Gloucestershire Grammar Schools 11 Plus Guide 2026

Gloucestershire has seven state grammar schools, known collectively as the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools (G7). All seven schools use a single common entrance test, the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test, provided by GL Assessment for September 2027 entry and by Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE) from September 2028 entry. Children sat two papers on the same day — Saturday 12 September 2026 for September 2027 entry — and could share their score with any or all of the consortium schools. Pate's Grammar School, Marling School and Stroud High School each publish an admission number of 150 for Year 7, Denmark Road High School says it welcomes 150 students into Year 7 each year and Sir Thomas Rich's says it admits 155 boys every September; the seven schools are in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud. Three of the seven schools — Pate's, The Crypt and Stroud High — are rated Outstanding by Ofsted, and well-structured preparation starting well before the test gives children time to build the reading and maths skills it draws on.

What Are the Key Facts and Dates for Gloucestershire 11+ Entry in 2027 and 2028?

The table below sets out the key admissions facts and dates for the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test for September 2027 and September 2028 entry, based on information published by Gloucestershire County Council and the consortium schools.

Registration is carried out directly by the individual grammar schools themselves, not by Gloucestershire County Council. The official Gloucestershire County Council grammar schools admissions page lists the seven schools and states the test dates for September 2027 and September 2028 entry. Registered children sat the test once, on 12 September 2026, and parents ticked on the registration form which of the seven consortium schools should receive the result. You must also complete the Gloucestershire County Council Common Application Form for secondary school preferences by midnight on 31 October 2026. Failing to list a grammar school on the CAF means your child will not receive an offer from that school even if they achieve a qualifying score.

Which Schools Are in the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Consortium?

The seven schools span three areas of Gloucestershire — Cheltenham, Gloucester (four schools) and Stroud — with a mix of selective boys, girls and co-educational provision. The consortium structure means a child who achieves a qualifying score can be considered for any or all of the schools in a single test sitting.

Three of the seven schools — Denmark Road High School, Ribston Hall High School and Stroud High School — are girls-only for Years 7 to 11 with co-educational sixth forms. Two schools — Sir Thomas Rich's School and Marling School — are boys-only for Years 7 to 11 with co-educational sixth forms. Pate's Grammar School and The Crypt School are fully co-educational from Year 7. Families with children of different genders or with preferences for single-sex education in the secondary years should factor this structure into their school preference choices. Gloucestershire County Council lists Pate's and The Crypt as 11–18 mixed schools and the other five as 11–16 schools with a mixed sixth form.

The schools' latest Ofsted inspections were on 5 March 2024 (Pate's), 12 March 2024 (The Crypt), 7 November 2023 (Stroud High), 19 November 2024 (Marling), 9 December 2025 (Sir Thomas Rich's), 24 February 2026 (Denmark Road) and 12 May 2026 (Ribston Hall).

What Does the Gloucestershire 11+ Test Involve?

For September 2027 entry, the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test was provided by GL Assessment and consisted of two papers, each taking around one hour, with a break between the papers. Both papers were taken on the same day — Saturday 12 September 2026 for September 2027 entry. All questions are multiple-choice style, and Pate's, Marling and Stroud High say the qualifying standard reflects a child's position in the rank order of standardised scores. There is no written composition.

One paper assesses verbal skills, including comprehension, vocabulary and verbal reasoning. The other paper assesses non-verbal reasoning and mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding.

Critically, this test is used identically by all seven consortium schools. A child who registered and sat the test on 12 September 2026 could share that single result with all seven schools. Gloucestershire Local Authority then allocates places using each school's own admissions criteria, for children who meet that school's qualifying standard. The test papers do not vary between schools, but the qualifying standard does: Stroud High School says the required standard varies between grammar schools, and Pate's names the highest-ranking 250 students as its qualifying group.

