How to apply

If you are interested in the possibility of a place for your child at St. Paul’s, we invite you to fill out the open morning registration form. Open events are the best opportunity for you to see the school in action and to have your questions answered. If you are unable to attend the event, we will try to arrange an individual visit to the school. All families resident in São Paulo who are applying for a place at St. Paul’s are expected to have visited the school as part of the admissions process. To book a place at an open morning, please complete the open morning registration form. 

We kindly ask international families considering moving to São Paulo to fill out the International families contact form so that our Admissions team can contact you.

Once you got to know the school, and expressed your interest in bringing your child to St. Paul’s, we will send via email the instructions to move forward with your child’s application. When you complete the application form we will ask you to express your firm commitment to proceeding with your application by paying a non-refundable application fee. This fee covers administrative costs of the admission process and its payment does not guarantee enrolment (it is not an assessment fee).

Parents applying for places in other year groups other than Pre-Prep 1, the application fee will be charged once we have confirmation of places in your child’s year group and able to process the application.

For children applying for a place in PP1, applicants and families will be invited for an interview with the Headmaster. This is an opportunity for any further questions to be addressed or concerns to be ironed out.  After the interview, all PP1 children are assessed in April of the year of entry. These assessment days are arranged on Saturdays (please refer to our admissions calendar.), when they are observed in a classroom setting in groups, in an English speaking environment.

For other year groups entry, if there is a place available, your child will be assessed with tasks and interviews of differing length and style, depending on age. These are not subject specific but measure each child’s cognitive ability in a range of skills and are standardised for age.  Alongside this test, applicants may sit an English paper to assess literacy and competence in written, followed by an interview so we can evaluate candidates’ spoken English.  Because children come to us from a wide range of schools and indeed, from different educational systems around the world, candidates are not required to be prepared for the tests in a specific way. The results of the tests are valid for the admission point immediately after the assessment only.  

Once all the above stages have been completed, we will write to you to let you know the outcome of your application. We often have more applicants than places. 

If we are able to make you an offer, we will send you the list of documents required for enrolment, as well as detailed financial information, and also request payment of the admission fee. 

If there are no places currently available for the year group that you have applied for, we will ask you if you would like to be placed on our contact list for future opportunities.