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How to prepare for the Caistor Grammar School 11+

A practical parent guide to the Caistor Grammar School 11+ for 2028 entry: exam format, dates, catchment, preparation and what happens next.

Bespoke test Last reviewed 4 October 2026

Exam format not yet verified. We have not confirmed this school's exam board or paper format from an official source. Where this guide describes the test, treat it as a working assumption and check the school's admissions page before relying on it.

The exam at a glance

Caistor Grammar School is a selective co-educational grammar school and children applying for Year 7 entry in September 2028 will sit the school’s own 11+ entrance test in the autumn term of Year 6. For 2028 entry, our working assumption, not yet verified with the school, is that the paper follows a GL-style format across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, so preparation needs to be balanced across all four areas rather than heavily weighted towards one subject.

The school’s admissions process page for the current cycle confirms that applicants take tests in the autumn term of Year 6 and that parents receive separate test-arrangement details before the test dates. For the most recent published cycle, the school scheduled two test dates in September, which suggests families may be offered one of more than one sitting rather than all children attending on the same day.

The school page does not clearly explain, in the published material we found, whether the tests are paper-based or delivered in another way. Because delivery is not confirmed on the admissions page, it is safest to prepare your child for a traditional timed test experience: working quietly, listening carefully to instructions, moving between short sections and keeping calm under time pressure.

What the day usually looks like in practice is:

  • arrival and registration
  • a brief check of candidate details
  • instructions from invigilators
  • the timed test or tests, likely split into sections
  • a short break if the schedule includes more than one paper or sitting
  • collection at the end

Because the format draws on GL-style question types, most children benefit from becoming comfortable with short, timed sections and quick transitions between question styles. Accuracy still matters more than rushing: the aim is steady, reliable performance in every subject.

Registration and key dates

Caistor Grammar School runs its own registration for the selective tests through the school’s admissions process rather than through the Lincolnshire school-place application itself. The school’s admissions page for the latest cycle says that parents must complete the school’s online registration form for the entrance tests. The same page also explains that naming the school on the local authority secondary application form is a separate step, so families need to do both.

For the most recent published cycle for September 2027 entry, the school states:

  • applications opened at the beginning of March 2026
  • the registration deadline was 14 August 2026
  • test-arrangement details were due by 11 September 2026
  • test dates were 19 September 2026 and 26 September 2026
  • outcomes were emailed on 13 October 2026
  • the Lincolnshire local-authority preference deadline was 31 October 2026

For children starting Year 7 in September 2028, the school has not yet published the new cycle at the time of writing, so parents should treat those dates as a guide only. Based on the school’s latest published process, registration usually opens in early March, the deadline is mid-August, the tests are typically in September of Year 6, and outcomes are sent before the local-authority preference deadline at the end of October.

The school’s page does not set out a full document checklist in the material we found. In practice, families should be ready to complete the online form carefully and then watch for the school’s test-arrangement email. It is also sensible to keep proof of address available, especially if you expect to claim priority on distance grounds or under the school’s defined catchment rules.

Alongside the test registration, parents must also complete the Lincolnshire secondary school application through the local authority by the published deadline. A selective test result on its own does not count as an application for a school place.

Useful school-specific resources:

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Caistor Grammar School follows the Lincolnshire County co-ordinated admissions scheme for allocating places, which means parents register separately for the test with the school and then submit school preferences through the local authority.

For catchment priority, the school’s current admissions information for the latest cycle states that to be considered in catchment for September 2027 entry, applicants had to live within 6.5 miles of the school, measured as the crow flies, on 1 September 2026. That is a specific rule for that published cycle, and parents applying for 2028 entry should check the new admissions arrangements as soon as they are released in case the rule changes.

The school’s admissions policy also sets out that there is a selective process for entry to Year 7, but in the sources reviewed here the school does not publish a simple headline pass mark or guaranteed qualifying score for parents to work towards. If you are looking for the exact oversubscription order, the most important document to read is the school’s determined admissions policy for the relevant year, because that is where the priority rules are defined.

In practical terms, families should think about admissions in two layers:

  1. Eligibility to be considered through the school’s entrance testing process.
  2. Allocation of places under the published admissions policy and the Lincolnshire co-ordinated scheme.

If you live close enough to qualify for the school’s stated catchment priority, make sure your address evidence and timing are in order. The date on which you must be living at that address matters, so do not assume a later move will automatically count. If you live outside catchment, it is still worth reading the policy carefully so you understand how children are ranked after higher-priority groups.

