11+ tutors and grammar school prep

The 11+ is the entrance test for state grammar schools and many independent schools. The paper your child sits depends on where you apply, so the practical priority is finding a tutor who knows your local test.

Regional guides

Wirral Wirral's grammar schools do not share one test. The four non-faith grammars now use a Quest Assessments paper, sat in September of Year 6, while St Anselm's and Upton Hall each set their own. Find a tutor who knows which of the three exams your child is actually sitting.Warwickshire Warwickshire's six selective grammar schools sit one shared entrance test: the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test from GL Assessment, used across Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire too. Two multiple-choice papers, sat at the start of Year 6.Trafford 11+ Trafford's seven state grammars do not share one test. Five form the Trafford Grammar School Consortium and sit a single GL Assessment paper; Loreto and St Ambrose each set their own separate exam. Each consortium school sets its own qualifying score. The consortium provider changes to FSCE from 2028 entry.Sutton Six Sutton schools share one first-stage test, the Selective Eligibility Test, sat once on a single date. The five grammars then run two separate second-stage exams on two dates. Knowing which stage tests what, and what it does not test, is most of the planning problem.Reading 11+ Reading School (boys) and Kendrick School (girls) do not share an entrance test. Reading School uses the FSCE test, sat in July of Year 6; Kendrick uses GL Assessment, sat in September. Each runs its own registration, and preparation for one does not transfer to the other.Slough 11+ Slough's four grammar schools (Herschel, Langley, St Bernard's and Upton Court) form the Slough Consortium and share a single 11+ entrance examination, sat in September of Year 6. The test is provided by GL Assessment, which replaced the consortium's previous arrangements in 2024.Kent Test Kent has 32 state grammar schools and one main county-wide entrance test: the Kent Test, also called the PESE. Several schools also run their own separate test as an alternative route. Find a tutor who knows the current paper format and the local admissions landscape.Lincolnshire 11+ Lincolnshire has 15 selective schools. Fourteen share one GL Assessment test through the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools, and Caistor Grammar sets its own papers. The consortium test is verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning and spatial awareness only, sat in September of Year 6.Essex CSSE prep Ten Essex schools share one entrance test, the CSSE Selective Test, which the consortium writes itself rather than buying from GL Assessment. Chelmsford County High School for Girls sits outside it with a separate FSCE test. Find a tutor who works from the CSSE past papers.Birmingham Birmingham's eight grammar schools share one entrance test, provided by GL Assessment and arranged by the King Edward VI Foundation. It is sat at the start of Year 6, and the same sitting covers 19 grammar schools across the West Midlands.Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire's 13 state grammars all admit through the Secondary Transfer Test (STT), produced by GL Assessment for the TBGS consortium. Two multiple-choice papers on one day, half the marks on English and verbal reasoning, and a standardised score of 121 that qualifies a child for every grammar in the county.

Test providers

GL Assessment GL Assessment says it is the largest provider of 11+ tests to schools in England, and it supplies the grammar-school admissions tests in Buckinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Here's what's tested, and how to check which provider your own area uses.CEM (legacy) CEM papers were the main alternative to GL Assessment until the early 2020s. CEM was not bought by GL: Durham University sold it to Cambridge in June 2019, and it trades today as Cambridge Insight. What ended was its consortium contracts, and those areas have since gone in different directions.

The 11+ is the entrance exam for state grammar schools, and many independent schools set their own version too. Children usually sit it at the start of Year 6, when they are 10 or 11. It tests some mix of Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, and a grammar-school place is free once a child has earned one.

There is no single national paper. Each grammar-school area commissions its own test or buys one from a publisher, and independent schools often run their own format on top. Good preparation for one county can look quite different from the next, because the paper style and the timing shift depending on where you apply. Knowing which test your target school uses is the first practical step.

That is what the guides below are for. The regional guides cover a specific area's test and the local tutors who have prepared children for it, so you can find someone who knows the exact paper your child will sit. The test-provider pages explain the common paper formats, which matters once you know which one your target school has chosen. Read your area first, then the provider that sets its paper.

Most families begin around a year before the test, which means Year 5 for the usual September sitting. A child who is already fluent on the Maths and English fundamentals can prepare in less time, and starting much earlier tends to cause more fatigue than benefit. Whatever the timing, a tutor who knows your local paper saves a lot of guesswork.

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