How to prepare for the Cranford School 11+ exam

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

Cranford School is an independent co-educational day school in Oxfordshire, and for Year 7 entry the school’s admissions process includes a Taster and Assessment Day. For 2028 entry, our working assumption, not yet verified with the school, is that the assessment uses the school’s own paper in a GL Assessment-style format covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

The test is computer-based and timed, so preparation should include not only accuracy but also confident work on screen. That matters because some children who do well on paper can slow down when reading from a screen, selecting answers digitally or managing the pace of a timed computer test.

From the school’s admissions information, Year 7 applicants attend a day that combines assessment with a chance to experience the school. In practice, parents should expect a more rounded admissions event than a single stand-alone exam session. The school describes it as a taster and assessment day rather than simply an 11+ test.

What does that mean for preparation?

Build breadth first: Cranford’s format covers four areas, so avoid over-focusing on just Maths and English.
Practise pace: short, timed work is useful because the assessment is timed.
Use screen practice: include computer-based practice as the exam approaches.
Prepare for the day itself: because it is also a taster day, children should be ready to engage positively, listen carefully and settle into an unfamiliar environment.

If you want a quick overview of the school-specific format and updates, see The Cranford School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).

Registration and key dates

Cranford says families register by completing a registration form and paying a £75 non-refundable registration fee. The school’s admissions process page also states that for Year 7, the Taster and Assessment Day takes place in November of the year preceding entry.

For a child starting Year 7 in September 2028, that means the assessment point is expected to fall in November 2027, based on the school’s published process for Year 7 entry. At the time of writing, we did not find a published 2028-entry calendar on the school site giving the exact registration opening date, closing date or results date, so parents should treat November as the confirmed usual timing and check the admissions page regularly for the specific 2027 dates once released.

In practical terms, the process appears to be:

Complete the school’s registration form.
Pay the registration fee.
Await details of the Year 7 Taster and Assessment Day.
If offered a place and you accept, pay the school’s £1,000 deposit.

We did not find a published list of supporting documents on the admissions page reviewed for this guide, so if you are registering it is sensible to ask the admissions team what they need in addition to the form and fee.

A simple planning timeline for 2028 entry would be:

Spring and summer 2027: begin steady preparation.
Autumn 2027: look out for the school’s published registration and assessment arrangements.
November 2027: Year 7 Taster and Assessment Day usually takes place.

Because independent-school timelines can be updated from year to year, it is worth setting a reminder to check the school directly. You can also sign up for Free email alerts for this school's key dates.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Cranford is an independent school, so there is no local-authority grammar-school style catchment system published on the sources we checked for this guide. We did not find a catchment area, distance rule or oversubscription map on the school’s admissions pages.

What the school does make clear is that Year 7 entry forms part of its own admissions process and includes the Taster and Assessment Day. As an independent school, offers are made through the school rather than through a local-authority secondary allocation system.

We also did not find, on the pages reviewed, a published number of Year 7 places, a formal ranked oversubscription policy, or historical competition statistics such as applications per place. That is quite common for independent schools, which often assess applicants individually and may vary numbers by cohort.

So, the most useful way to think about admissions here is:

There is no published catchment rule on the sources checked.
Families apply directly to Cranford.
Assessment forms part of the decision-making process for Year 7 entry.
If a place is offered and accepted, a deposit is payable.

If you need certainty on availability, waiting lists or any priority rules for siblings or internal pupils, check directly with the admissions team because those details were not clearly published on the material we found.

A month-by-month preparation plan

For Cranford, a calm, balanced plan usually works better than very heavy tutoring. Because the assessment covers four areas and is sat on a computer, the aim is to build secure skills first and then improve pace.

Below is a practical schedule working back from a likely November assessment in Year 6.

January to March in Year 5

Keep it light: around 1 to 2 hours a week in short sessions is enough at this stage.

Read widely and discuss vocabulary.
Strengthen arithmetic fluency: number bonds, tables, fractions and written methods.
Introduce gentle Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning work once or twice a week.
Start building comfort with short tasks on a computer.

