The exam at a glance
The King's School, Grantham is part of the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools for Year 7 entry. For September 2028 entry, ElevenReady's verified information says the test format is FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise) via the consortium.
That means children are preparing for a paper-based assessment built around Key Stage 2 Maths and English up to the end of Year 5, with a creative-writing task and some short wider-curriculum questions that may draw on subjects such as Science, History and Geography. There is no Verbal Reasoning or Non-Verbal Reasoning in the 2028-entry format.
In practice, this is a more curriculum-led style of entrance test. Children benefit most from secure arithmetic, fluency with Year 5 reading and grammar, clear written expression, and the habit of explaining their thinking. Because the school day test is paper-based, it is also worth making sure your child is comfortable working neatly on paper, reading instructions carefully and pacing themselves without needing a screen.
The school administers consortium 11+ testing at its Grantham site for boys seeking Year 7 entry. Official pages for the new format are still limited, so parents should keep checking the school's admissions page and the Lincolnshire Consortium information as the 2028 cycle is published.
What will the day itself look like? The school has previously used separate consortium test sessions for earlier entry years, but the detailed running order for the 2028 FSCE format has not yet been published in the sources reviewed. Expect a formal test morning or day at the school site, with registration, seated papers and standard exam-room routines, but check the official instructions when the 2028 arrangements are released.
Registration and key dates
Registration is handled through the Lincolnshire grammar school testing process, with The King's School's admissions page linking parents to consortium information for Year 7 entry. For the most recently published cycle the school set out a registration window and test dates on its own admissions page, and Lincolnshire County Council published the local authority application timetable.
For the published 2027-entry cycle, registration opened on 9 January 2026. The form first closed on 31 March 2026, then reopened for late registrations on 1 May 2026 and finally closed on 17 July 2026 at 23:45. The school's page also gave test dates in September 2026 for that cycle.
Because you are preparing for September 2028 entry, those dates are not the live dates your family will use. At the time of writing, the official 2028 timeline had not yet been published in the sources reviewed. The safest way to treat the current information is as a guide to typical timing: registration usually opens in January, the test is usually in September, and the local authority secondary application deadline is normally at the end of October.
For the local authority application itself, Lincolnshire County Council says applications for secondary school places open on 1 September and close on 31 October in the normal admissions round, with offers made on 1 March or the next working day.
Parents should be ready to do two separate things:
- Register for the 11+ testing process when the consortium or school portal opens.
- Submit the local authority secondary application by the county deadline, naming preferred schools in order.
The school's FAQ also states that evidence for Pupil Premium (Free School Meals) must be with the school by 31 October for a boy to be considered for a priority place under the admissions policy.
Documents needed are not set out in full on the pages reviewed for 2028 entry, so check the registration form carefully when it goes live. In practice, families should expect to provide the child's details, current school, address and parent contact information, and to read any instructions about supporting evidence closely.
If you want reminders, ElevenReady offers Free email alerts for this school's key dates.
Who can apply: catchment and admissions
The King's School, Grantham is a boys' grammar school, so families need to look at two things together: eligibility to sit the test and the school's oversubscription rules if more children qualify than there are places.
The school's own FAQ does not summarise the full catchment rules on the page reviewed; instead, it tells parents to read the Admissions Policy for catchment and entry criteria. That is the right place to check priority groups, catchment definitions and how places are ranked for the exact entry year you need.
One point the school does state clearly is that evidence for Pupil Premium (Free School Meals) must be received by 31 October if a child is to be considered for a priority place as detailed in the admissions policy.
ElevenReady's verified directory also records the most recent lowest score offered a place on National Offer Day for several years. These figures are useful as historical context only. They are not pass marks, and they do not predict what will be needed for a future year:
- March 2026: 242
- March 2025: 232
- March 2024: 237
- March 2023: 225
- March 2022: 234
- March 2021: 229
The school pages reviewed did not publish a fixed pass mark or guaranteed qualifying score for 2028 entry, and parents should be very cautious about any unofficial number shared online. If the school does not publish a threshold for your year, treat preparation as curriculum building rather than target chasing.
The number of Year 7 places and the full admissions priority order should be checked in the school's current admissions policy for the exact application year. If your family lives outside the usual area, or you are unsure whether your address falls within a priority zone, read the policy wording carefully rather than relying on forum summaries.
For a broader overview, ElevenReady also has The The King's School, Grantham 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates).
A month-by-month preparation plan
Because this exam is curriculum-based, the best preparation is steady and sensible. Most children do well with short, regular sessions rather than heavy drilling. For a Year 5 child aiming for an autumn test at the start of Year 6, a realistic plan is to begin gently in the spring or summer of Year 5 and build from there.
