Some Grammar Schools Are Moving the 11+ to July: What It Means for Parents

For decades the 11+ has meant one thing for timing: a September exam, sat in the first weeks of Year 6, after a summer of cramming. That's starting to change.

A growing group of grammar schools has announced it's moving the 11+ from September to July, which means children sit the test at the end of Year 5 instead of the start of Year 6. It's still a minority of schools. But it's a real shift, and if you're targeting one of them it changes your whole timeline.

Which schools are moving to July?

Two announcements have driven the headlines so far.

The seven Gloucestershire grammar schools are switching to a July test from 2027, for the 2028 intake:

• Pate's Grammar School
• The Crypt School
• Sir Thomas Rich's School
• Ribston Hall High School
• Stroud High School
• Marling School
• The High School for Girls (Denmark Road)

Reading School in Berkshire is moving earlier still, from 2026 for the 2027 intake.

The common thread is the exam provider. These schools are adopting a newer assessment called the FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise), which was actually developed through Reading School. A handful of other grammars around the country already use it, and the list is growing.

Why are they doing this?

The thinking is about fairness, or at least that's the stated aim.

The traditional September model has a well-known side effect: the summer holiday between Year 5 and Year 6 becomes six weeks of intensive tutoring and past-paper drilling, which favours families who can afford it. Schools moving to July are trying to take some of that pressure out of the system.

Two things change with a July test:

• Children sit it while still in the Year 5 classroom. They're tested in the flow of normal school work, not after a six-week break spent cramming.
• The summer holiday stops being exam season. No more sacrificing the break to last-minute preparation.

The FSCE format reinforces the same goal. It doesn't publish past papers, it changes year to year, and it leans on the Key Stage 2 curriculum (English comprehension, maths, creative writing, vocabulary, and broader subject knowledge) rather than the heavily-drilled verbal and non-verbal reasoning that dominates GL and CEM. The idea is to make the test harder to "coach" and closer to genuine ability.

Whether it actually levels the playing field is an open question. Well-resourced families tend to adapt fast, and an exam that rewards wide reading and strong written English still rewards the home environment that produces those things. But the direction of travel is clear.

What this changes for your preparation

If your child is targeting a school that's gone to July, the big shift is simple: your deadline moves forward by roughly two months, and into a different school year.

Here's how the two timelines compare:

You can't lean on the Year 5 summer to get a July-sitting child over the line, because the exam comes first. That means steady preparation built up across Year 5, not a holiday sprint.

It also rewards a different kind of work. Less repetitive past-paper drilling, more of the slow stuff: reading widely, building vocabulary, securing the maths your child actually learns at school, and getting comfortable writing under a bit of time pressure. That's harder to fake in the last few weeks, which is rather the point.

What to do now

• Check your target schools' admissions pages. Confirm whether they've moved to July or FSCE, and pin the exact date and registration window in your calendar.
• If any are on the July model, start earlier. Treat the back half of Year 4 and the start of Year 5 as your runway, not the summer before Year 6.
• Build genuine skills, not just exam tricks. Reading, vocabulary, maths fluency, written expression. These travel across every format, GL, CEM or FSCE.
• Keep it sustainable. Short, regular practice beats marathon weekend sessions, especially when the finish line has moved closer.

The format and the dates will keep shifting over the next few years as more schools review how they select. The one thing that holds steady is that children who've built real ability over time, rather than crammed for one paper, cope with whatever the exam throws at them.