How to prepare for Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar 11+

The exam at a glance

Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School uses GL Assessment for Year 7 entry in September 2028. For this school, the entrance test covers Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, and it is sat as a paper-based test.

The school describes admission as being based on performance in its entrance examination, with up to 180 students admitted each year. For families, the practical takeaway is that preparation needs to be balanced across all four areas rather than heavily weighted towards only maths or only reasoning.

Because this is a GL-style assessment, children should get used to standard timed sections. That means working on accuracy first, then gradually building speed, while keeping confidence steady across every subject.

On the day itself, expect a formal test session run by the school. Exact timings for 2028 entry have not yet been published on the school website, so parents should treat any current arrangements as a guide rather than a promise for your child’s cohort.

Exam board: GL Assessment
Subjects: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Delivery: Paper-based
Places in Year 7: 180
Admissions point to remember: passing the test does not in itself guarantee an offer, because oversubscription rules still apply

Registration and key dates

For Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School, registration is handled through the school’s admissions process rather than through a county-wide grammar consortium page. The school’s admissions page gives the dated arrangements currently available for September 2027 entry, which is useful as the most recent official guide to the usual timetable.

For that admissions round, the school says the entrance examination is on 26 September 2026 and that the registration deadline is 12 noon on 14 September 2026. It also says requests for access arrangements should preferably be made before June 2026.

For children starting Year 7 in September 2028, the school has not yet published a full set of dates at the time of writing. The safest way to plan is to assume a similar autumn timetable: registration and testing usually happen in the first part of the autumn term of Year 6, with access-arrangements requests dealt with earlier.

What parents should do:

Check the school’s admissions page regularly from late spring of Year 5 onwards.
Read the current entrance test information carefully once published.
If your child may need access arrangements, contact the school early and gather any supporting evidence well before the stated deadline.
Make sure you also complete your local authority secondary school application in addition to sitting the test. The entrance test is only one part of the admissions process.

The school’s page does not, on the pages reviewed, set out a detailed list of required registration documents for 2028 entry yet. If paperwork is needed, it will normally be explained in the school’s own application instructions when the new cycle opens.

To keep track of updates, you can use Free email alerts for this school's key dates. You can also check The Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) for a simple summary once new dates are announced.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School is a designated grammar school. The school says it is primarily for children who attend primary schools in Bacup, Rawtenstall and the surrounding areas. That matters because the test is not the whole story: the school also makes clear that passing the entrance examination does not guarantee a place where the school is oversubscribed.

The school states that it admits up to 180 students each year to Year 7.

For parents, the important practical point is to separate two ideas:

Qualification: your child needs to perform strongly enough in the entrance test.
Allocation: if more children qualify than there are places, the published admissions criteria are used to decide who is offered a place.

The school’s website should always be your first stop for the current admissions policy for your child’s year, because oversubscription rules can be updated. If you are outside the school’s main priority area, do not assume that a strong score alone will secure an offer.

No official cut-off score, pass mark or distance threshold was found on the pages reviewed for 2028 entry, and parents should not rely on forum claims or old figures. If the school publishes more detail for your child’s cohort, it will appear in the school’s admissions documents.

A month-by-month preparation plan

For a child aiming for the Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School test in the autumn of Year 6, the best preparation is steady and calm. GL-style papers reward children who are secure in core skills, familiar with common question types and comfortable working under time pressure.

When	What to do
Spring and summer of Year 4	Keep it light. Read widely, learn number facts properly and build concentration. Ten to twenty minutes a few times a week is plenty.
Autumn of Year 5	Begin structured preparation. Aim for about 2 to 3 hours a week in short sessions. Cover all four subjects gently and diagnose weak spots early.
November to January of Year 5	Build methods. Focus on arithmetic fluency, comprehension habits, vocabulary, verbal reasoning patterns and careful visual work for non-verbal reasoning.
February to April of Year 5	Increase to about 3 to 4 hours a week if your child is coping well. Start short timed sections, not full papers every week.
May to July of Year 5	Use mixed practice. Begin occasional full or half papers under realistic conditions. Review mistakes thoroughly and keep a notebook of recurring errors.
Summer before Year 6	Keep momentum without overdoing it. One or two good sessions a week plus reading is enough. If confidence is fragile, prioritise routine over volume.
September of Year 6	Shift into exam mode. Use timed papers, quick reviews and calm repetition. Avoid cramming in the final week.

A realistic weekly pattern for most children is:

Two shorter weekday sessions of 30 to 40 minutes
One longer weekend session of 45 to 60 minutes
Regular reading outside formal study time

Timed papers are useful, but only once methods are reasonably secure. For many children, that means starting short timed sections in the spring of Year 5 and moving to fuller papers in late Year 5 or the summer before Year 6.

If your child is tiring, accuracy is dropping sharply or every session ends in frustration, the answer is usually not more work. It is better to shorten sessions, revisit fundamentals and rebuild confidence.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For GL-style maths, children need strong Key Stage 2 knowledge and the ability to work accurately under time pressure. Practise arithmetic fluency, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, perimeter, area, simple data handling and worded problems. Make sure your child learns to spot what a question is really asking before calculating.

