Getting into Pate's Grammar School
The Gloucestershire grammar schools' entrance test, one sitting shared by all seven: 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 12 noon, Friday 26 June 2026. 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 Pate's 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
Pate's Grammar sits the Gloucestershire G7 Test, set by GL Assessment.
GL Assessment sets the 11+ for most grammar schools in England, including this one. Papers are multiple-choice, and scores are age-standardised: children born at different points in the school year are marked against slightly different scales, so a summer-born child isn’t disadvantaged. Because GL is the most widely used format, familiarisation materials and practice papers in the same style are easy to come by.
Because GL is multiple-choice and age-standardised, the two things that move a score are accuracy under time pressure and covering every question type rather than the comfortable ones. PlusProgress practice is adaptive across English, Maths, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning, so it keeps finding the types your child is weakest on instead of rewarding what they already do well, and mock papers follow the format this school sets. Progress is reported as a standardised age score, the same scale the school will use.
The qualifying standard is a rank, not a mark: the Qualifying Group is the highest ranking 250 candidates, and your child must also reach minimum standards in each part of the test.
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. A minimum of 45 of the 150 places go to children with a home postcode anywhere in the UK, and living in Gloucestershire or a GL postcode only places your child in the local tier of the allocation.
There is no numeric pass mark.
Every applicant must first reach the Qualifying Standard, which is a rank position rather than a score: the standard Qualifying Group is the highest ranking 250 students, and a child must also reach minimum standards in each part of the test.
A separate, lower entry route exists but it is not the school's general bar: it applies only to disadvantaged children (looked-after, previously looked-after and internationally adopted previously looked-after children, children eligible for Pupil Premium at the time of test registration, and children with a home postcode in Appendix 1).
Section 6.3 says of that group only, “if a student is designated as ‘disadvantaged’ as per the definition in 6.2, they will qualify for a Priority Place if they achieve a score within 15% or better of the 150th ranked standardised score on the Admissions Test.” A child who is not disadvantaged cannot use the 15% route at all.
Where qualified applicants exceed places, the 150 places are offered to four groups in this order.
7 ranked criteria decide the order, across 2 lists. Tie-break: equal test rank is settled by straight-line distance from the front door of the child's address at registration to the front entrance of the school, then by supervised random allocation.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.Looked After Children, Previously Looked After Children and Internationally Adopted Previously Looked After Children who reach the Qualifying Standard or who score within 15% or better of the 150th ranked standardised score.
- 2.Priority Places, a maximum of 15 places, filled in this internal order until 15 are taken:
- 1.by rank order, Pupil Premium children with a home postcode in Appendix 1;
- 2.by rank order, Pupil Premium children with a home postcode within the Cheltenham Borough Council boundary (Appendix 2);
- 3.by rank order, any child with a home postcode in Appendix 1;
- 4.by rank order, Pupil Premium children with a home postcode in Appendix 3 (the GL postcode list);
- 5.by rank order, all other Pupil Premium children. Unfilled Priority Places transfer to Non-Priority Places (Local). 3. Non-Priority Places (Local), allocated by rank order to qualifying children who live in Gloucestershire or have a home postcode in one of the Appendix 3 GL postcodes, until groups 1, 2 and 3 together total 105 places. Unfilled places here transfer to Non-Priority Places (UK wide). 4. Non-Priority Places (UK wide), a minimum of 45 places, allocated by rank order to qualifying children with a home postcode anywhere in the UK.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
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.
One sitting, 6 schools
The same test also covers these schools:
Common questions
There is no pass mark, and there never has been. Each school sets its qualifying standard after the test, against that year's cohort, so nobody can tell you the number in advance. Be careful with the figures that circulate locally: each is a real sentence from one school's policy applied to the wrong thing, whether that is an in-year standard for older year groups or a rule that applies only to disadvantaged applicants at one school.
No. Registration goes to the grammar schools and closed at noon in late June; the council application is a separate form with a 31 October deadline. Both are needed, and the consortium is explicit that a qualifying score does not guarantee entry to your preferred school.
No. One test, sat on the same day by candidates for all seven schools, from a single registration. You elect which of the seven receive your child's result.
Two papers of about 45 to 50 minutes, sat on the same day with a short break, with extra time allowed for instructions and worked examples. Answers go on separate sheets that are marked electronically by an independent company appointed by the schools.
Mid-October. The consortium does not publish an exact date and the schools' own pages say only mid-October, so treat any specific day you see quoted with care. Results always land before the 31 October council deadline.
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.