Getting into Loreto Grammar School
The Loreto Grammar 11+, set by the school with GL Assessment: what it involves and what to do next, for entry in September 2027.
Every fact on this page is checked against the school’s published admissions information, and nothing is guessed. · View sources · Report an error
Registration for the September 2026 test closed on 31 July 2026 at 1pm. The school’s published position is that late applications are not accepted. Otherwise: 1 weeks to test day.
What to do and when
Sitting the year after (2028 entry)? These are 2027-entry dates, and yours are not published yet: there is nothing you need to do this far out. Sign up for reminders and tick the 2028-entry box, and we’ll email only when your cycle’s dates are out and it is actually time to act.
5 dates as a calendar file, for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. Share the link with anyone who needs them.
Life’s busy, so we’ll email you a nudge before each Loreto Grammar deadline above. Nothing else: no newsletter, no marketing, and the reminders stop for good after National Offer Day (1 Mar 2027) unless you sign up again for another school.
The test, in one look
Loreto Grammar sits the school with GL Assessment 11+.
This school does not sit a single off-the-shelf 11+. It uses papers from more than one source, typically its own alongside a commercial provider’s, and the combination is set out in its admissions arrangements. Because the mix belongs to this school, general 11+ practice books only take you so far. The school’s own guidance on what each stage contains is the thing to read first, and it is usually the only place the weighting between papers is explained.
A school combining papers from more than one source rewards breadth: your child needs to be steady across everything the mix contains rather than sharp in one part of it. Read the school’s own description of each stage first, because the weighting between papers is usually explained nowhere else, then practise across all four subjects rather than the favourite one.
Inside each of the seven categories, Pupil Premium girls come first, then the highest examination marks, with distance only as a tie-break. So the mark still counts after she has passed.
How places are decided
150 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: No catchment area. Where you live gives no priority; distance from home is used only to separate girls who are otherwise equal.
Seven published categories, in order: baptised Roman Catholic looked-after and previously looked-after girls; baptised Roman Catholic girls with a sister in the school; baptised Roman Catholic girls at an associated primary living in a nominated Local Pastoral Area; other baptised Roman Catholic girls; other looked-after and previously looked-after girls; baptised girls of other denominations; other girls. Passing the Governors' Entrance Examination is required in every category. Within a category: Pupil Premium first, then highest examination marks, then closest distance as a tie-break.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
How many children actually sit
Schools and councils publish some of this and not all of it. The numbers below came from Freedom of Information requests, which anyone can make, and each one links to the reply it came from.
554 children sat for Loreto Grammar in 2024, for 150 places, about 3.7:1. Source
How pupils here do at GCSE
This is based on how pupils at this school go on to perform in their GCSEs, five years after the 11+. Attainment 8 is their average result across eight subjects. Read it as a description of outcomes rather than of teaching: a selective school admits children who were already scoring well at ten, so a high position here reflects who the school takes in as much as what it does with them.
Scores from Compare school and college performance data in England, Department for Education, 2024/25, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The Department publishes the scores and does not publish a ranking: the position above is ours, calculated over state-funded schools with a published score. See the full table.
Common questions
No. Passing is what puts her in the running. Places are then ranked inside the school’s seven admissions categories, which are led by baptised Roman Catholic girls, so two girls with the same mark can get very different answers.
No. Any girl may sit the examination, and the last published category is simply “other girls”. Being baptised Roman Catholic does put a family higher up the list, and a Baptismal Certificate has to reach the school by 10 July 2026 to count.
Three closed papers on one morning: GL English (45 minutes), GL Verbal Reasoning (50 minutes) and the school’s own Maths paper (45 minutes). Closed means the papers are not released, so there is nothing official to work from beyond GL’s free familiarisation materials.
Yes. Loreto is not in the Trafford consortium and sets its own examination on Friday 18 September 2026, while the five consortium grammars sit theirs on Monday 14 September 2026. Registering for both is a separate form each.
Results are emailed on or before 21 October 2026, which is ahead of the 31 October council application deadline, so you choose your preferences already knowing how she did.
Registration runs from 10am on 27 June 2026 to 1pm on 31 July 2026, and the school states that late applications will not be accepted. If you are close to the deadline, register first and send the supporting documents after.
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.