FSCE exam format, key dates, catchment area and how places are actually allocated
Book a Free ConsultationErmysted's Grammar School is a selective, voluntary-aided boys' grammar school in Skipton, North Yorkshire, taking boys into Year 7 through a single entrance test provided by Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE) — not GL Assessment, despite what several of the pages currently ranking for this search say. For September 2027 entry, registration opened on 13 April 2026 and closed on 31 August 2026; the entrance test took place on Saturday 26 September 2026, and the school's Published Admission Number is 128 — though Governors have already shown they are willing to admit well above that: they took 150 boys into the school for the September 2026 intake. This guide sets out exactly what the test covers, the full application timeline, who gets priority when the school is oversubscribed, how the papers are marked, what happens if your son doesn't get an offer, and what Ofsted found when it last inspected.
Checked September 2026
Ermysted's Grammar School's FSCE entrance test for September 2027 entry took place on Saturday 26 September 2026; registration for this cycle closed on 31 August 2026.
The school's Admissions Policy confirms results are due in the week commencing 12 October 2026, with National Offer Day set for 1 March 2027.
Some 11+ guides describe the entrance test as being provided by "GL Assessment" or the "GL exam board". This is incorrect. Ermysted's own 2026-27 Admissions Policy states plainly that the provider is Future Stories Community Enterprise Ltd (FSCE), and the school's own admissions page is explicit about what that means in practice: "Non-verbal reasoning is not included in our test and there is no creative writing element." That rules out two of the four components a GL-style test usually includes.
What the FSCE test actually contains is narrower and more specific than the GL format sold by most practice-paper sites. There are two papers, and both cover English and mathematics — they are not split into a "verbal reasoning and English" paper and a "maths and non-verbal reasoning" paper. Instead, one paper uses multiple-choice answers and the other uses short written answers, with both testing English and maths content drawn from the Key Stage 2 curriculum up to the end of Year 5. Each paper typically lasts 45–60 minutes, with a scheduled break in between.
The practical consequence is that GL-format non-verbal reasoning practice papers are testing a skill that does not appear on this particular exam at all. Families preparing for Ermysted's specifically are better served focusing on English comprehension, written composition-style short answers, and mathematical reasoning, rather than buying a generic GL bundle built for a different kind of test.
Living inside the catchment area does not mean automatic entry — every applicant, whether inside or outside catchment, must separately register for the entrance test. The catchment area only comes into play afterwards, when the school has more applicants meeting the required standard than it has places, and needs to decide who actually gets one.
Ermysted's own Admissions Policy defines the catchment area as the area served by the primary schools in Beamsley, Bradley, Burnsall, Carleton, Cracoe, Embsay, Gargrave, Grassington, Kettlewell, Kirkby-in-Malhamdale, Skipton, Thornton-in-Craven and Threshfield. When the school is oversubscribed by candidates who have reached the required standard, places go first to looked-after or previously looked-after children, second to applicants whose home address is inside that catchment area, and third to applicants outside it. Within both the catchment and out-of-catchment groups, further preference goes first to children registered for Pupil Premium, then to siblings of pupils already at the school, and finally to straight-line distance from the school gate.
If two applicants are tied on every criterion, including distance, the remaining place is allocated at random, with an independent witness present for the process.
Ermysted's does not publish a fixed pass mark. Both papers are marked using Optical Mark Recognition, then statistically standardised so that each paper has the same average score of 100, adjusted for the age of the candidate on the day of the test. The two standardised scores are then added together to give a single overall score for each boy.
That overall score is compared against the "required standard" for admission — a bar that is not fixed in advance. It is determined each year by the Admissions Committee based on how that year's entire cohort actually performs in the test. Reaching the required standard is necessary but not sufficient: if more boys clear it than there are places, the oversubscription criteria above decide who is actually offered a place. In practice this means the effective difficulty of "passing" shifts slightly from year to year, depending on how strong the applicant pool is.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe table below sets out the full application timeline for boys who sat the entrance test in autumn 2026 for a Year 7 place starting in September 2027, taken directly from the school's own Admissions Policy and admissions pages.
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Test registration opens | Monday 13 April 2026, 12:00 pm |
| Test registration closes | Monday 31 August 2026, 12:00 pm |
| Main entrance test | Saturday 26 September 2026 |
| Test outcomes released | Week commencing 12 October 2026 |
| Common Application Form deadline | Saturday 31 October 2026 |
| Supplementary Information Form deadline | Friday 27 November 2026 |
| National Offer Day | Monday 1 March 2027 |
Source: Ermysted's Grammar School's 2026-27 Admissions Policy and Year 7 admissions pages, retrieved 27 September 2026.
The Supplementary Information Form is worth flagging on its own: it only needs completing by parents who believe their son qualifies for one of the priority categories above (looked-after status or Pupil Premium), but it is easy to miss because it falls three-and-a-half weeks after the Common Application Form deadline, rather than alongside it.
Every state grammar school has a Published Admission Number, or PAN — the number of Year 7 places it commits to filling in a normal year. For Ermysted's, that figure is 128.
What none of them mention is what happened for the cohort actually starting at the school this September. Ermysted's own Admissions Policy records that "Following a meeting of the governors on 3 March 2026, Governors decided to admit over PAN to 150 pupils in Year 7 for September 2026" — 22 places above the published figure. That decision was specific to the September 2026 intake, made after seeing how that year's applications and required-standard numbers worked out; it is not a guarantee that the school will do the same for the September 2027 cohort, who have now sat the test and are awaiting their results. But it is useful context for any family treating 128 as a hard ceiling: Governors showed, for the September 2026 intake, that they are willing to move well past it.