Good preparation includes short mental maths drills, careful written methods and timed sets where your child learns when to move on rather than getting stuck.

English

English preparation should cover both reading and language accuracy. In GL-style work, children may face comprehension tasks, vocabulary-focused questions and spelling, punctuation or grammar elements depending on the paper design used by the school. Strong reading habits matter here: children who read a wide range of fiction and non-fiction usually find it easier to interpret tone, infer meaning and handle unfamiliar vocabulary.

Practise retrieving information, explaining word choice, making sensible inferences and checking answers against the passage rather than guessing from general knowledge.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning rewards familiarity. Children should learn common GL-style question types such as code, letter and word patterns, vocabulary relationships, sequencing and logical manipulation of language. The exact mix can vary, so broad exposure helps.

The best approach is to learn one question type at a time, understand the method fully and only then add time pressure. Keep a record of types your child finds tricky so they reappear regularly in revision.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning is usually about recognising visual patterns and changes in shape, position, rotation, reflection, shading or symmetry. Many children improve quickly once they learn to scan systematically rather than looking at the whole question in a vague way.

Practise identifying one change at a time: shape, size, number, direction, shading and position. Encourage your child to use elimination where appropriate, as that can save time and reduce careless errors.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are part of a routine, not used as a constant test. Start with untimed or lightly timed work while your child learns the methods, then move gradually towards realistic timed sections and fuller papers.

A simple pattern that works well is:

Learn the question type.
Practise a short set untimed.
Repeat the same type with a gentle time limit.
Review every mistake and write down the reason.
Return to that same skill a week later to check it has stuck.

When using full papers, try to recreate exam conditions: quiet room, correct timing, no help during the paper and a proper break afterwards before marking. The review matters more than the score. Look for patterns such as rushing, missed instructions, weak vocabulary or running out of time on one section.

For this school, use subject-specific practice rather than relying on one broad paper type only. These free resources will help:

If you use mock exams, choose them carefully. A good mock is helpful for stamina, timing and nerves, but too many can knock confidence. One or two well-timed mocks in the months before the test are usually enough for most children.

On the day

Keep the morning simple. Aim for a calm start, a familiar breakfast and plenty of time to travel. Avoid last-minute teaching in the car; it rarely helps and often increases nerves.

Check the start time, location and any instructions from the school the night before.
Prepare clothes, stationery if required and drinks or snacks if the school says they are allowed.
Leave early enough that a small delay does not become a family emergency.
Remind your child that some questions will feel hard for everyone.
Encourage them to listen carefully to instructions and keep an eye on timing.

The most useful mindset is: do the question in front of you. If one item seems impossible, move on and return if there is time. Children often lose more marks through panic than through difficulty.

After the paper, try not to analyse every answer. A quiet treat, fresh air and a normal evening are usually better than a detailed post-mortem.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

After the entrance test, the school will issue the outcome according to its admissions process. For the 2028 cohort, the exact results date has not yet been published on the school pages reviewed, so parents should watch the school website for confirmation.

Remember that a test result is only one stage. Families must also submit their secondary school preferences through their home local authority. Offers of places are then made through the normal coordinated admissions process on national offer day.

If your child qualifies but the school is oversubscribed, places are allocated using the published admissions criteria, not simply by having taken the test. If your child is not offered a place, you may be able to join the waiting list and, where appropriate, use the school’s or local authority’s appeals process. The exact appeal arrangements should be checked in the current admissions policy and your offer paperwork.

If anything is unclear after results are released, contact the school promptly and keep copies of forms, emails and any supporting documents.

What has changed recently

On the sources reviewed, no newly announced change for the 2028 cohort was published yet in relation to exam board, format or admissions dates. The school’s currently dated entrance test information relates to September 2027 entry, including a test date of 26 September 2026 and a registration deadline of 12 noon on 14 September 2026. Parents of children seeking September 2028 entry should therefore treat these as the most recent official guide to the usual timetable, but not as confirmed dates for their own year.

Frequently asked questions

What exam board does Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School use for 2028 entry?

For 2028 entry, ElevenReady's verified information is that the school uses GL Assessment.

What subjects are tested?

The test covers Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

Is the Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School 11+ paper-based or online?

For 2028 entry, the test is paper-based.

How many places are available in Year 7?

The school says it admits up to 180 students each year.

If my child passes, do they automatically get a place?

No. The school states that passing the entrance examination does not guarantee a place because oversubscription criteria still apply.

When should my child start preparing?

For most children, a gentle structured start in the autumn of Year 5 works well, with timed sections introduced later once the basics are secure.

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Sources

Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School – Admission to academy: The school is a designated grammar school; it admits up to 180 students each year on the basis of performance in its entrance examination; the school is primarily for children who attend primary schools in Bacup, Rawtenstall and the surrounding areas; passing the entrance examination does not guaran
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School – Home: The school is an 11–18 academy and part of Star Academies.

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Written by ElevenReady from the school's published information and reviewed by a person before publishing. Last reviewed 4 October 2026. Exam arrangements change. Check the school's admissions page for the current year.