April to July in Year 5

Increase to about 2 to 3 hours a week.

Work across all four subjects every fortnight so none is neglected.
Begin short timed drills, especially for reasoning.
For English, focus on comprehension, inference, vocabulary and accurate written expression.
For Maths, make sure methods are secure before adding speed.

Summer holidays before Year 6

A steady routine of 2 to 4 hours a week is usually plenty.

Do regular mixed practice rather than long exhausting sessions.
Start using longer sets of questions on screen.
Review mistakes carefully and keep a notebook of patterns: rushed reading, missed instructions, weak vocabulary, careless arithmetic and so on.
If your child is new to reasoning, the summer is a good time to make those question types familiar.

September in Year 6

Move to about 3 to 4 hours a week.

Begin more structured timed practice.
Alternate subject focus: one session on Maths and English, another on verbal and non-verbal reasoning.
Introduce mini-mocks on a computer so your child gets used to maintaining concentration on screen.

October in Year 6

This is the month to make practice more exam-like, but still manageable: around 4 hours a week is realistic for most children.

Use timed mixed papers.
Practise reading instructions carefully before starting.
Review not just wrong answers but slow questions.
Make sure your child can recover after a tricky section instead of dwelling on it.

Early November in Year 6

Taper slightly in the final week.

Do short confidence-building sessions, not heavy cramming.
Revisit familiar question types and mental maths.
Keep sleep, routines and mealtimes steady.
If possible, do one final short computer-based practice session so the format feels normal.

A good rule of thumb for Cranford is consistent, balanced preparation. Because the assessment draws on four areas, children usually do better with breadth and routine than with intense last-minute work.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For Cranford’s GL-style assessment, practise the core primary topics that tend to underpin selective entry tests: number operations, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, geometry, data handling and multi-step word problems. The key is not only getting the right answer but choosing an efficient method under time pressure.

Use mixed-topic practice so children learn to switch quickly between question types.
Build mental fluency alongside written methods.
Practise extracting the important information from short word problems.
Do some work on screen, especially where answers are selected rather than written out in full.

English

English preparation should centre on reading comprehension, vocabulary and clear written accuracy. For a GL-style test, comprehension often rewards careful reading, inference and attention to tone, not just literal retrieval.

Read fiction and non-fiction regularly.
Discuss word meanings in context and keep a vocabulary notebook.
Practise spotting evidence in a passage before choosing an answer.
Work on spelling, punctuation and grammar so accuracy becomes automatic.
If your child writes slowly, keep some short written tasks in the routine even though the assessment is computer-based.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning typically tests how well a child handles language patterns and logic at speed. Preparation should include the common families of question type rather than random untimed puzzles.

Practise codes, letter and number patterns, word relationships, sequences and vocabulary-based logic.
Teach your child to recognise the type quickly before attempting the answer.
Keep timings short and regular: reasoning improves with familiarity and repetition.
If vocabulary is a weak point, build this steadily through reading and deliberate word study.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning is about spotting visual patterns and rules. Children often improve noticeably once they learn to look systematically for movement, rotation, reflection, shading, shape change and position.

Practise identifying what changes from one figure to the next.
Encourage your child to check one rule at a time rather than guessing from appearance.
Use short timed sets because pace matters.
Include screen-based practice so diagrams on a computer feel familiar.

Across all four subjects, the most important Cranford-specific point is this: practise on screen as well as on paper. That is one of the easiest ways to make preparation genuinely relevant to the assessment your child will sit.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used to learn, not simply to produce a score. For Cranford, that means choosing work across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, and gradually making some of that practice computer-based and timed.

A sensible approach is:

Learn the question types first. Untimed practice is fine at the beginning.
Add timing gradually. Once your child understands the format, use short timed sets.
Review mistakes properly. Ask whether the error came from knowledge, vocabulary, misunderstanding the instructions or rushing.
Use mixed papers later on. This helps with stamina and switching between subjects.
Include screen practice. Even a familiar question can feel different on a computer.

