Lincolnshire Grammar Schools: 11+ Tests and Catchment

Lincolnshire is one of the few English counties to have kept selective secondary education across most of its area, with fourteen grammar schools, one bi-lateral school and one further grammar school operating outside the county's main testing arrangement, serving families from the city of Lincoln out to the Lincolnshire coast. Thirteen of these schools, together with the bi-lateral King Edward VI Academy in Spilsby, sit within the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools, which allows a child to sit a single 11+ test and name up to three consortium schools as preferences;Caistor Grammar School, in the north of the county, sets its own bespoke entrance test and admissions timetable outside the consortium.

Where a child lives in Lincolnshire, most families apply for a Year 7 place through Lincolnshire County Council's co-ordinated admissions scheme, registering separately for the 11+ test itself in the summer term of Year 5 ahead of testing in Year 6. Families from outside the county can also register for the Lincolnshire 11+ and, once results are known, name a Lincolnshire grammar school as a preference through their own home local authority.

Which grammar schools exist in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire's selective schools are spread across the county's market towns; the city of Lincoln itself has no grammar school. Several towns, including Boston, Sleaford, Spalding and Grantham, have separate boys' and girls' grammar schools, each with its own single-sex intake.

• Boston Grammar School, Boston: boys (11-16), with a co-educational sixth form
• Boston High School, Boston: girls
• Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford: boys (11-16), with a co-educational sixth form
• Kesteven and Sleaford High School, Sleaford: girls
• Bourne Grammar School, Bourne: mixed
• Spalding Grammar School, Spalding: boys (11-16), with a co-educational sixth form
• Spalding High School, Spalding: girls
• Skegness Grammar School, Skegness: mixed
• The King's School, Grantham: boys
• Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, Grantham: girls
• Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Alford: mixed
• Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle: mixed
• Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough: mixed
• King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth: mixed
• King Edward VI Academy, Spilsby: mixed, a bi-lateral school combining a grammar stream for children who pass the 11+ with a secondary modern stream on the same site
• Caistor Grammar School, Caistor: mixed, outside the consortium with its own entrance test and admissions dates

Who runs the 11+ and what it covers

Fourteen of Lincolnshire's selective schools, the thirteen full grammar schools plus King Edward VI Academy in Spilsby, test together as the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools, using GL Assessment to provide the 11+ papers. A child sits Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, subjects that fall outside the national curriculum, over two papers taken on consecutive Saturdays (or the preceding Friday) in September of Year 6. Each paper opens with a short unmarked practice section so children know the question style before the timed test begins.

A standardised score of 220 across the two papers is set to identify roughly the most able 25% of the age group tested within Lincolnshire's selective areas, and each consortium school applies this qualifying score before its own oversubscription criteria come into play. Caistor Grammar School, outside the consortium, sets its own two Verbal Reasoning papers, a standard paper and a multiple-choice paper, also taken on consecutive Saturdays in September, and applies the same qualifying score of 220.

11+ tutors

Hannah

Master Tutor

11+ PreparationCommon Entrance PreparationCreative WritingCritical Thinking

I am a UK-qualified teacher with 15+ years across private and state schools in the UK and abroad, and hold a BSc from LSE and a PGCE with QTS. I teach English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning, 11+ and Common Entrance preparation. My approach is personalised, confidence-building and rigorous.

Enquire about this tutor

Sochima

Master Tutor

11+ PreparationBiologyChemistryComputer Science

I'm a qualified teacher in a London classroom every day, with a BSc in Computer Science from Brunel and a PGCE with QTS. I teach Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science to A-Level, plus 11+ preparation, through project-based work that suits SEND learners well.

Enquire about this tutor

Robert

Master Tutor

11+ PreparationBiologyChemistryEconomics

I am a qualified teacher with over twenty years' experience in the UK, Gulf and New Zealand, holding an MA in History and PGCE. I teach English, History, Geography and French from KS2 to A-Level and IB, preparing 11+/13+ candidates. My approach is student-led, focused and diagnostic.

Enquire about this tutor

See all tutors

Registration and the typical timetable

For the consortium schools, parents register their child for the 11+ while the child is still in Year 5, with the registration window running from January to the end of March. Children attending a Lincolnshire primary school are normally sent a registration form directly; children from outside the county or from an independent school register through the consortium's own website or by returning a form by post to their preferred grammar school.

In the most recent round, registration opened in January and closed on 31 March. The Verbal Reasoning paper was set for 11 or 12 September and the Non-Verbal Reasoning paper for 18 or 19 September, with results emailed to parents by 9 October. Parents must then name their preferred schools, including any grammar schools, on the Common Application Form submitted to their home local authority by the home council's closing date, normally 31 October and later when that date falls at a weekend, with Lincolnshire's National Offer Day falling on 1 March of the following year.

