How to prepare for The Harvey Grammar School 11+

The exam at a glance

The Harvey Grammar School is a selective boys’ grammar school in Folkestone. For Year 7 entry, the school’s admissions page says applicants are considered on the results of the Kent Test and the Shepway Test. For 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information is that the school uses a consortium-set paper, and families should check the school and consortium information published for the exact format for that year.

For preparation purposes, parents should cover all four commonly tested areas: Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. ElevenReady’s verified directory notes that subjects in a shared consortium paper can vary by consortium, so it is sensible to prepare across all four and then tighten the focus once the school publishes the final familiarisation details for the relevant cohort.

The school’s admissions information makes clear that registration for the Shepway Test is separate and that families are advised to register for both entrance tests. In practice, that means most parents should plan for two strands of preparation:

steady work on the broad 11+ skill set over Year 5;
careful checking of the school’s admissions page and any linked test information once registration opens for your child’s cohort.

What the day itself looks like can change from year to year, depending on the test provider and local arrangements. The school page confirms the school uses the Shepway Test as part of eligibility for consideration, but the precise delivery method for 2028 entry is not yet confirmed in the verified information provided to us. Until the school publishes the next cycle’s arrangements, assume your child will need to be ready for a formal selective test taken early in the autumn term of Year 6, with strict timing and a quiet exam-room routine.

School	The Harvey Grammar School
Entry point	Year 7
Selection route named by school	Kent Test and Shepway Test
2028 exam format	Consortium-set paper
Subjects to prepare	Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning
Delivery	Check the school/consortium publication for the 2028 cohort

Registration and key dates

The school’s admissions page says Year 7 applicants become eligible for consideration based on the results of the Kent Test and the Shepway Test, and it specifically says: “To apply for the Shepway Test … please complete the Application Form”. It also advises families to register for both entrance tests and to attend the school’s Open Evening.

That means parents should expect to complete separate steps for selective testing and then also submit the normal local authority school application at the appropriate stage. Based on the official Kent County Council 11+ pages for secondary transfer, the Kent Test registration window normally sits in the summer before Year 6 testing, with testing in September and secondary school applications closing on 31 October. Parents targeting The Harvey Grammar School should therefore plan on the following broad pattern, while checking the school and Kent pages for the exact 2028-entry dates once published:

Late spring to summer of Year 5: registration usually opens for the Kent Test.
Early autumn of Year 6: selective tests are usually taken.
Mid-autumn of Year 6: results are usually released before the secondary school application deadline.
31 October in Year 6: the national secondary school application deadline for Kent families.
1 March: national offer day.

For The Harvey Grammar School specifically, the Shepway Test registration is handled through the school’s own admissions arrangements rather than through the Kent secondary application itself. The admissions page indicates there is an application form for the Shepway Test. When the new cycle opens, read the instructions on the school’s page carefully and allow time to gather anything requested.

Typical practical documents for selective registration can include a child’s home address details, date of birth and current school information, but parents should rely on the exact form instructions for their year. If your child’s circumstances are unusual, for example an out-of-area application or a recent house move, it is particularly important to follow the school’s and local authority’s published evidence requirements.

Useful parent links:

At the time of writing, we have not found a full published 2028-entry timetable for The Harvey Grammar School’s Shepway Test. Families should treat any older dates only as a guide and check the school’s admissions page regularly.

Who can apply: catchment and admissions

The school’s admissions page confirms that Year 7 applicants are considered using the results of the Kent Test and the Shepway Test. Beyond that, parents should always read the school’s current admissions policy for the exact oversubscription criteria for the year they are applying for.

Because selective schools can rank applicants using a combination of eligibility, test performance and admissions priority rules, the important point is not just whether a child sits the tests, but also how the school orders applications when there are more qualified children than places. Typical grammar school policies may include looked-after or previously looked-after children, named health or social need, sibling criteria, distance and sometimes area-based priority, but you should only rely on the criteria set out in The Harvey Grammar School’s current policy for your child’s entry year.

For this school, the verified information supplied to us does not confirm catchment or priority rules for 2028 entry, so we are not stating them here. Parents should check:

the school’s latest admissions policy and Year 7 admissions page;
Kent County Council’s secondary transfer information;
the school’s published admission number and oversubscription rules once the 2028 policy is available.

If you live outside Kent or outside the immediate area, do not assume that test eligibility automatically means a realistic chance of an offer. Always compare the school’s published admissions rules with your own circumstances before putting preferences in order.