Because selective schools can be competitive and the detailed tie-breaks matter, parents should rely on the school’s latest policy rather than forum summaries or historic cut-off discussions.

A month-by-month preparation plan

For this exam, a calm and steady build-up usually works better than an intense last-minute push. A Year 5 child does not need endless hours. What helps most is regular practice, careful review and enough time to become familiar with all four subjects.

January to March of Year 5

  • Keep it light: around 1 to 1.5 hours a week in total.
  • Focus on core numeracy and reading habits.
  • Begin gentle familiarisation with verbal and non-verbal reasoning if these are new.
  • Use short sessions of 15 to 20 minutes, four or five times a week.

April to June of Year 5

  • Build to 2 hours a week.
  • Introduce GL-style question types across all four subjects.
  • Work untimed first so your child learns method and layout.
  • Start an error notebook: missed vocabulary, weak maths topics and recurring reasoning patterns.

Summer holiday before Year 6

  • Aim for 2 to 3 hours a week, split into short sessions.
  • Rotate subjects so none is neglected.
  • Start brief timed exercises, but not full papers every week.
  • Practise stamina gently: one longer mixed session each week is enough at this stage.

September to December of Year 6

  • If your child were sitting this term, this would be exam season; for 2028 entry, use this as a model for the final run-in.
  • Increase to 3 to 4 hours a week once school routines settle.
  • Begin regular timed sections and then full papers once accuracy is reasonably secure.
  • Review every paper properly. Improvement comes from understanding mistakes, not just completing more pages.

January to April of Year 6

  • For families preparing well ahead, this is a good period for consolidation rather than pressure.
  • Strengthen arithmetic fluency, comprehension, vocabulary building and pattern recognition.
  • If one subject is clearly weaker, give it a little extra time without dropping the others.

May to July of Year 6 exam year

  • Move to 4 hours a week if your child is coping well.
  • Use timed mixed practice regularly.
  • Introduce full mock-style papers every two to three weeks.
  • Work on pacing: knowing when to move on matters in GL-style tests.

August to exam month

  • Keep practice steady rather than intense: around 3 to 4 hours a week.
  • Use one full paper or realistic mock each week, plus short review sessions.
  • In the final week, reduce volume slightly and prioritise confidence, sleep and routine.

A helpful rule of thumb is this: if your child is becoming tired, tearful or resistant, shorten sessions and increase review quality. Good preparation should feel purposeful, not punishing.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For a GL-style maths section, children usually need secure Key Stage 2 skills delivered at speed and with care. Focus on arithmetic fluency, place value, the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, perimeter, area, simple data handling and multi-step word problems. Practise mental methods as well as written ones, because timed tests often reward children who can choose efficient approaches quickly.

Good practice includes short daily arithmetic, mixed problem sets and regular correction of careless errors. Encourage your child to underline key numbers in worded questions and estimate where possible to sense-check answers.

English

English preparation should cover both reading and technical accuracy. In GL-style work this often means comprehension, vocabulary in context, grammar, punctuation, spelling and sometimes sentence-level editing or cloze-style tasks. Strong readers usually have an advantage, so regular reading is one of the best long-term investments.

Practise extracting evidence from short passages, noticing tone and meaning, and building vocabulary from books rather than word lists alone. For spelling and grammar, short, frequent practice is usually more effective than occasional long sessions.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal reasoning tests a child’s ability to work with language patterns, letter codes, word relationships and logical sequences. The exact mix can vary, but common GL-style tasks include synonyms, antonyms, letter and number codes, sequences, related-word problems and instructions involving careful processing.

The key here is method. Teach each question type step by step, then repeat until it becomes familiar. Vocabulary matters in verbal reasoning too, so keep reading and discussing word meanings alongside formal practice.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-verbal reasoning focuses on shapes, patterns, rotations, reflections, symmetry, similarities, odd-one-out tasks and visual sequences. Many children improve quickly once they learn to scan systematically for change: shape, size, position, shading, direction and number.

Use short drills on one question type at a time before mixing them together. If your child tends to guess too quickly, encourage them to say what has changed between shapes before choosing an answer. That habit builds accuracy and reduces avoidable mistakes.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used as a learning tool, not simply as a score generator. Start with untimed or lightly timed work so your child learns the method for each question type. Once those methods are familiar, introduce proper timing and build towards full papers.

