Not independently verified. We could not verify the facts in this guide against an official source when it was written. Check the school's admissions page before relying on any date or number.
The exam at a glance
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Alford is a selective academy and uses the Lincolnshire grammar school testing arrangements for Year 7 entry. For 2028 entry, the verified position is that the school uses a consortium-set entrance paper via the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools.
The consortium materials and school information indicate that children are assessed in the usual 11+ areas of English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Because consortium arrangements can occasionally be updated, it is sensible to check the school’s admissions information again when registration opens for your child’s cohort.
At the time of writing, the school and consortium information available online confirm the use of grammar school testing for admission, but the exact delivery details for the 2028 paper are not yet clearly published for this cohort in one place. Parents should therefore look out for the school’s registration information pack when it is released.
What the day usually looks like for Lincolnshire grammar testing is fairly straightforward: children arrive, are registered, listen to instructions, complete the test paper or papers under exam conditions, and then leave without needing to stay for a full school day. If your child is offered a familiarisation or information sheet nearer the time, use that for the exact running order, equipment list and arrival arrangements.
- School type: selective academy grammar school
- Testing route: Lincolnshire grammar school consortium arrangements
- Subjects to prepare: English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning
- Best practical approach: prepare across all four subjects unless the school later confirms a narrower format for your child’s year
The school describes itself as having been founded in 1566 and states that it has approximately 530 pupils on roll. That does not affect the test itself, but it does give a feel for the size of the school your child may be applying to.
Registration and key dates
For Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Alford, the admissions pages indicate that registration for the grammar school test is handled through the Lincolnshire County Council grammar schools process rather than by an entirely separate school-only route. The school’s admissions page directs families to county admissions information, and the county council publishes the testing timetable and grammar school registration details.
For the most recently published cycle visible in the official Lincolnshire admissions information, registration opened on 8 May 2026 and the deadline was 12 noon on 12 June 2026. The test date was Saturday 12 September 2026. Because your child is aiming for 2028 entry, treat these as the latest published pattern, not yet as confirmed dates for your cohort.
The local authority also states that parents receive their child’s result in time to decide whether to apply for a grammar school on the secondary application form, before the national application deadline. In practice, that means results are issued in the autumn term before the 31 October secondary school application deadline.
What parents should do when the new cycle opens:
- Check the school’s admissions page and Lincolnshire County Council’s grammar school admissions page.
- Complete the grammar school registration form or portal named by the county council.
- Read any guidance on test venue, access arrangements and required evidence.
- Submit the separate secondary school application to your home local authority by the national deadline.
Documents sometimes requested in county-run grammar processes can include a child’s basic details, current school details and evidence for agreed access arrangements where relevant. Always follow the instructions on the live form for your child’s year, as those requirements can change.
For this school, keep an eye on The Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Alford - A Selective Academy 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/queen-elizabeths-grammar-alford-a-selective-academy and Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=queen-elizabeths-grammar-alford-a-selective-academy so you do not have to keep checking manually.
Who can apply: catchment and admissions
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Alford is a selective school, so children must usually meet the required grammar school standard in the Lincolnshire testing process and then be considered under the school’s admissions policy.
The school’s published admissions arrangements for entry from September 2026 state a published admission number of 84 for Year 7. The oversubscription rules also show that the school has a defined designated transport area and gives different priority groups within and outside that area. In broad terms, priority is given first to looked after and previously looked after children who meet the academic standard, then to children in the designated transport area who meet the required standard, with further tie-breaks including distance. There is also a category for children of staff meeting the policy conditions.
Because catchment-style rules can be redrawn or renamed, parents should read the current school admissions policy for their own application year rather than rely on older summaries. The school and local authority pages are the right places to check whether your address falls within any priority area.
The school does not appear, in the sources reviewed, to publish a simple public pass mark or a guaranteed distance cut-off for entry to this school. That is common in selective admissions: reaching the qualifying standard and being offered a place are not always the same thing. If you need the most up-to-date position for your cohort, check the school’s admissions page and policy when the 2028 arrangements are published.
Competition varies year to year, but no verified application number or cut-off distance was found in the sources reviewed, so it would be wrong to guess. The most helpful practical step is to make sure your child is entered for the test in time and that you also understand the school’s oversubscription order before naming preferences.
