Urmston Grammar School 11+: Entrance Test, Qualifying Score and Admissions

Urmston Grammar School 11+ entry depends on one test: children sit the entrance examination shared by the Trafford Grammar School Consortium and must reach the school's qualifying score to be considered. Qualifying children are then placed through a set of entry categories, with most places going by straight-line distance from home and priority for M41 and M31 postcodes.

The school is a co-educational selective academy for pupils aged 11 to 18 in Urmston, Trafford, and the other consortium members are Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Sale Grammar School and Stretford Grammar School. A child sits the test once and the result counts for any of the five.

How Year 7 entry works

Year 7 has 150 places, and entry needs three things in order: registration with the school for the entrance examination, a score at or above the qualifying level, and the school named on the home council's Common Application Form. A qualifying score makes a child eligible; places are only confirmed on national offer day.

The policy for each entry year is determined in the January before registration opens, and it sets the qualifying score, the categories and the approximate number of places in each. Families should read the version for their child's year of entry alongside the information booklet and timetable on the admissions page.

What the entrance test involves

The consortium has appointed Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE), a not-for-profit subsidiary of Reading School, as its test provider, and its papers draw on the Key Stage 2 English and mathematics programmes of study up to the end of Year 5. The previous GL Assessment test, two papers of about an hour each covering verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills, has been replaced.

The test is sat in September of Year 6 in the first FSCE round, and the consortium has announced that for later entry rounds it moves to the latter part of the summer term of Year 5. Scores are standardised by the provider with an adjustment for date of birth, and access arrangements, including extra time where there is evidence of substantial need, are agreed before the test.

The qualifying score and local review

Every applicant must sit all parts of the test and reach the qualifying score set in the policy. In the arrangements for the last GL-tested round, the qualifying score was 334, or 324 for pupils eligible for Pupil Premium, and the school sends each family the score before the Common Application Form deadline.

A child who falls just short can be considered at a local review, held by the school's own Admissions Review Panel of the headteacher, an assistant headteacher and an independent literacy adviser. Under that policy, the review band ran from 321 to 333, or 321 to 323 for Pupil Premium pupils, and the panel looks at the score, the invigilator's report, any special circumstances form and evidence submitted by parents. A successful review is recorded as 334R and counts as qualifying.

How places are allocated

Qualifying applicants are placed through six entry categories in order, and where children cannot be separated, the one living closer to the school ranks first, with random allocation as the final tie-break.

• Category A: children with an EHCP naming the school, then looked after and previously looked after children
• Category B: approximately 15 places for the highest-scoring Pupil Premium applicants, wherever they live, with a supplementary form to confirm eligibility
• Category C: approximately 20 places for the top-scoring applicants, wherever they live
• Category D: children of staff with at least eight continuous years on a permanent contract
• Category E: children with a sibling at the school on the day of the test
• Category F: approximately 120 places by straight-line distance, first for M41 and M31 postcodes and then for other applicants

Registering and applying

Registration is made online through the link on the school's admissions page during the summer term of Year 5, and a family that misses the closing date cannot be tested in the autumn. Late applicants are not tested until after national offer day. The steps run in this order:

• Register online with the school before the closing date, sending any access arrangement evidence at the same time
• Sit the consortium entrance test
• Receive the score from the school before the council's application deadline, and request a local review if the score falls in the review band
• Name the school on the Trafford Common Application Form, or the home council's form, by the October deadline
• Receive the council's offer on national offer day, and accept or appeal

Preparing for the test

With the test built on the Key Stage 2 English and maths curriculum taught up to the end of Year 5, secure coverage of that curriculum matters most: reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and maths strands such as number, measurement, geometry and statistics. FSCE says its tests aim to encourage natural curiosity and critical thinking, so practice on unfamiliar problems that apply known maths tends to help more than drilling a single question type.

Because later rounds move the test into the summer term of Year 5, families should check which arrangements apply to their child's year of entry before planning a timetable. The school also works with an online 11+ platform to give pupils eligible for Pupil Premium free practice material, requested through the school's familiarisation page.

In-year places and sixth form

In-year applications for Years 7 to 11 are made through the Trafford Council portal, and the school decides whether a candidate is assessed by tests or by a review of existing academic work. A successful assessment adds the child to a waiting list ranked by the oversubscription criteria, and only one in-year assessment is allowed in any 12-month period.

Vacancies are rare, and a successful assessment does not guarantee a place. The other normal point of entry is the sixth form at 16.

Related guides

• Trafford grammar schools guide
• Tutors for families in Manchester
• Grammar schools in England: the full directory

Preparing for the Urmston Grammar School 11+ with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the Urmston 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.

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