Getting into The Crypt 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 Crypt 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
Crypt 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.
If your child misses out, the Crypt stops using the 11+ score for its waiting list on 28 February 2027. From then it runs its own baseline tests, CAT4 and an English Language paper, and everyone who wants to stay on the list has to sit them.
How places are decided
155 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: No catchment area, no priority area and no distance limit. Open places go in test rank order, and where a child lives only separates applicants inside the looked after, Pupil Premium and staff categories.
Only candidates who meet the Qualifying Standard in the Grammar School Test are eligible at all.
4 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.looked after children and previously looked after children who have met the qualifying standard;
- 2.candidates in receipt of Pupil Premium who have met the qualifying standard, meaning registered for free school meals at any point in the six years before the closing date for test registration;
- 3.candidates with a parent who is a member of school staff at the time of application, where that parent has been employed for at least two years or was recruited to a vacant post with a demonstrable skills shortage;
- 4.all other qualifying candidates in test rank order. No quotas or fixed place counts are attached to any criterion. Within criteria 1, 2 and 3 the higher ranking goes to the applicant living closest to the school, measured in a straight line from the usual place of residence to the main entrance using the local authority's computerised system; within criterion 4 the higher ranking goes to the higher test score.
Ties are broken the other way round in each case, then by drawing of lots witnessed by an independent person.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
What the official figures show
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.
Across the whole area, 2,670 children sat the Gloucestershire consortium test in September 2024. They were not all applying here: that number covers every school that shares the test. Source
Over 2 years we have figures for, 77 families appealed and 30 won, about 39%.
- September 2023 entry: 46 heard, 21 upheld
- September 2022 entry: 31 heard, 9 upheld
An appeal is a hearing where you explain to an independent panel why your child should have a place. How appeals work, and the figures for every school
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.