Gloucestershire's grammar schools have appointed Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE) as test provider from September 2028 entry onwards and are moving the test from September of Year 6 to the summer term of Year 5. The arrangements above — GL Assessment and two papers — applied to the 12 September 2026 test for September 2027 entry. Children now in Year 5 sit the FSCE test on Saturday 3 July 2027: registration opens at noon on Monday 8 February 2027 and closes at noon on Friday 19 March 2027, and results are due online in October 2027. Denmark Road and Ribston Hall describe three FSCE papers — Adventure (English and maths, multiple choice), Beacon (English and maths, short written answers) and Compass (school subjects, multiple choice) — and FSCE says each paper typically lasts 45–60 minutes and that all papers are marked by computer and age-standardised. For children now in Year 4, FSCE says the test is usually held in the summer term of Year 5.

How Competitive Are the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools to Get Into?

Pate's, Marling and Stroud High all say there is no pre-defined pass mark for the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test. After the test, Pate's, Marling and Stroud High say the qualifying standard reflects a child's position in the rank order of standardised scores; for September 2027 entry Pate's names the highest-ranking 250 students as its qualifying group. Families preparing for the 11+ should not treat the standard as a fixed target: where a school sets it by rank order rather than a pre-defined pass mark, the score that qualifies depends on how the whole cohort performs.

Pate's Grammar School in Cheltenham sets out how its qualifying standard works: for September 2027 entry the qualifying group is the highest-ranking 250 students, a lower standard applies to disadvantaged children (a score within 15% or better of the 150th ranked standardised score), and 150 places are offered.

Around 3,000 children register each year to sit the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools admissions test, with approximately 2,500 taking part, according to Pate's Grammar School. Once a child achieves the qualifying score, individual school admissions criteria determine which pupils receive offers. These criteria vary between schools. Pate's and Marling both put looked-after and previously looked-after children first. Pate's next allocates a maximum of 15 Priority Places to disadvantaged children (ranked using Pupil Premium eligibility and listed postcodes), then Non-Priority Places (Local) for qualifying children living in Gloucestershire or listed postcodes, up to 105 places in total with the first two groups, then Non-Priority Places (UK wide), a minimum of 45. Marling admits Pupil Premium pupils who meet the qualifying standard next, then other qualifying pupils in test rank order. Where scores are equal, Marling ranks children first by attendance at a Cotswold Beacon Academy Trust primary school, then by distance from the school, then by random allocation; Pate's ranks them by distance from the school, then by drawing lots.

Pate's students achieved 88.3% grades 9 to 7 at GCSE in 2026 and 94.2% A*-B across A Level and EPQ entries in 2026, according to the school's published results. Stroud High School was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in November 2023. The Crypt School was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in March 2024 alongside Pate's. Because a qualifying result can be shared with more than one school, families whose child reaches the standard for several schools can list each of them on the Common Application Form; a grammar school that is not listed cannot offer a place.

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How Do I Register My Child for the Gloucestershire 11+?

Registration for the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test is carried out directly by the grammar schools themselves, not by Gloucestershire County Council. The registration window for September 2027 entry ran from noon on 18 May 2026 to noon on 26 June 2026 and has closed; Pate's says no late registrations were accepted. For September 2028 entry, registration is set to open at noon on 8 February 2027 and close at noon on 19 March 2027.

For September 2027 entry, families registered once using the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Central Registration Form and ticked on it which schools should receive the result. For September 2028 entry, the council strongly advises visiting your preferred grammar school's webpage for further information on registration. You are registering to sit the test, not applying to a school: a qualifying rank is not an automatic offer of a place in the grammar school(s), and you must also list them on your secondary school application form.

After the test on 12 September 2026, Pate's says results are emailed around the middle of October 2026 and The Crypt says mid October, in time for the Common Application Form deadline. At this point, you will know whether your child has achieved a qualifying score. You must then list your preferred Gloucestershire grammar schools on the Gloucestershire County Council Common Application Form by midnight on 31 October 2026. If you also wish to apply to grammar schools in other counties, check their own 11+ registration requirements separately: 11+ tests vary from one area to another, and Pate's says the Gloucestershire test is only applicable in Gloucestershire.

