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How to prepare for the Sutton Grammar School 11+

A practical parent guide to Sutton Grammar School’s 11+ for 2028 entry: format, dates, admissions, preparation and what happens next.

Consortium paper Paper-based Last reviewed 4 October 2026

The exam at a glance

Sutton Grammar School admits boys into Year 7 through a two-stage selective process. For 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information shows that the first stage is the Selective Eligibility Test (SET), a consortium-set paper used by participating Sutton schools, followed by a shared second stage test used by Sutton Grammar School, Wallington County Grammar School and Wilson’s School.

The tested subjects for 2028 entry are Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. The delivery is paper based. Because the consortium can vary the exact mix within the shared paper, parents should treat all four areas as live and check the school and consortium information as soon as the new admissions round is published.

In practical terms, most families should expect the process to look like this:

  • Stage 1: register for the SET during the summer term of Year 5, then sit the test in September.
  • Stage 2: if your child is invited to continue, they sit the second-stage paper in early October.
  • Preferences: you still need to name Sutton Grammar School on your local authority secondary application form if you want to be considered for a place.

On the day, children should expect a formal exam setting in school or another arranged venue, with registration, brief instructions, timed papers and short breaks as directed by the invigilators. Because this is a paper-based process, it is worth making sure your child is comfortable shading or marking answers clearly, working accurately under timed conditions and checking pages carefully before moving on.

The school’s own admissions page confirms the two-stage process and points parents to the admissions policy for the entrance criteria and other relevant information.

Registration and key dates

For Sutton Grammar School, registration is part of the Selective Eligibility Test process rather than an informal expression of interest to the school. The school’s admissions page publishes key dates for Year 7 2027 entry, and these are the latest official dates available at the time of writing for families aiming at 2028 entry. That means they are useful as a guide to the usual pattern, but parents should wait for the 2028 round to open and then follow the live instructions exactly.

Based on the school’s published 2027-entry schedule, the pattern is:

  • Registration usually opens in May.
  • Registration usually closes at the end of July.
  • The SET is typically in mid-September.
  • The Stage 2 test is typically in early October.

Specifically, the school’s admissions page states that for 2027 entry registration opened on 1 May 2026, closed on 31 July 2026, the SET was on 15 September 2026 and the Stage 2 test was on 3 October 2026. The same page also says that the school’s open evening on 23 September 2026 is for pupils currently in Year 5 due to transfer in September 2028, which is directly relevant to families reading now.

When the 2028 registration opens, expect to complete the official online form or portal named in the school or consortium guidance. Have the basics ready before the form opens: your child’s full legal name, date of birth, home address, current school details and any requested evidence of address or other supporting documents. If a supplementary form or later document check is required, follow the published instructions rather than relying on previous years’ practice.

Results timing can vary across the two stages. The school explains the testing structure, but at the time of writing the latest page viewed does not give a full published 2028 results timetable, so parents should check the live admissions page during the application year.

If you want a simple way to keep track, these may help:

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

Sutton Grammar School is a boys’ grammar school and admits 150 pupils into Year 7. ElevenReady’s verified information for 2028 entry is that there is no catchment recorded in the directory summary, and that the school says boys are admitted according to the results of a two-stage test process, with parents directed to the admissions policy for the detailed entrance criteria.

That means two things are especially important for families:

  1. Passing a test is not the same as receiving an offer. You must still complete your home local authority’s secondary application and list Sutton Grammar School as a preference if you want to be considered.
  2. The admissions policy matters. Where schools use ranked performance, eligibility stages, oversubscription criteria or tie-break rules, the exact order must come from the current policy for the relevant year of entry.

The school website also states that Sutton Grammar School admits boys into Year 7 through the entrance testing process and that the sixth form admits boys and girls according to its admissions policy.

Competition for selective schools is usually strong, but parents should be cautious about any unofficial claims online about cut-off scores, distances or pass marks. If the school does not publish a score threshold or a last-offer distance, do not plan around figures shared in forums or social media posts. Instead, use the official admissions page and policy for the year your child applies.

For many families, the most sensible approach is to think in layers:

  • prepare properly for both stages of testing;
  • read the admissions policy once when registration opens and again before submitting preferences;
  • keep at least one realistic non-selective option on your local authority form.

