South Wilts Grammar School 11+ Guide 2026: Admissions, Exam & Prep

South Wilts Grammar School is a fully selective state grammar school in Salisbury, admitting girls only to Years 7–11 with a co-educational sixth form. For September 2027 entry, girls now in Year 6 needed to register for South Wilts’s own GL Assessment 11+ test by midnight on Tuesday 1 September 2026 and sat the test on Saturday 26 September 2026; those who reach the cut-off score set for that year’s cohort will be considered for one of the school’s 160 Year 7 places. South Wilts runs this test separately from Salisbury’s other state grammar school, Bishop Wordsworth’s School (boys), which runs its own 11+ selection; the two schools do not share a joint consortium paper.

This guide covers South Wilts Grammar School’s history and character, the precise Wiltshire admissions arrangement and how it differs from a shared consortium test, the three-paper GL Assessment format used for entry, the school’s nine-tier oversubscription criteria, the key 2026 dates for September 2027 entry, the school’s Ofsted rating and recent exam results, and how to prepare effectively across all three tested subjects.

Key Facts: South Wilts Grammar School

About South Wilts Grammar School: History and Character

South Wilts Grammar School will mark its centenary in 2027. For most of its history the school was known as South Wilts Grammar School for Girls, admitting girls only from Year 7 through to the end of sixth form.

It converted to academy status in January 2011, becoming its own single-academy trust (a company limited by guarantee) rather than joining a larger multi-academy trust chain.

South Wilts’s sixth form is co-educational, admitting boys as well as girls, a departure from the girls-only lower school (Years 7–11 have remained girls-only throughout). The school is now named South Wilts Grammar School, having previously been known as South Wilts Grammar School for Girls. The school is currently led by headteacher Dr Amanda Smith, with Liz Ogilvie chairing the board of trustees, and serves approximately 1,200 pupils aged 11 to 18.

Is South Wilts Grammar School Part of a Shared Wiltshire Consortium Test?

This is one of the most common points of confusion for families new to Salisbury’s grammar school system, and the answer is a clear no. Salisbury has two single-sex state grammar schools: South Wilts Grammar School for girls, and Bishop Wordsworth’s School for boys. Both schools use test papers prepared by GL Assessment. However, unlike the consortium arrangements found in counties such as Kent, Essex, Buckinghamshire or Lincolnshire — where a single shared paper, sat on one date, produces one score usable across every consortium school — South Wilts and Bishop Wordsworth’s each run their own separate 11+ test, with their own registration window.

The two tests are not even structured identically. South Wilts Grammar School’s test comprises three papers — Mathematics, English, and Verbal Reasoning — sat in a single sitting on one Saturday. Bishop Wordsworth’s test, by contrast, has two papers: Paper 1 combines non-verbal reasoning and maths, and Paper 2 combines English and verbal reasoning, with a total examination time of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Registration windows differ too: Bishop Wordsworth’s 11+ applications opened on 25 March 2026, while South Wilts’s registration opened on 2 June 2026 for September 2027 entry. The practical consequence is that a family with both a son and a daughter hoping to attend Salisbury’s grammar schools must register separately with each school, prepare each child for a different test format, and cannot assume that qualifying for one school says anything about qualifying for the other. For full detail on the boys’ school, see our companion guide to Bishop Wordsworth’s School 11+ admissions.

How Does Admission to South Wilts Grammar School Actually Work?

South Wilts Grammar School is a selective academy, which means it manages its own admissions arrangements while cooperating with Wiltshire Council’s coordinated admissions scheme so that families receive a single offer on National Offer Day. Registering for the South Wilts 11+ test is a separate step from applying for a secondary school place through the local authority. To be considered for Year 7 entry in September 2027, a family needed to register directly with South Wilts Grammar School for its own 11+ test via the school’s online registration system, and must still submit Wiltshire Council’s Common Application Form (CAF), naming South Wilts as a preference, by the national closing date of 31 October 2026. Missing either step means a child cannot be offered a place, however strongly she might otherwise have performed in the test.