A month-by-month preparation plan
For most Year 5 children, steady preparation works better than an intense burst. The Lincolnshire test is broad, so aim for regular practice across all four subjects rather than over-focusing on one area.
January to March of Year 5
Keep it light and skills-based: around 1 to 2 hours a week is plenty for most children. Focus on secure arithmetic, reading comprehension, spelling patterns, vocabulary building and puzzle-style reasoning. At this stage, avoid lots of timed work. The goal is confidence and familiarity.
April of Year 5
Increase to about 2 hours a week. Start short practice sets in each subject so your child gets used to switching between English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Begin noting any recurring weak spots, such as fractions, inference, codes, sequences or shape transformations.
May of Year 5
If registration usually opens around this point, make sure the admin side is in hand. In study terms, keep sessions short but regular: 2 to 3 hours a week. Introduce mini timed sections, not full papers yet. Children should learn how to move on from a sticky question without panicking.
June of Year 5
By now, use one longer session each week plus two shorter ones, still around 2 to 3 hours weekly. Start practising mixed sets that combine question types. This is a good month to tighten core maths methods and build vocabulary systematically.
July of Year 5
Move to 3 hours a week if your child is coping well. Start the first fully timed paper sections, but not too many. One timed section followed by careful review is more useful than racing through several papers without learning from mistakes.
August before the exam
This is the main practice month for many families. Aim for about 3 to 4 hours a week, leaving room for holidays and downtime. Use timed papers in rotation, review errors carefully and revisit weak topics. Avoid turning every day into exam prep; a tired child learns less well.
Early September of Year 6
In the final weeks, keep the work steady and calm. Complete a small number of realistic timed papers, practise answer-checking habits and reduce workload in the last few days. Sleep, routine and confidence matter more now than trying to cram new content.
A simple weekly pattern works well:
- one maths session
- one English session
- one reasoning session covering both VR and NVR
- one short review slot for corrections and vocabulary
If your child is flourishing, add a little more. If they are tiring, do less but do it consistently.
Subject by subject: what to practise
Maths
For a Lincolnshire-style grammar test, maths preparation should centre on secure Key Stage 2 content used quickly and accurately. Practise number operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, time, perimeter, area and straightforward data interpretation. Word problems matter because they test method selection as well as calculation.
Good practice means short bursts of arithmetic for fluency, followed by mixed problem-solving. Encourage your child to show enough working to track errors, even if the final paper format uses answer spaces rather than long written solutions.
English
English preparation should cover comprehension, vocabulary and the ability to infer meaning from a passage. Children also benefit from regular spelling, punctuation and grammar revision, because these skills support accuracy and speed. Read a wide range of fiction and non-fiction so your child becomes comfortable with unfamiliar topics and older vocabulary.
The most useful English habit is to justify answers from the text. Even where the exam format is multiple choice or short response, children do better when they are used to finding evidence rather than guessing.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal reasoning usually rewards familiarity with common question types and strong vocabulary. Practise patterns involving letter codes, word relationships, sequences, hidden words, instructions, classifications and logical deductions. If your child is new to VR, begin untimed so they can learn the rules of each type before adding speed.
Vocabulary is a long-game advantage here. Regular reading, word lists and quick synonym-antonym games help more than last-minute cramming.
Non-Verbal Reasoning
Non-verbal reasoning focuses on visual patterns and transformations. Children should practise rotations, reflections, symmetry, shape sequences, codes, matrices, nets and identifying the odd one out. Many children improve quickly once they learn to scan methodically for movement, shading, number of sides and position changes.
For NVR, use plenty of worked review. The key is not just whether an answer was right or wrong, but why the pattern changed.
Across all four subjects, keep a simple error notebook. Write down only the patterns of mistake that repeat, such as rushing, missing negatives, not reading the full question or forgetting one of several shape changes. That helps revision stay focused.
Practice papers and mock exams
Practice papers are most useful when they are used sparingly and reviewed properly. Start with untimed or lightly timed work so your child learns the format, then move to timed sections, then a small number of full papers nearer the exam.
A sensible sequence is:
- learn the question types
- practise short sets by topic
- complete mixed timed sections
- sit a few realistic papers under quiet conditions
- review every mistake carefully
Do not save all papers for the last minute, but do not burn through them too early either. The aim is confidence with the format, not paper after paper without reflection.