A sensible pattern is:

  1. learn the question type
  2. practise a short set untimed
  3. repeat with a gentle time limit
  4. sit a mixed section
  5. review every mistake carefully

Mocks can help with stamina, timing and nerves, especially in the final months before the exam. They are most valuable when followed by detailed review. One or two realistic mocks often help more than a long run of them.

For this school, use these free resources:

When marking papers, look for patterns rather than focusing only on the total score. Ask:

  • Were mistakes caused by weak knowledge or by rushing?
  • Does your child slow down on particular verbal or non-verbal question types?
  • Are worded maths problems the issue rather than pure calculation?
  • Is comprehension accuracy dropping at the end because of stamina?

Those patterns tell you what to practise next week.

On the day

Keep the day simple. Your child needs a calm start, enough time and a parent who looks steady even if they feel nervous inside.

  • Check the school’s test-arrangement email in advance and follow it exactly.
  • Prepare any required items the night before.
  • Aim to arrive with time to spare rather than rushing.
  • Choose a normal breakfast your child knows suits them.
  • Avoid last-minute cramming in the car or at the gate.

What to say to your child matters. Keep it brief: read carefully, keep going, and do your best is usually enough. If they meet a hard question, remind them beforehand that this is expected. In selective tests, no child finds every item easy.

After the exam, try not to conduct a detailed post-mortem. Most children feel better if the day simply moves on. A favourite snack, a quiet activity or an ordinary family routine is often the best reset.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

After testing, the school emails outcomes before the deadline for naming preferences on the local-authority secondary application. For the latest published cycle, Caistor Grammar School said outcomes would be emailed on 13 October 2026, giving families time before the 31 October 2026 Lincolnshire preference deadline.

The next step is the local-authority application. Parents then list school preferences through Lincolnshire’s co-ordinated admissions process. Offers are made on National Offer Day, 1 March, in line with the usual national timetable and the date shown on the school’s published process page for the latest cycle.

If your child does not receive an offer, the usual routes are:

  • joining the waiting list if the school offers one under its admissions arrangements
  • considering an appeal through the admissions appeals process

The exact appeal timetable and procedure are usually published separately by the admission authority. Appeals are not a re-sit, and they depend on the legal admissions process rather than general disappointment or near-miss discussions. If you ever need to appeal, start with the school’s official admissions pages and the local-authority guidance so you are working from the correct documents and deadlines.

What has changed recently

For the most recent published admissions cycle, the school’s process page set out a detailed timetable including two September 2026 test dates rather than a single date, with results emailed in October before the preference deadline. The same page also stated that applications opened at the beginning of March 2026 and that the registration deadline was 14 August 2026. Parents applying for 2028 entry should still check the new page when released, because yearly timings can move.

On catchment priority, the latest admissions information says that for September 2027 entry, applicants needed to live within 6.5 miles of the school as the crow flies on 1 September 2026 to be treated as in catchment. That is the current published rule we found and is worth checking again for 2028 entry in case the determined arrangements are amended.

We did not find any official announcement in the reviewed sources of a recent change to the underlying test subjects for entry, beyond the annually updated timetable and admissions-cycle details.

Frequently asked questions

When should my child start preparing for Caistor Grammar School?

For most children, a gentle start in Year 5 works well. Begin with core maths, reading and light familiarisation with verbal and non-verbal reasoning, then build gradually through Year 6.

Does Caistor Grammar School use GL Assessment?

For 2028 entry, our working assumption, not yet verified with the school, is that the school uses its own paper in a GL-style format covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

Is there a published pass mark for Caistor Grammar School?

We did not find a published headline pass mark or cut-off score in the sources reviewed. Check the school’s admissions page and policy for the latest official information.

Do I need to register for the test and also apply through Lincolnshire?

Yes. The school’s admissions process says parents complete the school’s online registration for testing and must also submit their school preferences through the local authority.

Is Caistor Grammar School catchment-based?

It has a catchment priority rule in its admissions arrangements. For the latest published cycle, in-catchment status required living within 6.5 miles of the school, measured as the crow flies, by the stated qualifying date.

When are Caistor Grammar School 11+ results released?

For the latest published cycle, outcomes were emailed in mid-October, before the local-authority preference deadline. For 2028 entry, check the school’s new timetable when it is published.

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Sources

Preparing for other schools in Lincolnshire

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.