The South Wilts test is regularly oversubscribed against the school’s 160 available places. All applicants who register and sit the test and reach the school’s cut-off score are ranked using the oversubscription criteria below when demand for places exceeds supply.

What Does the South Wilts Grammar School 11+ Test Involve?

South Wilts Grammar School’s entrance test is supplied by GL Assessment and is sat in a single sitting, unlike some standalone-testing grammar schools that split their assessment across two separate Saturdays. The test comprises three distinct components:

• Mathematics (50 minutes): based on Year 5 National Curriculum content, with some early Year 6 material included to stretch the most able candidates. This is a notable point of difference from many regional consortium tests (including Lincolnshire’s and several London and home-counties consortia) which test only verbal and non-verbal reasoning, with no mathematics component at all.
• English (45 minutes): covering reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation and grammar — testing a candidate’s ability to read closely, understand nuance and apply technical accuracy, rather than creative or extended writing.
• Verbal Reasoning (50 minutes): assessing logical thinking and problem-solving through language-based puzzle formats — codes, sequences, analogies, word relationships and similar question types common across GL Assessment 11+ papers nationally.

South Wilts does not publish a fixed pass mark. Instead, in common with several other standalone-testing English grammar schools, the school’s own admissions policy confirms that eligibility depends on a candidate achieving “the cut off score in the selection test,” with that cut-off determined each year with reference to how the full cohort of applicants performs, rather than being fixed in advance. This means a strong performance one year may set a different bar to a strong performance the year before or after, depending on the overall strength of that year’s applicant pool. Free practice materials in the GL Assessment multiple-choice format are available to help candidates familiarise themselves with the question style ahead of test day; the school held a familiarisation session on 19 September 2026, a week before the main test.

What Are South Wilts Grammar School's Oversubscription Criteria?

Because more girls consistently reach the cut-off score than there are places available, South Wilts Grammar School applies its published oversubscription criteria in the following strict order, applying only to candidates who have already reached the required cut-off score:

1. Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) naming South Wilts Grammar School, who meet the entry criteria
2. Looked-after children and previously looked-after children, including those who became subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order
3. Pupil Premium-eligible children living within the designated catchment area
4. Service Premium-eligible children meeting the academic standard
5. All other children meeting the academic standard who live within the catchment area
6. Pupil Premium-eligible children living outside the catchment area
7. Children of staff employed at the school for two or more years, meeting the academic standard
8. Siblings of current pupils, ranked by distance from home to school, for those living outside the catchment area
9. All other qualifying children, ranked by straight-line distance from home to school

Distance, wherever it is used as a tie-break, is measured “as the crow flies” using a straight-line calculation from home to school; if two or more applications cannot be separated by distance for the final available place, the school uses random allocation by casting lots as the final tie-break. South Wilts publishes a catchment area map covering Salisbury and the surrounding parts of south Wiltshire, and this catchment status materially affects a family’s position in the priority order — notably, Pupil Premium-eligible candidates inside the catchment area (criterion 3) are prioritised well ahead of all other academically-qualifying candidates outside it (criterion 6), a deliberate design choice that widens access for lower-income families within the school’s local community specifically.

What Are the Key 2026 Dates for South Wilts Grammar School Admissions?

For girls seeking September 2027 entry to Year 7 at South Wilts Grammar School, the following 2026–2027 timetable applies:

Registration for the entrance test itself is completed directly with South Wilts Grammar School via the school’s own admissions pages — it is not handled by Wiltshire Council. Separately, every family must also submit the Wiltshire Council Common Application Form by 31 October 2026, listing South Wilts among their preferences if they want their daughter considered for a place there. Full official detail is published on the school’s own 11+ process page. For the broader national picture of grammar and independent school timetables, see our 11+ exam dates 2025–2026 guide.

What Ofsted Rating and Exam Results Does South Wilts Grammar School Have?

South Wilts Grammar School holds a Good overall Ofsted rating, with an Outstanding grading for behaviour and attitudes, from its most recent full inspection. GCSE and A-Level results for South Wilts Grammar School are published on the Department for Education’s Compare School Performance service.

