How to prepare for The Grange 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

The Grange School is an academically selective independent co-educational school for ages 3 to 18, and Year 7 entry is based on passing the school’s entrance assessment. For 2028 entry, our working assumption, not yet verified with the school, is that the test uses the school’s own paper in a GL-style format covering Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. That means children need balanced preparation across all four areas rather than focusing on only English and Maths.

The school’s admissions information says the entrance assessment usually takes place in early January. An older Year 7 application page gave a specific January assessment date for one cycle, which supports that general pattern. The school also runs opportunities for families to visit before applying, including Senior School open events and Year 6 taster days in the autumn term.

The school website explains the broad admissions route, but it does not clearly set out a detailed minute-by-minute test-day timetable on the pages reviewed. So the safest assumption is that your child should be ready for a standard selective entrance assessment with timed sections and clear invigilator instructions, while you check the latest joining information directly with the school once you register.

School type: independent, co-educational, selective
Main Year 7 assessment areas: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Assessment style: school’s own paper in a GL-style format
Typical timing: early January for Year 7 assessment, based on the school’s admissions information
Entry route: application, entrance assessment, then school decision and standard independent-school offer process

For most families, the practical takeaway is simple: prepare steadily through Year 5 and the start of Year 6, keep all four subjects moving forward together, and do not leave reasoning practice until the last minute.

Registration and key dates

The Grange School handles its own admissions rather than using the local authority’s grammar-school testing system. The school’s admissions page includes an enquiry route and application information, and the separate application page reviewed for Senior School set out the order clearly: parents complete the application, the child sits the entrance assessment, and the school then communicates the outcome.

For Year 7 entry, the most useful verified timing comes from two school pages:

the admissions page says the entrance assessment usually takes place in early January
an older Senior School application page listed Application Deadline – 20 November 2025 and Entrance Assessment – Tuesday 6 January 2026

Because you are planning for 2028 entry, those exact dates are not yet a guarantee for your child’s cycle unless the school republishes them. The sensible reading is that parents should expect the process to usually open in the autumn term, with a deadline around late November and the assessment typically in early January, but you should confirm the current year’s dates on the school’s admissions page as soon as they are published.

The school also advertises pre-application events. On the pages reviewed, Senior School Open Day was listed for 3 October 2026, and the admissions page says Explore Taster Days for Year 6 pupils take place in the autumn term. These are useful if your child would benefit from seeing the school before testing.

In practice, parents should:

register their interest or apply through The Grange School, not through the local authority test portal
check whether the school asks for supporting documents as part of the application
tell the school in good time about any SEN or access arrangements, because the admissions page asks applicants to inform the school if their child has any SEN
check bursary timelines separately if relevant, as the school site refers to bursary applications

If you want a quick starting point, see The The Grange School 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates) and sign up for Free email alerts for this school's key dates.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

The Grange School is an independent school, so it does not operate like a state grammar school with a local-authority catchment test and a published qualifying score. On the evidence reviewed, there is no catchment area stated for Year 7 entry. Instead, the school describes itself as academically selective and says entry depends on passing the entrance assessment.

The admissions page also makes two practical points that matter for families:

the school refers to bursary applications
applicants are asked to inform the school if their child has SEN

That tells parents that admissions is not just about the test itself. If you may apply for financial support, or your child will need reasonable adjustments or additional information considered, it is worth speaking to admissions early rather than waiting until the deadline.

The pages reviewed did not publish a verified Year 7 number of places, a published pass mark, or a numerical cut-off score. As an independent school, The Grange may assess applicants holistically and decide offers through its own admissions process. If you need the latest detail on availability or oversubscription in a particular year, check directly with the admissions team on the school’s website.

For preparation purposes, the main point is this: your child is applying to a selective school where the entrance assessment matters, but there is no published catchment threshold to aim for. The best use of your time is to build secure, even performance across all four tested subjects and to make sure your child can work calmly under timed conditions.

A month-by-month preparation plan

For a child sitting the assessment in early January of Year 6, a calm preparation arc usually starts in spring or summer of Year 5. You do not need an extreme schedule. Short, regular sessions are far more effective than occasional long ones.

January to March of Year 5

Keep this stage light. Aim for 1 to 2 hours a week in total, split across two or three short sessions. Focus on reading comprehension, secure arithmetic, vocabulary building and simple reasoning familiarisation. At this point you are not chasing speed; you are finding weak spots early.

