Getting into The Spires College
The Torbay Grammar Schools Entrance Test 11+, set by GL Assessment: what it involves and what to do next, for entry in September 2027.
Spires is bilateral: up to 60 of its 210 places go on 11+ score and the rest without a test. Passing does not secure a place, and not passing does not rule the College out, because your child can still be considered on the non-selective route.
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 Friday 4 September 2026. 2 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 Spires College 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
Spires College sits the Torbay Grammar Schools Entrance 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.
How places are decided
210 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: There is a designated area, but it exists only as a map bounded by the sea and Lymington/Teignmouth Road, with no postcodes listed. The College says children from both inside and outside the area may be admitted.
The Spires College is a bilateral school and runs two separate routes into the same 210 places.
Children with an EHCP naming the College are admitted first and are not subject to oversubscription criteria.
SELECTIVE ROUTE (up to 60 of the 210 places): applicants are ranked by 11+ score, and 'Places will be offered to those students who meet the eligible score in the 11+ selection test as determined by the Admissions Panel.' If more than 60 applicants reach the eligible score and scores are tied for the final place, the non-selective oversubscription criteria below decide that final place.
- the remaining places, which grow if selective places go unfilled: the policy's own worked example is that if only 30 selective places are awarded, 180 places go to non-selective applicantsNON-SELECTIVE ROUTE
5 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.Cared for Children or children who were previously cared for.
- 2.Children of members of staff in either or both of the circumstances defined on page 10 of the policy.
- 3.Children with a sibling already on roll at the College at the time when the application is received (for Primary to Secondary Transfer this will normally be the closing date for applications).
- 4.Other children whose home address is inside the designated area.
- 5.Other children whose home address is outside of the designated area. Within categories 2, 3, 4 and 5 places are ordered by straight-line distance, but the direction of measurement flips: inside the designated area, furthest from Torquay Academy first; outside the designated area, closest to The Spires College first. Distance uses doogal.co.uk 'crow flies' or Torbay Council's tool, with fixed coordinates (Torquay Academy 50.478144,-3.543165; The Spires College 50.475477,-3.523842).
Exact ties are settled by lot, run by the LA Admissions team using an electronic list randomiser.
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 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, 4 schools
The same test also covers these schools: We have pages for these so far:
Two weeks out is exactly when a timed mock helps.