South Wilts Grammar School was named State Secondary School of the Year for the South West in The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2026 — the school’s first time receiving this particular accolade, and a recognition the school says reflects its academic outcomes, extracurricular opportunities and inclusive ethos. Headteacher Dr Amanda Smith described the award as reflecting “the hard work, talent and dedication of our students, staff and wider community,” while Chair of Trustees Liz Ogilvie called it evidence of “extraordinary progress over many years.” For a broader sense of how South Wilts compares with other selective schools nationally, see our overview of 2026 grammar school league tables, and the Department for Education’s own Compare School Performance data for South Wilts specifically.

What Is the Sixth Form at South Wilts Grammar School Like?

South Wilts Grammar School runs a co-educational sixth form alongside its girls-only Years 7–11, admitting boys as well as girls from Year 12 upwards. External candidates apply through a separate sixth form application process with its own prospectus, entry requirements and a January 2027 application deadline distinct from the Year 7 11+ timetable; internal Year 11 leavers who meet the school’s minimum general entry and subject-specific requirements are given priority continuation. Bursary support is available for eligible sixth form students, reflecting the school’s wider stated commitment to widening access.

The move to co-education at sixth-form level, alongside the continued strength of GCSE and A-Level results, has helped South Wilts build a reputation as one of the strongest state sixth-form options in Wiltshire, complementing its position as one of Salisbury’s two selective secondary schools. Girls weighing up South Wilts against neighbouring selective options may also find our guides to other single-sex grammar schools, such as Kendrick School in Reading, useful points of comparison for admissions structure and sixth-form provision.

How Should My Daughter Prepare for the South Wilts Grammar School 11+?

Because South Wilts Grammar School tests three distinct subjects rather than the two-paper verbal/non-verbal reasoning format common in many consortium regions, effective preparation needs a broader base than a typical “VR and NVR only” 11+ programme.

Mathematics deserves particular attention precisely because it is easy to overlook if a family has read generic 11+ advice aimed at consortium regions that omit maths entirely. Preparation should be built on rock-solid Year 5 National Curriculum content — times tables, fractions, decimals, percentages and the four operations applied quickly and accurately — layered with some early Year 6 material and multi-step reasoning problems, since the paper draws on content slightly beyond a straightforward Year 5 recap.

English preparation should focus on close reading comprehension, spelling accuracy, and punctuation and grammar technique, rather than creative writing, since South Wilts’s English paper does not include an extended writing task. Wide reading across fiction, non-fiction and quality journalism builds the vocabulary and inferential reading skills that comprehension questions reward, while targeted practice with SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) question types builds the technical accuracy the paper also tests directly.

Verbal Reasoning rewards structured practice with the pattern-based question types common across GL Assessment verbal reasoning tests: codes, sequences, analogies, word relationships and hidden words. Because South Wilts does not publish a fixed cut-off score and instead sets the required standard against that year’s cohort, preparation should aim for genuine, well-rounded strength across all three tested subjects rather than narrowly targeting a known score threshold. A personalised one-to-one approach is particularly valuable here, since a tutor can identify exactly which of the three areas — mathematics, English or verbal reasoning — is weakest for an individual child and adjust the balance of a preparation programme accordingly. At Leading Tuition, our specialist 11+ tutors work with families across Salisbury and Wiltshire, including online tuition for families further afield in the county.

Most families begin structured preparation in Year 4 or the autumn term of Year 5, giving twelve to eighteen months to introduce every question type across all three subjects, address individual weaknesses, and move on to full timed practice papers in the months before registration and test day. For general background on how 11+ testing works across England’s different selective regions, see our guide to what the 11+ exam involves.

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Reviewed September 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against South Wilts Grammar School's 11+ process page, 2027 Admissions Policy and its own announcement of its 2026 Sunday Times Parent Power award, Bishop Wordsworth's School's Year 7 admissions page and 11+ entry leaflet, GIAS and Ofsted.

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