How to prepare for the Great Ballard School 11+

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

For September 2028 entry to Year 7, Great Ballard School uses its own admissions process. For Prep and Senior admissions, the school says children attend two taster days, with standardised assessments on the second day. the information in our directory (not yet verified with the school) for 2028 entry is that the assessment uses a GL-style format covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.

The delivery is mixed. In practice, that means parents should prepare for more than one kind of task across the visit and assessment process, rather than expecting a single stand-alone exam hall paper. The safest approach is balanced preparation across all four subjects, with steady work on accuracy, timing and confidence.

What does the day itself usually look like? The school’s admissions information emphasises taster days, so children should expect the assessment to sit within a broader admissions experience rather than feeling like a one-off public test. That can be helpful for many children, because the school is also seeing how well they settle into the environment.

Board/format: school’s own admissions process, using a GL-style assessment format
Tested subjects: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Delivery: mixed
Admissions setting: two taster days for Prep and Senior applicants, with standardised assessments on day two

Because Great Ballard is an independent school and says pupils may join at different points in the year if space is available, families should think of Year 7 entry as a structured entry point, but not the only possible route into the school.

Registration and key dates

Great Ballard’s admissions process is run by the school, not by a local authority 11+ team or a regional grammar-school consortium. The admissions page invites families to contact the school directly to arrange a visit and discuss entry. For Year 7, the school identifies Year 7 as a key entry point.

At the time of writing, we could not find a published set of 2028 entry registration deadlines, a fixed exam date or a published results day for Year 7 entry. The school’s admissions page instead presents the process as flexible, with entry possible at different times where places exist. Parents should therefore treat dates as school-set and case-specific, and check the admissions page directly.

What is published is the school’s programme of Open Mornings for 2027, which are listed as 6 March 2027, 15 May 2027 and 25 September 2027. For a child seeking September 2028 entry, those events give you a sensible guide to the school’s usual admissions rhythm: families often visit during Year 5 or early Year 6, then move on to taster days and assessment by arrangement with admissions.

The same admissions information says that children due to start in September are invited to a transition day in the Summer Term and to a new pupils’ afternoon tea just before returning in September.

In practical terms, parents should plan the process like this:

Start with the school: book an open event or visit through Great Ballard admissions.
Ask early about Year 7 availability: because places depend on space in the year group.
Request the Year 7 assessment process: ask when the two taster days and standardised assessments are likely to take place for your child’s cohort.
Confirm any documents needed: the admissions page does not set out a public checklist for Year 7 registration, so ask admissions what they require.

For ongoing updates, these links are useful: The Great Ballard School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) and Free email alerts for this school's key dates.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Great Ballard does not operate a catchment area in the way many grammar schools do. The school says it can accept children at any age and at any point during the school year, provided there is space in the relevant year group. That makes availability, rather than postcode, the key practical factor.

The school identifies Nursery, Reception, Year 3, Year 7 and Year 9 as key entry points. For a Year 7 applicant, that means you are applying at one of the school’s normal main intake stages.

The admissions information also states that bursaries are available upon application. It further mentions sibling discounts and an Armed Forces discount. For families considering affordability, the school says that its 2026–27 fees and extras can be downloaded from the site.

We did not find a published number of Year 7 places, a published acceptance rate or any published competition statistics for this entry point. Independent schools often handle this more flexibly than selective state schools, so it is best to ask admissions directly how full the current and upcoming Year 7 cohort is.

Catchment	No catchment area published
Who can apply	Families from any area, subject to space
Main Year 7 factor	Availability of places plus successful completion of the school’s admissions process
Financial support	Bursaries on application; sibling and Armed Forces discounts mentioned by the school

A month-by-month preparation plan

Because Great Ballard’s Year 7 assessment is broad rather than built around one narrow test, the best preparation is calm, consistent and balanced. For most Year 5 children, 2 to 3 hours a week in the early stages is enough. Closer to the assessment, you might increase this to 3 to 4 hours a week, split into short sessions.

Work backwards from the autumn of Year 6, when assessment is likely to happen for September 2028 starters.

January to March in Year 5: Build foundations. Read widely, revise core number skills, and introduce light practice in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Keep sessions short: perhaps four sessions of 20 to 25 minutes a week.
April to June in Year 5: Start structured 11+ style work across all four subjects. Focus on method before speed. One longer Maths session, one English session and two shorter reasoning sessions each week works well.
July to August before Year 6: Keep momentum without turning summer into constant test practice. Two or three sessions a week is usually plenty. This is a good time to strengthen weaker areas and begin occasional timed mini-sections.
September in Year 6: Increase familiarity with timed work. Children should now be practising switching between subjects and recovering quickly if one section feels hard. If you have not yet visited the school, arrange contact with admissions promptly.
October in Year 6: Use short, realistic timed papers. Review mistakes carefully and keep confidence high. If the school is arranging taster days, make sure your child is well rested and knows what to expect socially as well as academically.

When should timed papers begin? For most children, light timing in late Year 5 is sensible, but fuller timed sections are usually best introduced in the summer before Year 6 or early in Year 6. Before that, accuracy and understanding matter more than rushing.

If your child is already strong academically, avoid the temptation to overdo it. Great Ballard’s process includes time in school, so you want a child who is alert, engaged and unflustered, not one who is burnt out by endless papers.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For a GL-style Maths paper, practise secure arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, averages, measures, geometry and straightforward worded problems. Children need to read carefully, choose the right method and work neatly under time pressure.

