Ripon Grammar School 11+ Admissions: Assessment, Registration and Entry

Entry to Ripon Grammar School at 11+ is decided by an entrance test set, marked and standardised by GL Assessment, with registration handled through North Yorkshire Council. Places at Year 7 go first to the highest-scoring children living within the school's published catchment area, up to its admission number, and then to children outside catchment who score highly enough once catchment places are filled. Sitting and passing the test is not, on its own, an application for a place.

Ripon Grammar School is a state-maintained, academically selective, co-educational school for day and boarding pupils in Years 7 to 13. Most pupils join at 11+, with smaller additional entry rounds at 13+ into Year 9 and at 16+ into the Sixth Form, alongside occasional in-year testing wherever a vacancy exists.

How 11+ entry works

The school admits its main Year 7 cohort through the 11+ selective test. The published admission number for Year 7 is 117 places, including 14 reserved for boarding pupils; if boarding applications do not fill these, the unallocated places pass to day applicants instead. Most children join the school at 11+, though a smaller 13+ round for Year 9 and a sixth form entry process at 16+ also run, alongside occasional in-year testing wherever a vacancy arises.

How the 11+ assessment works

The entrance test is produced, marked and standardised by GL Assessment and sat at the school on a single morning. It comprises two multiple-choice papers: a Verbal Skills paper combining reading comprehension, spelling and grammar with verbal reasoning, and a Non-Verbal Reasoning with Mathematics paper, whose maths content is drawn from work up to the end of Year 5. There is no interview as part of this academic assessment; boarding applicants go through a separate suitability process. North Yorkshire Council states that coaching is not required, though it cannot prevent it, and points families towards GL Assessment's own familiarisation materials.

Registering for the test and applying for a place, in order

Registering for the entrance test and applying for a Year 7 place are separate steps, and North Yorkshire Council is explicit that completing one does not achieve the other. Parents first register for the test with the council, in a window that opens in the spring, before the test itself is sat at the school on a Saturday in September. Results are sent out in writing during the autumn. Because sitting the test is not an application, families must also list the school as a preference on the national secondary transfer application form, the Common Application Form, submitted to their home local authority by its autumn closing date, with places confirmed on National Offer Day the following spring.

Catchment area and the qualifying standard

North Yorkshire Council defines a catchment area for the school, shown on its interactive schools map, and catchment residence carries priority in admissions. Scores from the two test papers are standardised for age and combined into a single total, which the council uses to identify the highest-scoring children in the Ripon area; it describes this as covering around 28 percent of the local Year 6 cohort. There is no fixed pass mark, so the qualifying score is set afresh each year against that year's results, and a child who falls short cannot resit the following year.

Oversubscription criteria if the school receives more applications than day places

When applications for Year 7 day places exceed the places available, North Yorkshire Council applies its published order of priority, and within each group a sibling already at the school is considered before distance from home to school, measured shortest first.

• Looked-after children and all previously looked-after children
• Children the authority considers have special social or medical reasons for admission
• Children whose home address lies within the catchment area
• Children of staff meeting the council's length-of-service or skills-shortage conditions
• Children whose home address lies outside the catchment area

Boarding admissions and fees

The school offers weekly and full (termly) boarding alongside day places. Boarding has its own oversubscription order, applied only when boarding applications exceed the places available, and any boarding places left unfilled are allocated to day applicants instead. Boarding applicants also complete a separate suitability process, which can include a short interview focused solely on whether boarding suits the child. Because tuition is free at a state grammar school, only the cost of boarding accommodation is charged, published separately by the school and varying by year group and boarding pattern.

• Looked-after and previously looked-after children
• Children of serving UK armed forces personnel who qualify for related financial assistance
• Children with a recognised boarding need, including family circumstances or a parent working abroad in specified roles
• Termly boarding applicants
• Weekly boarding applicants

Preparing for the 11+ assessment

Because the test covers verbal skills alongside non-verbal reasoning and mathematics drawn from work up to the end of Year 5, familiarity with multiple-choice formats and working accurately within a strict time limit tends to matter alongside subject knowledge; North Yorkshire Council notes that every question is meant to be attempted within the time allowed. The council states that coaching is not required, while acknowledging that some families choose to prepare, and it points towards GL Assessment's own familiarisation materials as closer to the real test than generic off-the-shelf practice books.

Related guides

• Grammar schools in England: the full directory

Preparing for the Ripon Grammar School 11+ with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the Ripon Grammar School 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 and a free initial consultation to talk through your child's current level and the timeline to the 11+. Families receive progress reports after sessions and have a dedicated point of contact, and we reply to enquiries within one working day with tutor recommendations.

Read more about our 11+ entrance exam tutors, or send an enquiry and we will come back with tutor recommendations.