March to April of Year 5
Keep it light: around 1 to 2 hours a week in total, split into short sessions. Focus on reading comprehension, number fluency, times tables, written arithmetic and spelling punctuation grammar basics. Start a habit of reading every day and talking about what has been read: inference, vocabulary and why an author chose a phrase.
May to June of Year 5
Move to around 2 to 3 hours a week. Add more structured comprehension, fractions and problem solving, and short bursts of creative writing. Because the FSCE format includes wider-curriculum breadth questions, make sure your child has a sound grasp of ordinary classroom learning rather than studying only test materials. School science, geography and history knowledge should be revised through reading and conversation, not crammed.
July of Year 5
Work at around 3 hours a week. This is a good point to spot weak areas. Can your child write a clear paragraph with accurate punctuation? Can they solve multi-step maths problems without panicking? Can they read a longer text and explain evidence from it? Keep sessions varied and finish each week with something confidence-building.
August before Year 6
This is often the most useful month, because there is time for calm consolidation. Aim for about 3 to 4 hours a week, still in manageable chunks. Introduce timed sections gradually. Do not jump straight into full papers if your child is not ready. First practise single skills under light time pressure: one comprehension, one writing task plan, one maths set, one short general-knowledge or wider-curriculum review.
Early September of Year 6
Use the final weeks for paper practice and routine, not frantic new content. Around 4 hours a week is enough for most children. Practise sitting still, reading instructions carefully, checking answers and moving on when stuck. If your child is doing full mixed papers, keep the number sensible and review them properly afterwards.
A useful rule of thumb is this: mark less, review more. For every paper or task, spend time understanding what went wrong. Was it a knowledge gap, a reading slip, a rushed calculation, or a weak written explanation? Small corrections made consistently are what improve scores.
When should timed papers start? For most children, start lightly in the summer of Year 5 once core skills are in place, then use more realistic timed practice in August and early September. Full formal papers are most helpful near the exam, not months before.
Subject by subject: what to practise
Maths
For this format, maths preparation should look like strong Key Stage 2 classroom maths rather than puzzle drilling. Prioritise the four operations, place value, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio basics, measures, time, perimeter, area and multi-step word problems. Children should be used to showing working clearly and checking whether an answer is sensible.
Good practice includes short daily arithmetic, one or two reasoning problems several times a week, and regular work on interpreting what a question is asking. If your child tends to rush, teach them to underline key information and estimate before calculating.
English
English is likely to reward solid reading and accurate written expression. Practise comprehension using fiction and non-fiction, with attention to retrieval, inference, vocabulary in context and explaining ideas with evidence from the text. Spelling, punctuation and grammar matter because they support clear writing.
For writing, build fluency sentence by sentence. Work on planning quickly, opening strongly, organising ideas into paragraphs and finishing within time. Creative writing practice should include description, narrative viewpoint, character, setting and editing. Encourage your child to write vividly but clearly; ambitious vocabulary only helps when it is used naturally and accurately.
Wider Curriculum
ElevenReady's verified information says the FSCE test can include short breadth questions drawing on other KS2 subjects such as Science, History and Geography. This does not mean children need specialist tutoring in those subjects. It is better to strengthen ordinary Year 5 learning: key scientific processes and facts, maps and places, historical periods studied in school, and the habit of applying knowledge in context.
A practical way to prepare is to read short age-appropriate articles, discuss school topics at home, and use quick quizzes to keep knowledge fresh. The goal is broad confidence and curiosity, not memorising obscure facts.
Practice papers and mock exams
Because this is a curriculum-led format and there are no published past papers in ElevenReady's verified information, families should use practice materials thoughtfully. The aim is not to teach tricks; it is to make sure your child can apply classroom learning calmly under test conditions.
Start with short practice tasks by subject. Once your child is comfortable, combine them into longer mixed sessions. After each one, review errors by type:
- Knowledge gap - for example, weak fractions or shaky punctuation.
- Reading slip - misreading a question or skipping a word.
- Timing issue - spending too long on one section.
- Presentation issue - messy working or unclear handwriting.
Mock exams can help if your child needs experience of a quiet room, unfamiliar adults and a timed paper. They are most useful in the final stretch, once the basics are already secure. One or two well-timed mocks are usually enough. Too many can dent confidence and crowd out the more important work of learning from mistakes.
Use these ElevenReady resources as part of a balanced plan:
- Free The King's School, Grantham practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers)
- The The King's School, Grantham 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates)
- Free email alerts for this school's key dates
A simple pattern works well: one paper or timed section at the weekend, then two or three short weekday sessions to fix what it revealed. That keeps progress steady without turning preparation into a constant source of pressure.