The most useful practice is short mixed sets rather than only topic-by-topic drilling. Encourage your child to mark questions that took too long, even if they got them right. That helps you see where fluency still needs work.

English

English preparation should cover comprehension, vocabulary, spelling patterns, punctuation, grammar and clear written expression. Because independent-school admissions can also consider broader literacy, regular reading matters a great deal.

Use a mix of fiction and non-fiction. After reading, ask your child to explain meaning from context, summarise a paragraph and justify an answer using evidence from the text. For writing, focus on accuracy, paragraphing and clarity rather than ornate language.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning in a GL-style format often rewards familiarity with recurring task types. Children benefit from learning the method for each type, then practising until it feels routine. Vocabulary development also helps, because some question types depend on word knowledge and careful recognition of patterns.

Good practice includes timed mini-sections, not just untimed worksheets. If your child gets stuck, teach them to move on and return if time allows rather than freezing on one item.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning usually involves shape patterns, sequences, rotations, reflections, codes and visual similarities or differences. The key skill is spotting the rule quickly and checking it against all the answer options before choosing.

Children often improve fast in this subject once they learn to look systematically: shape, size, position, shading, number and direction. Short, regular practice is more effective than infrequent long sessions.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers work best when they are used as a learning tool, not just a score generator. Start with untimed or lightly timed work so your child can understand the format. Move on to timed sections only when the method is secure.

A sensible pattern is:

Learn one question type at a time.
Practise short mixed exercises.
Try a timed section.
Review every error properly.
Repeat weak areas a week later.

Mocks can be helpful later in the process, especially for children who need practice staying calm in an unfamiliar setting. But they are most useful when your child already knows the basics of each paper type. Too early, and a mock can simply knock confidence.

Use these free resources from ElevenReady:

One practical tip: keep an error log. Write down not just the question your child got wrong, but why: misread, guessed, forgot a rule, ran out of time, or made a careless slip. Over a few weeks, patterns become clear, and that makes revision much more efficient.

On the day

If your child is attending taster days and then standardised assessments, present the experience as a chance to get to know the school as much as a test. That framing is often much calmer and more accurate than talking about a high-stakes exam.

The night before: keep the evening ordinary, pack what the school asks for, and avoid last-minute cramming.
That morning: aim for a good breakfast and enough time to arrive without rushing.
During the assessment: remind your child to listen carefully to instructions, keep an eye on time, and move on if one question feels stubborn.
During the taster element: politeness, confidence and willingness to join in all matter. A child does not need to be loud or outgoing, but it helps to engage positively.
Afterwards: do not interrogate them question by question. A simple “Well done, you handled it” is usually best.

For many children, the biggest challenge is not the content but the unfamiliarity. If you can normalise timed practice at home and talk through what a school visit might feel like, the day tends to go more smoothly.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

Great Ballard does not appear to publish a standardised public timetable for Year 7 results in the way local-authority grammar schools do. Because the process is school-run and flexible, families should expect communication directly from the admissions team after the taster days and assessments.

If your child is offered a place, the school’s admissions team will explain the next steps. The admissions page says that pupils starting in September are invited to a transition day during the Summer Term and to a new pupils’ afternoon tea shortly before the September start.

If a place is not available, or if the school decides not to offer one at that stage, ask politely whether there is a waiting list, whether re-assessment is possible at a later point, and whether another entry point might be considered. Because the school says it can accept pupils at other times in the year where there is space, the answer may be more flexible than at a state selective school.

We did not find a published formal appeals process for Year 7 admissions on the pages reviewed. For independent schools, the next step is usually to discuss the decision directly with admissions and ask about alternative options or future availability.

What has changed recently

We did not find a clearly published announcement on the school website or in recent reputable coverage showing a formal change in the last two years to Great Ballard’s Year 7 assessment format, catchment approach or admissions structure. The current admissions page continues to describe key entry points, flexible in-year entry where space exists, and two taster days with standardised assessments for Prep and Senior applicants.

The clearest currently published dated updates are the 2027 Open Morning dates on the admissions page and the note about transition events for September starters.

Frequently asked questions

Does Great Ballard School use the local authority 11+?

No. Great Ballard runs its own admissions process as an independent school, so parents deal directly with the school rather than a local authority 11+ registration system.

What subjects should my child prepare for?

For 2028 entry, prepare for Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Balanced practice across all four is the safest approach.

Is there a catchment area for Great Ballard School?

No catchment area is published. The school says children can join at different points in the year if there is space in the relevant year group.

When should Year 5 children start preparing?

A gentle start in Year 5 is usually enough. Build core skills first, then increase timed practice gradually in the summer before Year 6 and into the autumn term.

Are there bursaries or fee discounts?

The school says bursaries are available on application, and it also mentions sibling discounts and an Armed Forces discount. Check the latest admissions and fees information with the school.

Does the school publish pass marks or cut-off scores?

We did not find any published pass mark or cut-off score for Year 7 entry. Parents should ask the admissions team directly if they want more detail on how offers are decided.

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Sources

Great Ballard School Admissions: School-run admissions; key entry points at Nursery, Reception, Year 3, Year 7 and Year 9; children can join at any age and at any point during the school year if there is space; for Prep School and Senior pupils there are two taster days with standardised assessments on the second day; bursaries ava
Great Ballard School website: School identity and official website reference for Great Ballard School.
Great Ballard School Fees: Statement that school fees and extras for 2026–27 can be downloaded from the website.

Preparing for other schools in West Sussex

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.