A month-by-month preparation plan

For a child targeting the autumn of Year 6, it is usually best to prepare steadily through Year 5 rather than turning the summer into a last-minute sprint. The aim is not endless work; it is calm familiarity, accurate basics and enough timed practice for the paper-based setting to feel normal.

September to October of Year 5

Keep it light: around 1 to 2 hours a week split over short sessions. Start with untimed work to identify strengths and weaker areas across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Build habits: neat working, reading instructions carefully and checking answers.

November to December

Increase to about 2 hours a week. Focus on core arithmetic fluency, vocabulary, comprehension stamina and exposure to the common reasoning task types. At this stage, short topic drills work better than full papers. If your child has never seen reasoning before, teach one question family at a time.

January

Move to roughly 2 to 3 hours a week. Begin mixing subjects within a week so your child practises switching gears. Introduce light timing on short sections, not yet on whole papers. Review errors carefully: was it knowledge, speed, misreading, or running out of time?

February to March

Aim for 3 hours a week. Start regular timed mini-papers and build paper technique: skipping and returning, pencilling quick notes, and keeping an eye on the clock without panicking. For English, spend time on both comprehension and accurate writing skills such as punctuation, spelling and clear sentence control.

April

This is a good point to sit a first full mixed practice paper under relaxed but timed conditions. Keep weekly study around 3 to 4 hours. Use the results diagnostically. One paper should create a plan, not a label.

May to June

Once registration season begins, preparation should become a little more structured: 3 to 4 hours a week is enough for most children if sessions are focused. Alternate between:

  • one timed section or paper;
  • one review session correcting mistakes;
  • one or two targeted skill sessions on weaker areas.

This is also the right time to make sure your child can maintain concentration across more than one paper in a morning.

July

By now, use timed papers regularly but not excessively. For many children, one full paper set a week plus review is plenty. Keep confidence up by revisiting familiar question types as well as stretching harder material.

August

In the final summer weeks, prioritise rhythm over volume. About 3 hours a week is often enough. Sit a few realistic papers in the morning, at a table, with the equipment your child will use on the day. Avoid turning every holiday day into exam prep.

September of Year 6

In the run-up to the SET, reduce heavy teaching and increase confidence-building review. Sleep, routine and calm matter now. After Stage 1, if your child progresses to Stage 2, refocus on accuracy, written working and any subject areas highlighted by the school’s second-stage format.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For Sutton Grammar School, parents should prepare for Maths as one of the four tested areas. Focus on secure Key Stage 2 number skills first: the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures and straightforward word problems. In selective tests, the challenge is often as much about speed and interpretation as pure difficulty, so practise extracting the key information from short problems and setting out working clearly. Paper-based drills on arithmetic fluency and timed mixed questions are especially useful.

English

English preparation should cover both reading and written accuracy. Build comprehension by reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, then discussing vocabulary in context, inference, tone, viewpoint and evidence from the passage. Alongside this, keep grammar, punctuation and spelling strong. If the consortium includes a writing element in any year, the best preparation is regular, short writing practice with feedback on clarity, structure and accuracy rather than rare, long pieces.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning rewards familiarity with recurring question types. Children often improve quickly when they learn the method for each task and then practise enough to make that method automatic. Typical practice areas include letter and number codes, word relationships, sequences, hidden words, moving letters and vocabulary-based items. Keep a notebook of new words and common patterns. Short, frequent sessions work better than occasional marathons.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning usually depends on spotting rules in shapes, positions, rotations, reflections, shading and visual sequences. The most helpful approach is to teach children to check the same features every time: shape, number, position, direction, shading and movement. Because this is paper based, make sure your child is comfortable scanning visual information quickly and marking answers neatly without losing place.

Across all four subjects, the best practice is a cycle of learn the method, try a few questions, review mistakes, then repeat under time pressure later. Children make steadier progress when they understand why an answer is right or wrong instead of simply completing large piles of papers.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used as a feedback tool, not a weekly judgement. Start with short sections to learn the styles, then move to timed papers once your child knows the common question types. After every paper, spend at least as long reviewing as your child spent sitting it. Ask:

  • Which errors were knowledge gaps?
  • Which were avoidable slips?
  • Which came from poor time management?
  • Which question types need explicit teaching before the next paper?