April to June of Year 5

Increase to about 2 to 3 hours a week. Introduce each subject separately so your child understands what is being asked in Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Build habits: show working in Maths, read the full question in English, and learn to spot common reasoning patterns. If your child has never seen VR or NVR before, this is a good time to start.

July to August before Year 6

Use the summer to consolidate, not to overload. Around 2 to 4 hours a week is usually enough. Do one mixed session across several subjects and one or two focused sessions on weaker areas. Start very short timed drills, such as a few minutes on arithmetic accuracy or a small set of reasoning questions, but avoid full-paper pressure too early.

September of Year 6

This is the point to become more structured. Aim for 3 to 4 hours a week. Work on all four subjects every fortnight. Begin regular timed practice in small chunks: for example, one short reasoning section, one comprehension task under time, and one Maths set where pace matters. If the school’s application route has opened, register promptly and note every deadline.

October of Year 6

Move to 4 hours a week if your child is coping well. Start using more realistic mixed practice and teach exam discipline: no panicking over one hard question, moving on when stuck, and checking carefully if time remains. This is also a good month for one supervised mock-style session at home.

November of Year 6

Keep to 4 to 5 hours a week, but protect schoolwork and downtime. This is where timed work becomes important. Use one longer session each week for a paper or half-paper under quiet conditions, then spend just as much time reviewing mistakes. The review is what drives improvement.

December of Year 6

In the final run-up, stay steady rather than cramming. Around 3 to 4 hours a week is enough for most children. Focus on accuracy, familiar question types and confidence. Reduce the amount of brand-new material. If your child is tiring, shorter sessions are better.

The final week

Do only light review: key Maths methods, vocabulary, a small number of reasoning questions, and one brief comprehension task. Prioritise sleep, routine and confidence. By this point, the goal is not to learn everything; it is to help your child show what they already know.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

For a GL-style selective paper, Maths practice should cover secure Key Stage 2 number skills and the ability to apply them quickly. Typical areas include arithmetic, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, measures, shape, space, data handling and straightforward worded problems. Practise mental fluency as well as written methods. A common problem at this level is not the method itself but losing marks through rushing, copying errors or misreading the question.

Good preparation includes short daily arithmetic, weekly problem-solving, and regular timed sets. Teach your child to estimate before calculating and to check whether an answer makes sense.

English

English preparation should include both comprehension and the broader literacy skills that selective tests often reward, such as vocabulary, inference, grammar, punctuation and accurate spelling. Build strong reading habits first: children who read widely usually cope better with unfamiliar passages and nuanced questions.

In practice, work on retrieving information, explaining evidence from a text, understanding tone and viewpoint, and answering clearly in full. Alongside that, revise grammar and punctuation systematically. Vocabulary work is especially helpful: prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms and words in context.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning tests how well a child spots patterns and relationships in words, letters and language-based codes. In GL-style work, families often see question types involving letter sequences, word relationships, codes, hidden words, related meanings, number-letter links and careful instruction-following.

The best way to improve VR is through familiarity and method. Teach one question type at a time, then mix them. Encourage your child to mark key information, use rough working when needed and avoid guessing too fast before understanding the pattern.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning focuses on shapes, patterns, spatial logic and visual sequences. Children may need to spot rotations, reflections, symmetry, shape changes, codes, analogies and completion of sequences or matrices. This is often the least familiar area for children who have done only school-based work, so start it early enough for confidence to build gradually.

Use step-by-step explanation before speed. Ask your child to say what changed from one figure to the next: was it shape, size, shading, position, rotation or number? Once those categories are familiar, timed practice becomes much less intimidating.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used as a learning tool, not just as a score generator. Start with untimed or lightly timed work so your child understands each question type. Only then move towards proper timed papers.

A simple structure works well:

Learn the type — teach one question style at a time
Practise in short sets — enough repetition to build confidence
Time small sections — introduce pace without overwhelming your child
Sit occasional full papers — only when foundations are in place
Review carefully — every wrong answer should teach something

When marking, separate mistakes into three groups: knowledge gaps, question-type confusion and rushing. That shows you what to do next. A low score caused by speed can improve quite quickly; a low score caused by weak fundamentals needs slower, steadier work.