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Not every family who wants a place at Ermysted's gets one on National Offer Day. Two routes exist. First, a waiting list ranked according to the same published oversubscription criteria is maintained by the school until 31 December 2027, and any place that becomes available during that period — a family moving away, an offer declined elsewhere — is offered to the next eligible child on the list.
Second, parents have a statutory right of appeal against a decision not to offer a place. The appeal is heard by an Independent Admissions Appeals Panel, which sits separately from the school's own Admissions Committee, and the panel's decision is binding on both the school and the family. This is a formal, evidence-based process rather than an informal review, so families considering it should request the appeal form and read the panel's published timetable in good time rather than leaving it until the last moment.
Ofsted's most recent inspection report, dated 28 September 2022, rated Ermysted's Good overall. Underneath that headline figure, the individual judgement areas tell a stronger story: Behaviour and attitudes, Personal development, Leadership and management, and Sixth form provision were all rated Outstanding, with only Quality of education rated Good rather than Outstanding.
Beyond the inspection, Ermysted's own site gives a sense of scale and character: the school was established circa 1492, making it one of the older grammar schools still operating in England, and currently has 835 pupils on roll across Years 7 to 13, with 59 enrichment activities running weekly. For families comparing Ermysted's against the other North and West Yorkshire grammar schools — including nearby The Crossley Heath School, which also uses the FSCE test — the Ofsted record and the school's longevity are both worth weighing alongside the raw places-and-dates comparison.
For families who want tailored support with English comprehension, written short-answer technique and mathematical reasoning for the FSCE format specifically, our 11+ tuition programmes are built around exactly what each target school's test contains, rather than a one-size-fits-all GL bundle.
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
Reviewed September 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Ermysted's Grammar School's own Year 7 admissions pages, its 2026-27 Admissions Policy, and Ofsted's inspection report for the school.
No. Several ranking guides describe the Ermysted's 11+ test as "GL Assessment", but the school's own 2026-27 Admissions Policy names Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE) as the sole provider. The FSCE test covers English and mathematics only across two papers — one with multiple-choice answers, one with short written answers. There is no non-verbal reasoning component and no creative writing task, so GL-style non-verbal reasoning practice papers are not useful preparation for this specific test.
The catchment area is defined by the primary schools serving Beamsley, Bradley, Burnsall, Carleton, Cracoe, Embsay, Gargrave, Grassington, Kettlewell, Kirkby-in-Malhamdale, Skipton, Thornton-in-Craven and Threshfield, as set out in the school's own Admissions Policy. Living in catchment does not mean automatic entry — every applicant, catchment or not, must register separately for the entrance test. Catchment only matters afterwards, when the school applies its oversubscription criteria to decide who gets a place if more children reach the required standard than there are places.
The Published Admission Number (PAN) is 128 places in Year 7. However, the school's own Admissions Policy records that Governors met on 3 March 2026 and decided to admit above PAN, taking 150 boys into Year 7 for the September 2026 intake — 22 places more than the published figure. That decision applied to the cohort already in the school, not automatically to future years, but it shows the published 128 is not always the final number families should plan around.
No fixed pass mark is published. Both papers are marked by Optical Mark Recognition and then statistically standardised so that each has the same average score of 100, adjusted for the age of each candidate. The two standardised scores are added together, and the "required standard" needed for admission is set afresh each year by the Admissions Committee, based on how that year's cohort actually performs in the test. This means the bar can move slightly from one year's intake to the next.
You can still register and sit the entrance test — there is no residency requirement to apply. Ermysted's oversubscription criteria place looked-after and previously looked-after children first, then applicants inside the catchment area, then applicants outside it. Within both the catchment and out-of-catchment groups, priority then goes to children registered for Pupil Premium, then to siblings of current pupils, then to straight-line distance from the school. Out-of-catchment applicants are considered, just after catchment applicants who reach the required standard.
For September 2027 entry, registration opened on 13 April 2026 and closed on 31 August 2026. The main entrance test took place on Saturday 26 September 2026, and results are due in the week commencing 12 October 2026. Parents must still submit a Common Application Form to their home local authority by 31 October 2026, and a Supplementary Information Form by 27 November 2026 if applying under a priority category. National Offer Day, when the Local Authority confirms the allocated school, is 1 March 2027.
A waiting list ranked by the published oversubscription criteria is maintained until 31 December 2027, and places are offered from it as they become available. Parents also have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place. The appeal is heard by an Independent Admissions Appeals Panel, separate from the school's own Admissions Committee, and its decision is binding on both the school and the parent — so an unsuccessful initial application is not necessarily the final word.
Ofsted rated Ermysted's Grammar School Good overall following its inspection on 28 September 2022, published that November. Within that, four of the five judgement areas were rated Outstanding: Behaviour and attitudes, Personal development, Leadership and management, and Sixth form provision — only Quality of education was rated Good rather than Outstanding.
Leading Tuition's specialist tutors prepare boys for the FSCE format Ermysted's actually uses: English comprehension, short written-answer technique and mathematical reasoning drawn from the Key Stage 2 curriculum, rather than a generic GL-style bundle that includes non-verbal reasoning this test does not set. Sessions are delivered online, one-to-one, and tailored to where a candidate needs the most support ahead of the entrance test and the school's own required standard. Families across Yorkshire and the UK work with our specialist tutors throughout the registration, testing and National Offer Day timeline. Book a free consultation to discuss your son's Ermysted's preparation.
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