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Methodist College Belfast

Methodist College Belfast is a mixed, non-denominational voluntary grammar school with 240 places in Form 1, its first year. Children sit the SEAG Entrance Assessment: under the latest criteria the school publishes, the first 200 places go in order of total score, and the last 40 come from a pool of the next-highest scorers, with children entitled to free school meals first in that pool.

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At a glance

Where
Belfast, County Antrim
Takes
Mixed
Form 1 places
240
Applicants
473 for 2024 entry, about 2 for each place. This counts applications naming the school as any preference, the latest dated figure the school gives.

Applicants figures aren’t counted the same way at every school, so they don’t compare from one school to another.

Admissions

The test

The SEAG Entrance Assessment, run by the Schools' Entrance Assessment Group: two papers, each with 56 English (or Irish) and maths questions in 60 minutes.

What qualifies

There is no pass mark: the first 200 of 240 places go in rank order of SEAG Total Standardised Age Score (TSAS, 138 to 282), and the last 40 come from a pool of about 60 next-highest scorers. In the latest round on the school's Form 1 page (year not stated) the 200th place fell at TSAS 211, the pool ran from 196 to 210, and the lowest scores admitted were 196 under the sub-criteria and 206 on score alone.

Who gets priority

Pool places go in order to children entitled to free school meals, pupils in the College's Preparatory Department, children of Methodist ministers, and those with a sibling in the Secondary Department or already offered a place; remaining ties go by SEAG score, then computer-based random selection. Children who will live in Northern Ireland at admission come before those who will not; there is no catchment area and the order of preferences on the transfer form is not considered.

Registering

SEAG registration ran online at seagni.co.uk from 18 May to 18 September 2026 (standard fee £20), with a late window from 21 to 24 September and an emergency window on 19 and 20 October 2026. Paper 1 is on Saturday 14 November and Paper 2 on Saturday 21 November 2026, with Methody itself a test centre; outcomes are released online on Saturday 23 January 2027.

Open events

Open Nights on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 January 2027 (in 2025 they ran from 6.30pm to 9pm for P6 and P7 families).

Good to know

Pupils in Northern Ireland join Form 1 (Year 8) at 11, so year7_places is the Form 1 admissions number: 240 (enrolment number 1810) in the September 2025 criteria, the latest the school publishes, which its page labels 2026-2027. A co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar with its own Preparatory Department and a capital fee of £140 a year; external Lower Sixth places go by GCSE grades. Applications (all preferences) were 420 for 2022, 347 for 2023 and 473 for 2024 entry; the school's Form 1 page reports 311 applications considered for 240 places in its latest round (year not stated). Re-mark requests run from 25 January to 3 February 2027, and transfer applications go through the Education Authority (in 2025 the deadline was 12 noon on 20 February).

Not confirmed yet

  • Admissions criteria for September 2027 entry are not yet published; the school links its September 2025 criteria, and the Education Authority site (which may hold the September 2026 criteria) blocks automated access.
  • The year of the latest round reported on the school's Form 1 page (311 applications considered, 200th place at TSAS 211) is not stated.
  • Applications for September 2025 and 2026 entry not found; the latest dated figure is for September 2024 entry.

Check these on the official page: issuu.com/methody/docs/methodist_college_admissions_criteria_2025-2026

Read its admissions policy · The school’s website

The transfer test in Northern Ireland

The papers, registration, test dates, results and how qualifying works for every school there.

The transfer test in Northern Ireland

With Exam Prep, Thena sets practice papers in your child’s test’s style and goes over every mistake with them on her board: £49 a month with the Solo plan.

More on the 11+

Sources

Every fact here comes from the official pages below. Admissions rules change each year, so check them there before you rely on them.

Checked 2 November 2026.

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