The safest approach is:

check whether your child must sit one test or more than one;
confirm how the school decides who is eligible for consideration;
read the oversubscription criteria in full;
submit the local authority school application on time, listing schools in your genuine order of preference.

A month-by-month preparation plan

For a child aiming to sit the exam in the autumn of Year 6, the most effective preparation is usually steady, calm and spread across Year 5 rather than rushed in the summer holidays. The plan below assumes a reasonably able child preparing alongside normal primary school work.

January to March of Year 5

Keep it light and consistent: about 1 to 2 hours a week in short sessions. Focus on core accuracy in arithmetic, reading comprehension, spelling patterns, vocabulary building and basic reasoning habits. At this stage, avoid heavy timed work. The goal is to spot gaps early.

Maths: secure times tables, written methods, fractions basics and word-problem habits.
English: read widely, discuss vocabulary, practise retrieving information and making simple inferences.
Reasoning: introduce a small number of verbal and non-verbal question types at a time.

April to June of Year 5

Increase to around 2 to 3 hours a week. Start building familiarity with the style of 11+ questions without turning every session into a test. Children often benefit from one Maths session, one English session and one mixed reasoning session each week.

Keep a vocabulary notebook.
Practise solving questions in a fixed order: read carefully, decide method, answer, check.
Teach skipping and returning to hard questions rather than getting stuck.

July to August before Year 6

This is the point to become a little more structured, but still not relentless. Aim for 3 to 4 hours a week, split into manageable chunks with days off. Introduce short timed sections and begin joining sections together so your child learns how concentration feels over a longer paper.

Use one weekly mixed paper or mini-mock.
Review mistakes carefully; error analysis matters more than sheer volume.
Keep reading going through the holidays so English and vocabulary do not flatten.

September of Year 6, up to the exam

In the final run-in, many children do best on 4 to 5 hours a week, depending on temperament and school workload. This is when timed practice becomes more important. Try at least one realistic timed session each week, but do not overload the final days.

Practise pacing and checking.
Go over the question types your child still finds slow.
Reduce workload slightly in the last few days so they go in fresh.

A simple rule works well: learn, practise, review, repeat. If a child keeps repeating papers without understanding mistakes, scores often stall. If they review calmly and fix patterns, progress is much steadier.

Subject by subject: what to practise

Maths

Prepare for a broad primary Maths paper with an emphasis on accuracy, method and speed under time pressure. Children should be comfortable with number operations, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, shape, perimeter, area and word problems. The best practice mixes straightforward fluency with multi-step problems, because selective exams often reward children who can extract the method from a short written scenario.

Useful habits include writing workings clearly, estimating before answering and checking whether the final answer is sensible. If your child is slow, work first on number fluency rather than simply piling on more timed papers.

English

For English, prepare both comprehension and technical accuracy. Comprehension practice should cover retrieval, vocabulary-in-context, inference, tone and the ability to support an answer from the passage. Technical work should include spelling patterns, punctuation, grammar and sentence control. Some selective papers also reward children with strong vocabulary and careful reading rather than flashy writing.

The most reliable preparation is regular reading plus discussion. Ask your child what a word means in context, why a character acted in a certain way, and which clues in the text support that idea. This builds the kind of precise thinking that helps in exam conditions.

Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Reasoning typically tests how quickly a child can detect language and code patterns. Practice often includes letter sequences, word relationships, hidden words, coded words, logical deduction, vocabulary-linked tasks and ordered information. Because these questions can feel unfamiliar at first, children usually improve most when they learn question types explicitly and then revisit them until the method is automatic.

Build accuracy before speed. Once your child understands a question family, introduce short bursts of timed work so they learn not to dwell too long on one item.

Non-Verbal Reasoning

Non-Verbal Reasoning usually focuses on shapes, patterns, transformations and visual logic. Common preparation areas include rotation, reflection, symmetry, sequences, odd-one-out, nets, codes and combinations of shape changes. Children often benefit from being taught to look for one rule at a time: shape, position, shading, line count or orientation.

Because NVR can be tiring, shorter but frequent practice works better than very long sessions. Encourage your child to talk through what changed from one box to the next; verbalising the pattern often improves accuracy.