On the day
The most helpful thing a parent can give on exam day is calm routine. Aim for an ordinary, organised morning: enough sleep the night before, a familiar breakfast, comfortable uniform or clothes if instructed, and plenty of time to arrive without rushing.
Before leaving, check the practical items named in the test instructions when they are issued. As a rule, children should know how to use the pens or pencils they are taking and should not bring anything unfamiliar for the first time on the day.
Emotionally, keep your language steady. Avoid saying this is their one chance or that everything depends on today. A better message is: read carefully, do one question at a time, and keep going.
If your child gets stuck in a paper, the best strategy is usually to stay calm, leave that question for the moment if allowed, and return later. Remind them that a composed paper with a few unanswered questions is often stronger than a panicked one full of avoidable mistakes.
After the test, try not to conduct a full post-mortem in the car. Most children feel better if the day ends with something normal and reassuring rather than a blow-by-blow analysis of every answer.
After the exam: results, allocation and appeals
After sitting the 11+, families usually move through three stages: test outcome, local authority allocation and, where needed, waiting lists or appeals.
For The King's School, Grantham, the exact results timing for 2028 entry had not been published in the sources reviewed. Families should therefore watch the school's admissions page and any consortium communications carefully.
What is published clearly by Lincolnshire County Council is the wider admissions timetable: secondary applications in the normal round close on 31 October, and offers are made on 1 March or the next working day. That is the point at which you find out whether your son has been offered a place at the school named highest on your application for which he was eligible.
If a place is not offered on National Offer Day, families can usually stay on or join the waiting list and may also have the right to appeal. The detailed appeal process is governed by admissions law and the school's published arrangements for that year. Appeals are not a re-sit of the test; they consider whether the admission arrangements were applied properly and, depending on the case, whether there is a strong reason for admission despite the refusal.
Historical lowest-offered scores on National Offer Day can help parents understand that outcomes vary from year to year, but they should not be used as a fixed benchmark for future appeals or expectations.
What has changed recently
The significant announced change is to the exam format. ElevenReady's verified information says that from September 2027 entry the test becomes FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise) via the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools, moving to a curriculum-based format built around Maths and English rather than the older reasoning-based structure.
The school's admissions page for September 2027 entry also links parents to the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools and to the new Year 7 entry arrangements, which supports the point that admissions are being handled through a consortium structure for that cycle.
For published 2027-entry dates, the school page showed a registration period beginning in January 2026, with testing in September 2026. Those dates are useful as recent timing context, but parents applying for 2028 entry should wait for the new cycle to be published before acting on them.
Beyond that format change and the published 2027 timetable, no further clearly announced recent changes to catchment, places or admissions arrangements were confirmed in the sources reviewed.
Frequently asked questions
Does The King's School, Grantham still use Verbal Reasoning?
No for 2028 entry. ElevenReady's verified information says the format is FSCE via the Lincolnshire Consortium, with Maths, English, creative writing and wider-curriculum breadth questions, and no Verbal or Non-Verbal Reasoning.
When should my child start preparing?
For most children, gentle preparation from spring or summer of Year 5 is enough. Build core maths, reading and writing steadily, then add timed practice in the summer holidays and early September.
Are there official past papers for this exam?
ElevenReady's verified information says there are no published past papers for this format. Use curriculum-based practice and writing tasks instead of relying on drill.
Who runs the registration process?
The school admissions page links to the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools arrangements for Year 7 entry. Always follow the instructions on the official school page for your child's application year.
What is the pass mark for The King's School, Grantham?
A fixed pass mark for 2028 entry was not published in the sources reviewed. The school does publish admissions information, and you should check the current admissions page and policy for any score information released for your year.
Do I still need to apply through the local authority if my child sits the test?
Yes. Sitting the test is separate from submitting your secondary school application. Lincolnshire County Council says the normal secondary application deadline is 31 October.
Sources
- The King's School, Grantham - Entry to Year 7 in September 2027: School admissions page for Year 7 entry; links to Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools; registration opened 9 January 2026; form closed 31 March 2026, reopened 1 May 2026, final close 17 July 2026 at 23:45; school FAQ says read Admissions Policy for catchment and entry criteria; Pupil Premium
- The King's School, Grantham website: School website and location context for The King's School, Grantham.
Preparing for other schools in Lincolnshire
- How to prepare for the Boston High School 11+ · practice papers
- Bourne Grammar School · practice papers
- Caistor Grammar School · 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.