For Sutton Grammar School preparation, use a mix of subject drills and full papers. Keep a simple error log so patterns become obvious. If your child always loses marks on fraction word problems or visual rotation, that is good news: it gives you a clear plan.

Useful ElevenReady resources:

If you use a mock exam, choose the timing carefully. A mock is most helpful once your child already knows the format well enough for the experience to be informative rather than overwhelming. Treat the result as one data point. The main value is practising the routine: arriving, listening carefully, managing nerves and recovering between papers.

On the day

Keep the morning simple. Aim for a normal breakfast, comfortable school-appropriate clothes if specified, and plenty of time to travel without rushing. Check the admissions instructions in advance for arrival time, equipment and any identification or registration details.

The most useful advice for children is practical:

  • listen to the instructions all the way through before starting;
  • if a question seems stuck, move on and come back;
  • keep an eye on the time, but do not stare at the clock;
  • mark answers clearly and check that you have not skipped a line or page;
  • between papers, take a breath and reset rather than replaying what just happened.

The night before, avoid extra cramming. A calm evening, an early bedtime and confidence in familiar routines are worth much more than one last frantic worksheet. Children perform best when the day feels manageable and ordinary.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

After Stage 1, families usually hear whether their child is eligible to continue to the second-stage test. After Stage 2 and before national offer day, the school and the relevant admissions authorities use the published admissions policy to decide which applicants can be offered places.

Whatever the test outcome, remember that selective testing and school allocation are linked but not identical. You normally need to do all of the following:

  1. register for the entrance test on time;
  2. sit any required stages;
  3. submit your home local authority secondary application by its deadline;
  4. name Sutton Grammar School as a preference if you want to be considered.

Offer decisions for Year 7 are then made through the national secondary transfer process. If your child is not offered a place, parents usually have the right to join a waiting list and to appeal, following the published process. The exact appeal arrangements, deadlines and paperwork are set out each year by the admission authority or local authority handling the process, so always use the current official guidance.

At the time of writing, the school page viewed confirms the testing dates for the latest admissions round available but does not set out every later milestone for 2028 entry, so parents should check the live admissions page during the application year for results and next-step timings.

What has changed recently

The school’s admissions information currently shows the latest published key dates for Year 7 2027 entry, including registration from 1 May 2026 to 31 July 2026, the SET on 15 September 2026 and the Stage 2 test on 3 October 2026. It also makes clear that the 23 September 2026 open evening is for children in Year 5 applying for September 2028 entry. That is not a change to the test itself, but it is the most relevant recent update for current Year 5 families.

Within the sources reviewed, no separately announced recent change was found to the core points already verified by ElevenReady for 2028 entry: the two-stage process, paper-based delivery, the use of the SET consortium process and the four tested subject areas. Parents should still check the school’s live admissions page when the 2028 round opens in case the consortium publishes a more detailed format note for that year.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start preparing for Sutton Grammar School 11+?

For most children, steady preparation from the start of Year 5 works well. Begin with short untimed sessions and build up gradually so the work stays manageable.

Is Sutton Grammar School 11+ computer-based?

No. ElevenReady’s verified information for 2028 entry is that the test is paper based.

Does Sutton Grammar School test only maths and English?

For 2028 entry, the verified subjects are Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Because the consortium can vary the exact paper mix, prepare all four and check the published format when registration opens.

How many places are available in Year 7?

Sutton Grammar School has 150 Year 7 places.

Do I still need to apply through my local authority?

Yes. Registering for the test does not replace the secondary school application. You must also submit your home local authority application and include the school as a preference if you want to be considered.

Does Sutton Grammar School publish a pass mark?

Use caution with unofficial score claims. If the current admissions information does not publish a threshold or cut-off, do not rely on forum figures; check the school’s admissions page for the latest official position.

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Sources

  • Sutton Grammar School – Admissions: School admits boys into Year 7 through a two-stage admissions testing process; parents are referred to the admissions policy; latest published key dates for Year 7 2027 entry are registration opens 1 May 2026, closes 31 July 2026, SET on 15 September 2026, open evening on 23 September 2026, Stage 2
  • Sutton Grammar School – Home: School is Sutton Grammar School; school website context; school has sixth form and admits boys and girls into sixth form according to admissions policy.

Preparing for other schools in Sutton

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.