Caistor Grammar School runs to its own timetable: in the most recent round, applications opened in early March, registration closed on 14 August, the two test papers were set for 19 and 26 September, and results went out by 13 October, still ahead of the application closing date.

Catchment and priority areas

Passing the 11+ and reaching the qualifying score of 220 is the first gateway to a Lincolnshire grammar school place. Catchment or priority-area status only acts as a tie-breaker once a school is oversubscribed; it cannot substitute for the test. Most consortium schools use a Designated Transport Area, sometimes called a free transport area, within which eligible children receive free home-to-school transport and gain higher priority in oversubscription; Alford, Horncastle, Louth, Skegness and Spalding Grammar School all use this approach, with Alford's criteria also giving weight to named feeder primary schools including Alford, Huttoft, Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Theddlethorpe, Willoughby and Withern.

A smaller number of schools instead use a straight-line catchment radius from the school gate: Caistor Grammar School and Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough, both define in-catchment status as living within 6.5 miles of the school. Where oversubscription criteria still cannot separate applicants for the final places, schools typically fall back on straight-line distance, and, if that still fails to distinguish between applicants, a lottery.

How places are allocated and how to appeal

Lincolnshire's grammar schools are their own admission authorities, so each publishes its own oversubscription criteria within the framework of the county's co-ordinated admissions scheme, but a common pattern runs across most schools: looked-after and previously looked-after children first, then children eligible for pupil premium, then those within the school's catchment or designated transport area ranked by total test score, and finally all other qualifying children ranked by score or distance.

Because grammar schools set their own admissions, appeals go directly to the school; the county council plays no part. Each appeal is heard by an independent panel, convened with support from the council's legal team, that operates independently of both the school and the council. At Bourne Grammar School, for example, appeals for September entry in the most recent round had to be lodged by 30 March, with hearings held between 27 April and 8 May. To succeed on the 11+ score itself, a parent generally needs to show that their child should have met the qualifying standard, and, where the school is full, that the child's case for a place outweighs the school's case for maintaining its admission number.

How to prepare for the 11+

The Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools does not endorse or recommend tutoring, and instead points parents toward familiarisation papers, available from GL Assessment and other retailers, which follow the same question styles as the real Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning and Spatial Awareness papers. Parents buying practice packs need to check the format carefully: the multiple-choice and standard versions are scored differently, and the consortium's own papers follow the multiple-choice style.

For a child in Year 4 or Year 5, the guide towhen to start 11+ preparationworks back from the test date year by year.

Since neither Verbal nor Non-Verbal Reasoning is taught as part of the primary curriculum, familiarity with the question types, working through timed practice papers and building confidence with the format tend to matter more than subject content in the run-up to September testing.

The Lincolnshire 11+ pass mark and how scores are standardised

The qualifying level for the Lincolnshire 11+ is a total standardised score of at least 220 across both papers, a mark set to identify the most able 25% of pupils in the age group in the primary schools of the selective areas. The two GL Assessment papers are Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning with Spatial Awareness, each answered on an optical mark reading sheet. Reaching 220 does not of itself guarantee admission to any individual school.

A standardised score converts the number of correct answers into a common scale, which allows the two papers to be combined, and it includes an age allowance so that a child born in July or August is compared only with pupils of the same age. Boys and girls are not treated differently. The tests may be taken only once in the academic year, and the consortium issues the overall standardised score without releasing raw scores.

Girls applying in Sleaford can read theKesteven and Sleaford High School admissionsguide alongside the consortium's testing dates.

TheBoston High School admissionsguide covers the girls' school in Boston and how its places follow the consortium test.

Preparing for the Lincolnshire Grammar Schools 11+ with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the Lincolnshire Grammar Schools 11+ usually come to us a year or so before the assessment, though shorter runs work where the foundations are already sound. Having prepared pupils for entry to leading independent and grammar schools, with placements including Westminster, St Paul's, Wycombe Abbey and Eton, our tutors build each programme around the format the school actually uses, whether a written paper, an online pre-test, an interview or a combination of them.

More than half of our tutors hold Qualified Teacher Status and around three in five hold a master's degree or doctorate, and the pool includes former heads of department, exam-board examiners and teachers from independent and boarding schools, so the preparation is led by people who know how selective schools assess. Every tutor who works with children holds an enhanced DBS check.

Families work with us online from anywhere in the UK or abroad, and in person in central London. Fees start from £50 per 50-minute session and depend on tutor level and subject, with no registration fee. Families receive progress reports after sessions and have a dedicated point of contact.

Read more about our11+ entrance exam tutors, or send an enquiry and we will come back with tutor recommendations.