If you use a mock exam, treat it as practice in stamina, timing and composure rather than as a prediction. One mock in the autumn of Year 6 is often enough for many children; some benefit from two, but too many mocks can dent confidence.

For targeted practice, use these free resources:

Try to keep paper practice balanced across Maths, English, VR and NVR. Because The Grange’s format covers all four areas, over-preparing one favourite subject and neglecting another is a common mistake.

On the day

The aim on the day is to help your child feel organised, fed, rested and unhurried. Most test-day nerves come from uncertainty, so keep the routine simple and familiar.

check the school’s instructions carefully as soon as they arrive
prepare clothes, pencils and any permitted equipment the night before
leave in good time so there is no last-minute rush
give a normal breakfast and keep drinks sensible
avoid a heavy revision session that morning

What children most need to hear is reassuring and practical: read carefully, keep moving, do not get stuck on one question, and remember that some questions are meant to feel stretching. If there is a break between sections, encourage them to reset rather than replay the previous paper in their head.

For parents, the best support is calm confidence. Treat the assessment as an opportunity to show readiness for the school, not as a judgement on your child’s worth. A steady, matter-of-fact tone helps far more than repeated reminders to try hard.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

Because The Grange School is an independent school, the process after the entrance assessment is different from state secondary allocation. There is no local-authority national offer mechanism for the test itself. Instead, families apply to the school, the school assesses applicants, and then the school communicates outcomes directly.

The reviewed pages did not publish a verified results release date for Year 7 entrance assessments. If the school has not yet published dates for your child’s cycle, expect the next steps to be explained after assessment day or in admissions correspondence.

In general, the process is likely to include:

the school reviews entrance assessment performance
families are told whether a place is being offered, held on a list or not offered
accepted families complete the school’s next admissions steps by the deadline given
if relevant, bursary assessment follows the school’s separate timetable

If your child is unsuccessful, ask politely whether the school can give any feedback on the process and whether there is any review or appeal route. Independent schools do not always mirror state-school appeals, so the correct procedure is the school’s own published policy or admissions guidance.

If dates for decisions, waiting lists or bursary stages matter to your planning, the safest approach is to monitor the school’s admissions page and stay in touch with the admissions team directly.

What has changed recently

From the official pages reviewed, the clearest current message is that The Grange School’s Year 7 entrance assessment usually takes place in early January, while an older application page gave a specific cycle with a 20 November 2025 deadline and 6 January 2026 assessment date. That is useful as a pattern for families planning ahead, but you should still check the latest year’s published dates when they appear.

The admissions pages reviewed also publicise Senior School open events and Year 6 Explore Taster Days in the autumn term, which may be more prominent than on older pages and are worth using as part of your planning.

Beyond that, we did not find an officially announced recent change to the exam board, catchment, published places or a new admissions rule on the pages reviewed. If the school publishes a new Year 7 application page for 2028 entry, that should be treated as the definitive update.

Frequently asked questions

When is The Grange School 11+ exam?

The school’s admissions page says the entrance assessment usually takes place in early January. An older Year 7 application page listed 6 January 2026 for one cycle, so early January is the safest typical guide until 2028 dates are published.

What subjects are in The Grange School entrance exam?

For 2028 entry, the working assumption for this guide, not yet verified with the school, is Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, using the school’s own paper in a GL-style format.

Does The Grange School have a catchment area?

On the evidence reviewed, no catchment area is stated for Year 7 entry. It is an independent school and admissions are based on its own selective process rather than state grammar catchment rules.

How hard is The Grange School 11+?

It is a selective independent-school assessment, so children need secure skills across all four tested areas and good timing. The best preparation is broad, steady practice rather than cramming.

When should my child start preparing for The Grange School 11+?

For an early January exam in Year 6, many children benefit from light preparation in spring or summer of Year 5, building gradually through Year 6.

Does The Grange School offer bursaries?

The admissions information reviewed refers to bursary applications. If this may apply to your family, contact the school early so you can follow the correct process and timetable.

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Sources

The Grange School Admissions: The school describes itself as academically selective; Year 7 entry depends on passing an entrance assessment; the entrance assessment usually takes place in early January; bursary applications are mentioned; applicants are asked to inform the school if their child has any SEN; Explore Taster Days f

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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.