, a rate roughly 35% above the historical norm (GBNews, 2026).
These were not only struggling schools. Among those affected were institutions with histories stretching back more than a century. The Royal School, Haslemere — part of the United Learning group, founded in 1840 — closed in August 2025. Bedstone College in Shropshire, Fairfield School near Bristol, and Fulneck School in Pudsey, which had been operating for 270 years, all shut their doors (School Management Plus, 2025).
Mergers offered a route for some. Radley College partnered with The Prep Schools Trust to form the Radley Schools Group. Lochinver House School in Hertfordshire merged with the Haberdashers' Elstree Schools group. Windlesham House School in West Sussex joined Charterhouse (Amplify Education, 2025). For parents, mergers are less disruptive than full closures — but they still mean change: new locations, new cultures, and often new fee structures.
The VAT change was not the only cause of these closures. Rising employer National Insurance contributions, falling birth rates, and long-running affordability pressures were all factors (WhichSchoolAdvisor, 2025). But for many schools, the VAT increase was the trigger that exposed underlying fragilities — and for many families, it was the moment the plan changed.
What this means if you are considering the 11+ for the first time
The most important thing to understand is that children who have been in independent preparatory schools are often very well prepared for the academic demands of the 11+, even if they have never specifically practised for it.
Prep schools typically teach a broad curriculum, strong reading and writing, and often introduce reasoning skills as part of their standard provision. A child who has been at a good prep school through Year 4 or Year 5 is likely to have strong underlying foundations — and may need less specific preparation than you think.
What they may lack is familiarity with the format: the specific question types used in GL Assessment or CEM papers, the pacing required to complete papers within time limits, and the experience of sitting an exam-style assessment. Those things are learnable, and they respond well to targeted, consistent practice.
The 11+ preparation timeline is the best starting point for understanding where your child fits and what they need to focus on given the time available. Families who are starting in Year 5 are in a different position to those starting in Year 4 — but both can prepare effectively.
Which exam will your child actually sit?
This is the first practical question to answer, and it determines everything about how you prepare. The two main 11+ providers — GL Assessment and CEM — test broadly similar skills but in different formats, with different question types and different timing structures.
Our guide to GL Assessment vs CEM explains the differences in detail and shows you how to find out which exam your target school uses. This is the first thing to look up. Preparing for the wrong format is one of the most common — and most avoidable — mistakes families make when they are new to the 11+.
A word about pace
If you are in this situation — school closure, fee shock, or a sudden change of plan — the natural instinct is to try to do everything at once. To make up for lost time, to accelerate, to add more sessions and more tutors and more practice papers.
That instinct is understandable. It is also, in most cases, counterproductive.
Children who are pushed too hard, too fast, particularly in the context of an already stressful transition between schools, tend to disengage rather than accelerate. The research on exam preparation is consistent: short, regular, well-paced sessions outperform intensive bursts every time. For a child who is also processing the disruption of a school closure or transition, maintaining emotional stability matters as much as covering content.
If you are starting from a standing start in Year 5 or Year 6, the most effective thing you can do is establish a consistent daily routine, diagnose your child's specific strengths and gaps, and direct effort where it will have the most impact. A platform with built-in diagnostics and adaptive question serving — rather than generic practice papers — is particularly useful in this situation, because it concentrates the preparation on what your child actually needs rather than covering everything at the same pace.
You are not behind. You are starting. That is different.
References
Amplify Education (2025) Private School Closures Due to VAT. Available at: https://www.getamplified.org/private-school-closure-due-to-vat (Accessed: 26 June 2026).
Conservative Post (2026) 'Labour's VAT raid on private schools forces 105 closures and leaves 25,000 children paying the price', Conservative Post, 5 January. Available at: https://conservativepost.co.uk/labours-vat-raid-on-private-schools-forces-105-closures-and-leaves-25000-children-paying-the-price/ (Accessed: 26 June 2026).
GBNews (2026) 'Tax news: Home Counties hit hardest by Labour's VAT private school raid', GBNews, 4 January. Available at: https://www.gbnews.com/money/tax-news-labour-vat-private-schools (Accessed: 26 June 2026).
School Management Plus (2025) 'How many UK independent school closures will happen in 2025?'. Available at: https://www.schoolmanagementplus.com/bursars-finance/private-school-closures-how-many-uk-independent-school-closures-2025/ (Accessed: 26 June 2026).
WhichSchoolAdvisor (2025) 'Closures, Mergers... How Independent Schools Are Adapting to a Perfect Storm', WhichSchoolAdvisor, 13 June. Available at: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uk/school-news/closures-mergers-how-independent-schools-are-adapting-to-a-perfect-storm (Accessed: 26 June 2026).