The exam at a glance
For September 2028 entry, Sir William Borlase's Grammar School uses the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test for Year 7 admission. ElevenReady's verified information for 2028 entry is that this is a GL Assessment test covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. That means preparation should be broad and steady rather than heavily tilted towards one area.
The school explains that most children take the 11+ in the first term of Year 6, and Buckinghamshire Council's familiarisation information sets out how the Secondary Transfer Test works across two papers taken on the same day. Official familiarisation materials are the best place to see the style of instructions and question presentation before you buy or download any extra resources.
For families preparing for 2028 entry, the key practical point is this: build confidence across all four subjects, and get your child used to working carefully within standard timed sections. Because the test is shared across Buckinghamshire grammar-school admissions, the format is not set by Sir William Borlase's alone, so parents should always check both the school's admissions page and Buckinghamshire Council's Secondary Transfer Test information.
What the day looks like can vary depending on where the child sits the test. The school states that most pupils sit the tests in their own primary school. If your child is educated elsewhere or is joining the process from outside the usual Buckinghamshire arrangements, check the council guidance and your registration confirmation carefully so you know the exact venue, arrival time and what to bring.
Registration and key dates
For normal Year 7 entry, registration is handled through Buckinghamshire Council, not directly by Sir William Borlase's Grammar School. The school's admissions page directs parents to the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test process for Year 7 admission.
For 2028 entry, the council had not yet published the full live timetable at the time of writing, so parents should treat the following as typical timing based on the most recent published cycle and then verify it on the official pages when registration opens.
- The school says most pupils take the 11+ in the first term of Year 6.
- For the previous cycle referenced on the school's admissions page, results were published on 9 October 2026.
- The same page states the secondary school application deadline was 31 October 2026.
- It also states that National Offer Day was 2 March 2027.
That gives families a sensible planning framework for 2028 entry: registration and test arrangements are usually dealt with before or at the start of Year 6, the test is usually in early autumn term, results typically follow in October, and the Common Application Form deadline is at the end of October.
If your child will not be sitting with a Buckinghamshire primary school, read the council registration guidance especially carefully. You may need to complete an online registration form yourself and provide documents such as proof of address or school details, depending on your circumstances. Families moving house should also pay close attention to the school's catchment wording, because the admissions page specifically refers to proof of residence in catchment for some applicants.
Sir William Borlase's also publishes separate dates for late entry testing into other year groups. These are not the Year 7 11+ dates, but they are useful for understanding how the school handles in-year admissions. For September 2027 late entry to Years 8 and 9, the school states that applications opened on 1 October 2026 and closed on 29 October 2026, invitations were sent on 7 December 2026, confirmations were due by 14 December 2026, testing took place on 4 February 2027, and results were emailed on 17 March 2027.
For current updates, parents should monitor the official school admissions page and Buckinghamshire Council's Secondary Transfer Test pages, and you can also use Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=sir-william-borlases-grammar-school.
Who can apply: catchment and admissions
Sir William Borlase's Grammar School is a Buckinghamshire grammar school, so Year 7 entry is tied to the Buckinghamshire grammar-school admissions process. The school makes clear on its admissions page that there are specific address checks for some applicants. In particular, it refers to applicants living overseas or moving into Buckinghamshire needing proof of residence in catchment, and says that if you have moved into the catchment area after 1 September 2026 you should contact the school directly.
That wording matters for parents because it suggests that address evidence can affect how an application is considered. The admissions page for late entry also states that proof of address is required in the form of a Council Tax Bill. If you are relocating, renting temporarily, or your living arrangements are changing, it is wise to read the current admissions policy in full and ask the school to confirm exactly what evidence it will accept.
The school also states that it is oversubscribed and rarely has spaces for Year 8. In addition, for September 2027 entry it announced that it would create an additional 12 places into Year 9. That is useful context for families considering in-year applications: movement after Year 7 appears limited, so Year 7 is the main entry point to focus on.
Parents often want to know the catchment boundary, qualifying score or recent cut-off distance. If these are published for the current cycle, they should always be checked on the latest official admissions policy and local authority guidance. We have not included a cut-off score or distance here because these figures can change and should only be taken from the current official sources.
If your child is eligible to sit the Buckinghamshire test and you want Borlase's as a preference, make sure you do both parts of the process correctly: register for the test if required for your circumstances, and submit your secondary school application by the local authority deadline.