Families who missed the noon, 26 June 2026 registration deadline could not sit the main test on 12 September 2026. The grammar schools administer a Late Entrance Test for children who did not sit the September test: the grammar schools' missed-test timeline puts online registration in early January 2027 and the Late Test Day in late January 2027, with results sent on 1 March 2027, and the council advises checking your preferred grammar school's webpage in December 2026; the same timeline also asks families, from September 2026 onwards, to contact their preferred grammar school to register their interest. It also says to return the Common Application Form to your Local Authority in October 2026, where you can include grammar schools although your child cannot be considered for a grammar place until they have a test result, and to request the waiting list after 1 March but by midnight on 15 March 2027 if your child meets the qualifying standard. The grammar schools' missed-test timeline and Stroud High School say a late test will not allow a place to be allocated on 1 March 2027, but lets a child who meets the standard join the second round of allocations or the waiting list. For September 2028 entry, put the registration dates of 8 February 2027 and 19 March 2027 in your diary and register promptly rather than leaving it to the final days.

How Should My Child Prepare for the Gloucestershire 11+?

Effective preparation for the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test requires consistent, structured work over an extended period — not an intensive sprint in the final weeks before the test. The GL Assessment test covered verbal skills, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics, while the FSCE test for September 2028 entry draws on KS2 content taught up to the end of Year 5; either way, these skills take time to build. Familiarisation with the published question types is useful, but genuine competence in the underlying skills — reading widely, understanding mathematical structures, recognising patterns in reasoning questions — matters more than surface-level question formats; Pate's says that beyond the familiarisation material, the best preparation is to read books and use mathematics on a regular basis.

Year 4 (early start): In Year 4, the focus should be entirely on building genuine enjoyment and fluency rather than exam-format drilling. Read widely — fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, quality magazines — to develop vocabulary depth. Wide reading builds the vocabulary that the verbal paper in the GL Assessment test assessed, and FSCE encourages children to develop strong reading habits by reading widely and deeply. Explore maths puzzles, mental arithmetic and problem-solving games. Introduce occasional age-appropriate puzzles and imaginative, critical-thinking discussions. Do not use timed test materials at this stage — the goal is building real capability, not exam familiarity.

Year 5, September onwards: children now in Year 5 sit the FSCE test on Saturday 3 July 2027, so structured preparation starts now. Begin systematic, structured preparation covering English, mathematics and the KS2 content taught up to the end of Year 5, which the FSCE test draws on. In the first term, work through each subject area methodically rather than jumping directly to timed practice tests. Understand why answers are correct — particularly in maths, where understanding the underlying method is far more valuable than drilling answers without comprehension.

Year 5, from January 2027: Introduce section-by-section timed practice. Work at increasing difficulty levels across English and maths. Track your child's performance to identify specific weak points — it is much more efficient to spend preparation time strengthening genuine weaknesses than repeating practice in areas of existing strength. Use the FSCE familiarisation guides published on the grammar schools' websites rather than generic 11+ resources, and remember that FSCE says the content changes each year, so the guide is not definitive, and that the test does not require specialist tutoring.

Year 5, summer term 2027: The final phase before the FSCE test on Saturday 3 July 2027. Run full timed mock papers under realistic exam conditions at least monthly. Sitting three papers of 45–60 minutes each, all on one day, is itself a skill, and it helps to rehearse it at home. Confirm your registration well before the noon deadline on Friday 19 March 2027. Children now in Year 6 have already been through this stage: their test for September 2027 entry took place on Saturday 12 September 2026, and those who missed it can find Late Entrance Test details on their preferred grammar school's webpage in December 2026.

The weeks before the test: Maintain a light two-to-three session per week schedule through the spring and early summer. Avoid overloading in the final four to six weeks — test fatigue and burnout are real risks that can undermine months of effective preparation. The goal by the end of June 2027 is confident, relaxed readiness, not frenetic last-minute drilling; FSCE encourages children to focus on calmness and confidence rather than pressure and stress.

See our general 11+ School Guides hub for resources across all grammar school regions, and our guide to Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools if your family is also considering a grammar school in another county. Our 11+ Tuition page explains how our specialist tutors structure Gloucestershire consortium preparation from Year 4 onwards.

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 October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Gloucestershire County Council's grammar schools page, the grammar schools' missed-test timeline and key dates published by Pate's, and the admissions pages of Pate's, Marling, Stroud High, The Crypt, Denmark Road, Ribston Hall and Sir Thomas Rich's, FSCE's information, Ofsted and Pate's 2026 results.

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