Practice papers and mock exams

Practice papers are most useful when they are used diagnostically, not just as score generators. A good routine is:

choose one paper or section with a clear purpose;
sit it under the right timing;
mark it promptly;
sort mistakes into types: knowledge gap, misread question, slow method, careless error;
redo only the questions that taught something useful.

For most children, one or two timed papers a week in the final phase is enough. More than that can make scores noisy and confidence fragile. It is usually better to complete fewer papers well than many papers badly.

Mocks can help if your child needs practice with nerves, pacing or working in a room with other children. They are less useful if they simply replace teaching. If you book a mock, use the feedback to decide what to revise next rather than treating the score as a prediction.

Start here:

As 2028 entry uses a consortium-set paper, also watch for any official familiarisation materials published by the school or consortium for your child’s year. Those are especially valuable because they show the style the school actually intends to use.

On the day

Children usually do best when the day feels predictable. The aim is calm organisation, not last-minute cramming.

Prepare everything the night before if the school has issued instructions.
Allow plenty of travel time so arrival is unhurried.
Give a normal breakfast and keep the morning routine simple.
Remind your child that a hard question is not a disaster; move on and come back if time allows.
Encourage neat working and careful checking, especially in Maths and reasoning sections.

The most helpful final message is usually: read carefully, do the easy questions well, and keep moving. Children can lose marks by rushing the start or by getting stuck on one difficult item too early.

In the last day or two before the exam, choose confidence-building review rather than a punishing full paper. Sleep and steadiness matter more than one extra worksheet.

After the exam: results, allocation and appeals

After testing, families normally receive selective test outcomes before they finalise or shortly before they must rely on their school preference application. For Kent secondary transfer, the broader admissions process then follows the usual local authority timetable, with applications considered and offers made on national offer day.

For The Harvey Grammar School, the school’s admissions page says applicants are eligible for consideration based on the results of the Kent Test and the Shepway Test. That means the test result is only one stage in the overall process: parents must also submit the formal secondary school application through the local authority system.

If your child is not offered a place, there may be two distinct issues to think about:

selection/testing issues, if relevant under the school’s arrangements; and
admissions/oversubscription issues, if your child was qualified but not high enough under the school’s priorities.

The exact review or appeal route depends on the published admission arrangements for that year. Kent County Council provides the general secondary transfer framework, and appeal rights follow the normal admissions process after offers are made. If you think you may need to appeal, read both the school’s policy and the local authority guidance carefully and keep copies of all correspondence.

Parents should be cautious about informal claims online about “safe scores” or likely offer distances. If the school has not published a number, treat it as unknown and use only official admissions documents when making decisions.

What has changed recently

The clearest recent point from the school’s own admissions page is that Year 7 applicants are considered using the results of the Kent Test and the Shepway Test, and that applicants should register for both entrance tests. For 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information is that the school uses a consortium-set paper. Parents should therefore watch for the next published cycle’s detail on the exact paper format and administration.

We have not found any further officially announced recent change, within the last two years, to places, catchment or published priority rules that we can verify confidently from the official sources we reviewed for 2028 entry. Check the school’s admissions page and current policy each year, as grammar school arrangements can be updated between cohorts.

Frequently asked questions

Does The Harvey Grammar School use the Kent Test or its own test?

The school’s admissions page says Year 7 applicants are considered on the results of the Kent Test and the Shepway Test. For 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information says the school uses a consortium-set paper, so check the school’s published details for the exact arrangement for your child’s year.

What subjects should my child prepare for?

Prepare across Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Even where a consortium paper varies by year, covering all four is the safest starting point until the final format is published.

When do I need to register?

The exact 2028-entry dates are not yet confirmed here. The school says there is an application form for the Shepway Test, and Kent’s secondary transfer process usually begins in the summer before Year 6 testing, so check both the school and Kent pages regularly.

Do I need to register for both tests?

Yes. The school’s admissions page advises applicants to register for both entrance tests.

Is there a catchment area?

Check the school’s current admissions policy for your child’s entry year. We have not stated a catchment rule here because it was not confirmed in the verified information provided to us.

When should we start preparing?

For most children, a steady start in Year 5 works best. Begin with light weekly work on core Maths, reading and reasoning skills, then add timed practice gradually in the summer before Year 6.

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Sources

The Harvey Grammar School Admissions: The school says Year 7 applicants are eligible for consideration based on the results of the Kent Test and the Shepway Test; the admissions page says applicants should register for both entrance tests; the admissions page refers to completing an application form for the Shepway Test; the admissions

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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.