A month-by-month preparation plan
For a child aiming for the autumn of Year 6 test, the best preparation is usually calm, regular and spread over Year 5 rather than rushed in the summer holidays. The plan below is designed for a typical Year 5 child and assumes a balanced GL-style workload across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.
September to October of Year 5
Keep it light: around 1 to 1.5 hours a week in short sessions is usually enough at this stage. Start by finding your child's baseline. Which areas are naturally secure? Which need teaching before practice? Use untimed work first. Build arithmetic fluency, careful reading habits, vocabulary growth and familiarity with reasoning patterns.
November to December
Increase to about 1.5 to 2 hours a week. Introduce each question type gradually. For GL-style preparation, that means mixing in short bursts of VR and NVR rather than doing them all at once. Keep Maths focused on core Key Stage 2 content and method accuracy. In English, include comprehension, spelling knowledge and punctuation awareness.
January to February of Year 5
Aim for roughly 2 to 2.5 hours a week. This is a good point to begin small timed sections, not full papers. Children often need time to learn pacing: moving on when stuck, checking only when there is time, and keeping concentration over several sections. Continue to teach weak topics directly rather than hoping that repeated papers will fix them.
March to April
Work up to 2.5 to 3 hours a week. Start combining subjects across a week so your child gets used to switching gears. For example, one session might be arithmetic and comprehension; another might be VR and NVR; a third might revisit mistakes. Begin an error log so the same avoidable slips do not keep returning.
May half term to June
This is often the point to introduce the first full timed papers, but only if the underlying skills are in place. One full paper or paper pair every week or two is enough for many children. More important than volume is review: ask why marks were lost, whether the problem was knowledge, misunderstanding, timing or distraction, and what to do differently next time.
July to August
Summer is for consolidation, not panic. About 3 to 4 hours a week is usually realistic, split into manageable sessions. Continue timed work, but protect confidence. Alternate harder tasks with easier wins. Revisit number facts, vocabulary, standard question types and exam routines. If your child is tiring, reduce the amount and improve the quality.
Start of September in Year 6
Keep practice tidy and purposeful. Do short refreshers, a small number of timed sections and perhaps one final full paper. Prioritise sleep, routine and calm. In the last few days, stop trying to cram new topics. Familiarity, steadiness and confidence matter more.
Subject by subject: what to practise
Maths
For GL-style maths preparation, focus on secure Key Stage 2 skills done accurately under time pressure. Practise arithmetic fluency, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, shape, simple data handling and multi-step word problems. Children should get used to identifying the operation needed quickly and showing enough working to avoid careless errors. A good routine is short daily arithmetic plus one or two problem-solving sets each week.
English
English preparation should cover careful reading, vocabulary in context, spelling patterns, punctuation and grammar awareness. Comprehension work should train children to read the whole question, return to the text for evidence and avoid guessing from general impression. Vocabulary building is especially helpful over time: reading widely, discussing word meanings and noticing prefixes, suffixes and roots all support progress.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning often rewards familiarity with recurring patterns. Practise codes, letter sequences, word relationships, vocabulary-based tasks and instructions that require close attention. The biggest gains usually come from learning the common task types, building speed with them and improving vocabulary steadily. Short, frequent practice works better than occasional long sessions.
Non-Verbal Reasoning
In Non-Verbal Reasoning, children need to spot visual rules quickly and systematically. Practise rotations, reflections, shape combinations, codes, similarities and differences, and sequence patterns. Encourage your child to ask the same questions each time: what is changing, what is staying the same, and is the change linked to position, number, shading or rotation? Method matters as much as answer accuracy.
Across all four subjects, review is essential. If a child gets a question wrong, classify the reason: lack of knowledge, misread instruction, rushed method, weak vocabulary or timing pressure. That makes the next practice session far more useful than simply doing another paper.
Practice papers and mock exams
Practice papers are most useful when they are introduced in stages. Start with untimed or lightly timed practice so your child understands the task. Move next to short timed sections. Only then use full papers. For many children, one carefully reviewed paper teaches more than three rushed ones.
When you mark a paper, do more than total the score. Look for patterns. Is your child dropping marks late in the paper because of pace? Are they stronger on untimed maths than timed maths? Are VR mistakes mainly vocabulary-related? This kind of analysis helps you choose the right next step.
Mocks can be helpful once a child is reasonably familiar with the content and timing, especially if they need practice working calmly in a more formal setting. They are less useful very early on, when they can simply expose gaps that have not yet been taught. A sensible sequence is: learn the skill, practise the skill, time the skill, then simulate the whole experience.