For this school, use these ElevenReady resources exactly as part of your preparation:
- Free Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Alford - A Selective Academy practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers): /schools/queen-elizabeths-grammar-alford-a-selective-academy-mock-tests
- The Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Alford - A Selective Academy 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/queen-elizabeths-grammar-alford-a-selective-academy
- Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=queen-elizabeths-grammar-alford-a-selective-academy
If you use mock exams, choose them for familiarity with timing, instructions and nerves management rather than as a definitive prediction. A mock can highlight pacing issues, but one mock score never tells the whole story.
After each paper, spend at least as long reviewing as sitting it. Ask:
- Which questions were genuine gaps in knowledge?
- Which were careless errors?
- Which took too long?
- Which question types now need another week of practice?
On the day
Keep the morning simple. Aim for a normal breakfast, comfortable uniform or clothing if specified, and plenty of time to travel. Last-minute coaching in the car rarely helps; calm routine does.
Remind your child of four basics:
- listen carefully to the invigilator’s instructions
- check how many questions there are and how long is allowed
- move on if stuck and come back if time permits
- check answers if they finish early
Pack only what the school or test organiser says is needed. If permitted, sharpen pencils the night before and prepare any other allowed equipment in advance.
Emotionally, the most useful message is that this is one test on one day, not a judgement on your child. Children usually borrow their parent’s mood, so a steady tone helps. Praise organisation and effort rather than predicting outcomes.
After the test, try not to conduct a full post-mortem. Most children feel better if the day simply moves on.
After the exam: results, allocation and appeals
After the test, families receive the grammar school test outcome in the autumn, before they finalise or confirm secondary preferences by the national deadline. You then submit, or have already submitted, your local authority secondary application listing your preferred schools in order.
National Offer Day for secondary transfer is 1 March, or the next working day if that falls on a weekend. Offers are made through your home local authority, not directly by the school. For a selective school, an offer depends on both meeting the required academic standard and being high enough in the admissions order if the school is oversubscribed.
If your child does not receive an offer, there are usually two possible next steps:
- remaining on the waiting list if the admission arrangements allow this
- lodging an admission appeal by the published deadline
The school’s admissions policy and your local authority’s offer information explain how waiting lists and appeals work for that year. Appeal panels look at the case presented and the school’s admissions arrangements; they are not simply a rerun of the test.
No verified school-specific result threshold or appeal success figure was found in the sources reviewed, so parents should not rely on unofficial numbers shared online. For your child’s cohort, use the school’s and county council’s official guidance only.
What has changed recently
In the official sources reviewed, the most important current point is continuity rather than a major announced overhaul: Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Alford remains part of the Lincolnshire selective admissions system, and the latest admissions arrangements reviewed continue to show grammar school testing and a Year 7 admission number of 84.
No clearly published school-specific announcement was found in the reviewed sources showing a recent change of exam board, a newly announced change of format, or a published change to places within the last two years for the 2028 cohort. Parents should still check the live admissions arrangements for 2028 entry when they are published, because consortium details can be updated between cycles.
Frequently asked questions
Does Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Alford use the Lincolnshire 11+?
Yes. The school’s admissions information and Lincolnshire County Council materials show that admission is through the Lincolnshire grammar school testing process.
What subjects should my child prepare for?
Prepare for maths, English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. For 2028 entry, our working assumption, not yet verified with the school, is to cover all four unless the consortium later confirms a different exact mix.
When do I register for the test?
For the latest official cycle reviewed, registration opened in May and closed in June. Check the school and Lincolnshire County Council pages for the 2028 entry dates when they are published.
How many places are there in Year 7?
The published admission number in the admissions arrangements reviewed is 84. Always check the current admissions policy for your child’s entry year in case this changes.
Is there a published pass mark for this school?
A simple school-specific public pass mark was not found in the sources reviewed. Check the school’s admissions information and Lincolnshire grammar school guidance for the current qualifying standard arrangements.
Who handles the application after the test?
You still apply for the school through your home local authority’s secondary admissions process. Passing the test does not replace the need to submit the normal secondary school application form.
Preparing for other schools in Lincolnshire
- How to prepare for the Boston High School 11+ · practice papers
- Bourne Grammar School · practice papers
- How to prepare for the Caistor Grammar School 11+ · practice papers
- Carre's Grammar School · practice papers
- Castles Education · practice papers
- Heckington House School · practice papers
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.