Getting into South Wiltshire Grammar School
The South Wiltshire Grammar 11+, set by 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 Midnight Tuesday 1 September 2026. 3 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 South Wiltshire 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
South Wiltshire Grammar sits the GL Assessment 11+.
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.
Three GL papers in one sitting: Maths 50 minutes, English 45 and Verbal Reasoning 50, standardised for age then added together. Girls who qualify for pupil premium pass at a mark 3% lower than the standard one, and 10 places are reserved for them.
How places are decided
160 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: There is a catchment, but it is published only as a map on the school's admissions page: no postcodes and no parish list. If you live near the edge, ask the school to check your address before you rely on it.
Places go only to candidates who first reach the required academic standard in the selection test.
Ahead of everything else: students with an EHCP naming SWGS who have achieved the entry criteria are admitted before all other oversubscription criteria.
2 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.eligible looked after children and previously looked after children.
- 2.(i) students who attract the Pupil Premium and live within catchment, and (ii) students who attract the Service Premium who have met the required academic standard. (3) students who achieve the required academic standard and live in the school catchment area. (4) students who attract the Pupil Premium, have met the required academic standard, but live outside catchment. (5) students who have met the standard and live with a parent or step-parent who has been a contracted member of school staff for at least two years. (6) students who have met the standard, live outside catchment and have a sibling attending the school and living at the same address on the date of admission, ranked by nearness to school as the crow flies. (7) all other students who achieve the required academic standard, by rank order of nearness to school as the crow flies. Separately, a quota applies: 10 places are reserved for looked after children and pupil-premium-eligible candidates, who pass at a mark 3% lower than the standard pass mark; unfilled reserved places go back to standard-pass-mark applicants. Distance is the tie break within every criterion, and if distance cannot separate applicants, priority is decided by random allocation through casting lots. The policy adds that no concessions are made for multiple births.
What an EHCP is: an Education, Health and Care Plan, a legal document from your council for a child with special educational needs. Where a plan names a school, that school has to offer a place, so those places are taken out of the number above before anyone else is ranked. It is not a route most families can apply through.
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.
401 children sat for South Wiltshire Grammar in 2024 examination, for 160 places, about 2.5:1. Source
Three weeks out is exactly when a timed mock helps.