Use official familiarisation materials first so your child is comfortable with the style and instructions. Then add targeted practice in weaker areas, followed by mixed papers across all four subjects.
- Free Sir William Borlase's Grammar School practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers): /schools/sir-william-borlases-grammar-school-mock-tests
- The Sir William Borlase's Grammar School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/sir-william-borlases-grammar-school
- Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=sir-william-borlases-grammar-school
On the day
Keep the morning simple. Aim for a normal breakfast, comfortable uniform or clothes as instructed, and plenty of time so nothing feels rushed. Children usually do best when the day feels predictable rather than overly important.
Pack only what the instructions ask for. Check the test confirmation in advance so you know the venue, arrival time and any equipment rules. Do not assume arrangements are the same for every child, because some pupils sit in their primary school while others may have different arrangements.
Helpful reminders for your child are brief and practical: listen carefully to instructions, keep an eye on time without panicking, move on if stuck, and leave no accidental blanks if there is time to check. The night before, avoid heavy last-minute work. A short confidence-boosting review is fine; a long cram session rarely helps.
After the test, try not to conduct a detailed post-mortem in the car or at the school gate. Most children cannot judge accurately how they have done, and replaying every question tends to increase stress without changing the outcome.
After the exam: results, allocation and appeals
After the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test, families receive the test outcome and then continue through the normal secondary application process. For the most recent timeline shown on the school's admissions page, results were published on 9 October 2026, the secondary school application deadline was 31 October 2026, and National Offer Day was 2 March 2027. For 2028 entry, parents should expect a similar sequence but must check the current official timetable when it is published.
The important practical point is that a test result and a school offer are not the same thing. Even where a child is eligible for grammar-school consideration, you still need to list schools on the secondary application form in the order you genuinely prefer. Allocation is then made through the coordinated admissions process.
If your child does not qualify, or if you are not offered the school you wanted, the local authority and school admissions documents explain the next steps. These may include review or appeal routes depending on the circumstances and the current admissions rules. Always follow the latest official guidance and deadlines, because appeal arrangements are procedural and date-sensitive.
For in-year late entry to Years 8 and 9, the school publishes a separate timetable on its admissions page. That process is run directly by the school rather than through the standard Year 7 transfer route.
What has changed recently
The main clearly announced recent change we found is for late entry rather than the Year 7 11+ route: Sir William Borlase's states that for September 2027 entry it would create an additional 12 places into Year 9. The school also says it is oversubscribed and rarely has spaces for Year 8.
We did not find an official announcement on the school's admissions page of a change to the Year 7 test board or subject mix for the current cycle that would alter ElevenReady's verified information for 2028 entry. Parents should still check the school's admissions page and Buckinghamshire Council's Secondary Transfer Test pages each spring and summer, because administrative arrangements and dates can be updated from one cycle to the next.
Frequently asked questions
Does Sir William Borlase's Grammar School set its own 11+ test?
For Year 7 entry, the school uses Buckinghamshire's Secondary Transfer Test rather than a separate school-specific exam.
What subjects should my child prepare for?
For 2028 entry, ElevenReady's verified information is Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, using GL Assessment format.
When do children usually sit the test?
The school says most pupils take the 11+ in the first term of Year 6. Check the current Buckinghamshire timetable when registration opens for your child's year.
Does catchment matter for Sir William Borlase's?
The school's admissions information refers to proof of residence in catchment for some applicants, including some families moving into Buckinghamshire or applying from overseas. Read the current admissions policy carefully if your address situation is changing.
Are there many in-year places after Year 7?
The school says it is oversubscribed and rarely has spaces for Year 8. It announced an additional 12 Year 9 places for September 2027 entry.
When should we start timed papers?
For most children, start with skills and short timed sections in Year 5, then introduce full timed papers later in the spring or early summer once the basics are secure.
Sources
- Sir William Borlase's Grammar School Admissions: Year 7 entry is via Buckinghamshire Council's Secondary Transfer Test; most pupils take the 11+ in the first term of Year 6; most sit the tests in their own primary school; results were published on 2026-10-09; the secondary school application deadline was 2026-10-31; National Offer Day was 2027-03-
Preparing for other schools in Buckinghamshire
- Akeley Wood Senior School · practice papers
- Aylesbury Grammar School · practice papers
- Aylesbury High School · practice papers
- How to prepare for the Beaconsfield High School 11+ · practice papers
- Burnham Grammar School · practice papers
- Chesham Grammar 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.