For school-specific practice, use these free ElevenReady resources:

If you book a mock exam elsewhere, try to choose one that reflects a computer-based, GL-style multi-subject assessment. The aim is not to alarm your child with a high-pressure experience, but to make the real day feel familiar.

On the day

Because Cranford runs a Taster and Assessment Day, the right tone is calm, organised and positive. Your child does not need a last-minute cram session; they need to arrive settled and ready to focus.

The night before: pack anything the school has asked for, set out clothes, and keep the evening ordinary.
Food and sleep: aim for a normal bedtime and a steady breakfast that will last well.
Arrival: leave plenty of time so the morning does not start with stress.
Mindset: remind your child that some questions will feel easy and some will not. That is normal.
During the test: read instructions carefully, keep moving if one question is stubborn, and refocus after each section.
For a computer-based assessment: encourage your child to stay aware of timing and to answer in a deliberate, tidy way on screen.

It also helps to prepare for the wider day. Since this is a taster as well as an assessment, your child may be meeting staff and other pupils, moving between activities and taking in a new environment. A friendly, attentive approach matters: listening carefully, following instructions and staying engaged all help them feel more comfortable.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

For Cranford, the post-exam process is different from a grammar-school allocation round. Families apply directly to the school, and if a place is offered and accepted, the school’s registration information says a £1,000 deposit is payable.

We did not find a published results date or offer date for the relevant Year 7 cycle on the sources checked, so it is best to expect those details to be communicated by the admissions team after the Taster and Assessment Day.

Parents should keep these practical points in mind:

Results and offers: check the school’s communications carefully and reply by any deadline given.
Acceptance: if you decide to take the place, be ready for the deposit requirement.
Waiting lists or reconsideration: ask the school directly, as we did not find a detailed published process on the pages reviewed.
Appeals: independent schools do not use the same statutory admissions appeal system as state schools. If you need to discuss an outcome, contact Cranford’s admissions team and ask about the school’s own process.

If you are balancing Cranford with other independent or state-school applications, keep a written list of dates and reply deadlines so nothing is missed.

What has changed recently

On the sources reviewed for this guide, we did not find a clearly announced recent change in the last two years to Cranford’s Year 7 assessment board, format, catchment, places or admissions structure beyond the school’s currently published process describing a Taster and Assessment Day for Year 7 and the published registration fee and deposit.

Because independent-school admissions pages are sometimes updated quietly rather than through a formal news announcement, it is sensible to check the school’s admissions page again when the 2028-entry cycle opens.

Frequently asked questions

Does Cranford School use the 11+ consortium exam?

No. For 2028 entry, our directory, not yet verified with the school, records Cranford uses the school’s own paper in a GL-style format rather than a local grammar-school consortium test.

What subjects should my child prepare for Cranford Year 7 entry?

Prepare for Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Keep practice balanced across all four rather than concentrating on only one or two areas.

Is the Cranford assessment on paper or computer?

It is computer-based for 2028 entry. Make sure your child practises timed work on screen, not only on paper.

When is the Cranford Year 7 assessment held?

The school says the Year 7 Taster and Assessment Day takes place in November of the year before entry. For September 2028 entry, that points to November 2027, but parents should check the school for the exact date when published.

How do I register for Cranford School Year 7 entry?

The school says families register by completing the registration form and paying a £75 non-refundable registration fee. Check with admissions for any extra documents they may require.

Is there a catchment area for Cranford School?

We did not find a published catchment area or distance rule on the admissions sources checked. As an independent school, Cranford appears to handle admissions directly rather than through a local-authority catchment system.

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Sources

Cranford School admissions process: Cranford is an independent co-educational school; Year 7 entry involves a Taster and Assessment Day; the Taster and Assessment Day takes place in November of the year preceding entry; families register by completing a registration form and paying a £75 non-refundable registration fee.
Cranford School registration form: Registration is completed through the school’s registration form; the registration fee is £75 non-refundable; on acceptance a £1,000 deposit is payable.

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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.