Stroud High School 11+ Admissions: Entrance Test, Registration and Places

Getting into Stroud High School at 11+ depends on where a girl ranks in the Gloucestershire grammar schools' entrance test, since the school sets no fixed pass mark and instead offers its 150 Year 7 places in order of standardised test score, once children in public care and those eligible for Pupil Premium have been placed first.

The school draws its intake from more than ninety primary schools across Gloucestershire and beyond, and operates no catchment area, so a family's address only ever matters as a last-resort tiebreaker between girls with identical scores. Parents register directly with the school, sit the consortium's entrance test, then list Stroud High School on the Local Authority's Common Application Form before places are confirmed on National Offer Day.

How entry works at 11+

Entry in Year 7 depends on where a girl's standardised test score falls in rank order, with the Governing Board, as the school's admissions authority, setting a published admission number of 150 places against which candidates are ranked. The school draws its Year 7 intake from more than ninety primary schools across Gloucestershire and further afield.

The school also admits into a co-educational Sixth Form at 16+, taking continuing Year 11 pupils alongside new applicants, though most families researching entry are asking about the 11+ round covered here.

• Published Admission Number for Year 7: 150 places
• No catchment or priority area; open to applicants from outside Gloucestershire
• Girls normally turning 12 during the Year 7 academic year are the eligible cohort

How the 11+ assessment works

The Year 7 entrance test is set for the school by the Gloucestershire grammar schools consortium and comprises three papers: an Adventure paper testing English and maths through multiple-choice questions, a Beacon paper testing the same subjects through short written answers, and a Compass paper drawing on a wider range of primary curriculum subjects. Girls sit the test once, and the same standardised score can be used for any of the seven Gloucestershire grammar schools named on the family's application.

• No interview, school report or teacher reference forms part of the Year 7 assessment
• The qualifying standard varies each year, set by a girl's position in the rank order of standardised scores.
• Confirmation of whether the standard has been met is sent to parents after the test

Registering for the entrance test and the wider admissions process

Admission follows a set sequence of separate stages, each requiring its own form. Registering with the school is the first step, and children who do not attend a Gloucestershire primary school are allocated a test centre for the sitting.

• Register the child with the school within its published registration window
• Sit the entrance test set by the Gloucestershire grammar schools consortium
• Receive written confirmation of whether the qualifying standard has been met
• List the school on the Local Authority Common Application Form, submitted to Gloucestershire County Council by its published closing date
• Receive the allocation decision from the Local Authority on National Offer Day
• Accept, decline or join a waiting list by the council's published deadline

Oversubscription criteria and how places are allocated

Because the entrance test itself determines who reaches the required standard, oversubscription criteria only come into play once more girls qualify than there are places. The Governing Board allocates places in strict order: first to any child who is, or previously was, in public care; second to girls from families eligible for Pupil Premium or Service Pupil Premium at the time of the test; and third by rank order of standardised test scores among the remaining qualifying candidates.

Only when two or more girls share an identical score and live an equal distance from the school does the Governing Board draw lots, supervised independently of the school, to settle the final places. There is no catchment or priority area at any stage of this process.

Support for Pupil Premium and Service Pupil Premium families

The school gives explicit priority in its oversubscription order to girls from families eligible for Pupil Premium or Service Pupil Premium who reach the qualifying standard, ranking them above other qualifying candidates once children previously in public care have been placed.

Families who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the past six years can also register for the school's Shaping Futures provision, delivered with Atom Learning, which gives free access to entrance test and Key Stage 2 practice questions, mock tests and a familiarisation summer school held at the school. Service Pupil Premium families receive the same admissions priority, though the familiarisation programme itself is aimed at Pupil Premium eligibility.

Waiting lists, appeals and applying outside the usual Year 7 round

A girl who meets the required standard but cannot be offered a place because Year 7 is full is placed on a waiting list, ordered by the same public care, Pupil Premium and rank-order criteria used for initial offers; positions can move up or down as new applications arrive, and the list runs until the end of December of the Year 7 academic year.

Parents can lodge one appeal per academic year against a non-admission decision, with guidance issued when places are offered, save where circumstances change significantly. The school also accepts out-of-county applications, gives limited consideration to under-age entry, and allows a girl unsuccessful at 11+ to sit the test again for a later year group.

Preparing for the assessment

Because the test draws on the breadth of what girls learn generally through primary school, preparation tends to work best when it stays close to what a girl already does in Year 5 and Year 6: reading widely and for pleasure, talking through what she has read, and applying mental maths to everyday situations such as shopping or telling the time.

Familiarisation materials published by the test provider let families see the question styles and timings in advance, without needing to guess at format. A calm, steady run-up, with regular breaks and enough sleep, usually matters more than last-minute cramming, particularly since the assessment covers a wider spread of subjects than English and maths alone.

Related guides

• Gloucestershire grammar schools guide
• Grammar schools in England: the full directory

Preparing for the Stroud High School 11+ with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the Stroud High 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.