Home / 11+ guides / Trafford
Area guide · entry in September 2027The 11+ in Trafford
Trafford has seven grammar schools and two different entrance tests, and you register with the schools rather than with the council. It is also the area where the test is changing: from 2028 entry it has a new provider and a new syllabus, and from 2029 entry it moves a whole year earlier, into the summer term of Year 5.
On this page
Trafford at a glance
- The tests Consortium test Monday 14 September 2026 for five schools. Loreto and St Ambrose test separately on 18 September.
- Apply by 31 October 2026 Sitting the test is not applying. Name each school on your home council's form.
- Offers 1 March 2027, or the next working day.
- Changing from 2028 entry A new, curriculum-based test, and from 2029 entry it moves to the summer of Year 5.
What the test covers
For 2027 entry: verbal, non-verbal and maths questions, set by GL Assessment. From 2028 entry the Consortium test changes to English and maths, based on the Key Stage 2 curriculum up to the end of Year 5.
Good places to start: closest meaning, letter codes, compound words, number sequences, rotation sequences, figure analogies, odd one out, long multiplication, fractions of amounts, percentages, ratio and proportion.
For children in Year 5 now · starting secondary school in September 2028
Entry in September 2028: what is published so far
The five Consortium schools have a new test provider, FSCE, and the test changes to English and maths, based on the Key Stage 2 curriculum up to the end of Year 5. It is still sat in September of Year 6. Registration and test dates are not published yet.
- For entry in September 2029 and after, the test moves to the latter part of the summer term of Year 5.
- Loreto Grammar School and St Ambrose College run their own test and are not part of this change.
Only what has been published. From: Altrincham Grammar School for Boys — New Entrance Exam Provider.
The calendar
Every date for entry in September 2027, from the published arrangements. Dates that have passed are in grey.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 12 noon on Thursday 23 April 2026 | Consortium registration opened |
| 12 noon on Friday 19 June 2026 | Consortium registration closed |
| Monday 14 September 2026 | Trafford Consortium entrance test The five consortium schools share this one test. |
| 18 September 2026 | Loreto Grammar School and St Ambrose College test A separate test, registered for separately. |
| 31 October 2026 | Secondary school application deadline Trafford's co-ordinated scheme gives 31 October in the offer year. |
| 1 March 2027, or the next working day | Offers made |
Two tests, seven schools
Five of Trafford's grammar schools form the Trafford Consortium and share a single entrance test: Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Sale Grammar School, Stretford Grammar School and Urmston Grammar School. One test, one registration, all five considered.
The other two — Loreto Grammar School and St Ambrose College — set their own test, on a different date. Sitting the Consortium test does not enter your child for theirs, and vice versa.
- You register with the school directly, not with Trafford Council. The council's own page says so explicitly: contact your preferred grammar school to register to sit the test.
- Registration for the 2027 round ran from 12 noon on 23 April 2026 to 12 noon on 19 June 2026 — a window that closes in the middle of Year 5, months before the test.
What is in the Consortium test, for 2027 entry
GL Assessment has been the Consortium's test provider for Year 7 entry from September 2024 onwards, and that still applies to the test sat in September 2026.
- Format
- Two tests, each about one hour long.
- Content
- Questions assessing verbal, non-verbal and mathematics skills.
- Date
- Monday 14 September 2026, at the start of Year 6.
The test is changing — twice
This is the most important thing on this page if your child is not sitting the test this year.
For entry to Year 7 in 2028, the Consortium has appointed a new provider, Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE), and the content changes with it. Instead of verbal, non-verbal and mathematical reasoning, the assessments are based on the Key Stage 2 English and mathematics national curriculum programmes of study up to the end of Year 5.
For entry to Year 7 in 2029 and beyond, the Consortium has also decided to move the test date from September of Year 6 to the latter part of the summer term of Year 5.
- A curriculum-based test rewards different preparation from a reasoning test. Reasoning practice is not wasted, but from 2028 entry the syllabus is what the child has actually been taught at school.
- Moving the test into Year 5 brings every deadline forward by roughly a year. A family planning on the old timetable would miss it entirely.
- This change applies to the five Consortium schools. Check Loreto and St Ambrose separately — their arrangements are their own.
The part most families need
Registering is not applying
Sitting the test makes your child eligible to be considered. It does not put them in the queue for a place. That only happens when you name the school as a preference on your home local authority's common application form.
Trafford's co-ordinated admissions scheme sets the closing date at 31 October in the offer year, with offers made by the home local authority on 1 March or the next working day.
- Applications after 31 October are treated as late and dealt with in later rounds, with further allocation dates through the spring and summer.
- A refusal carries a right of appeal to an independent panel, lodged with the admission authority for that school. Appeals in the normal admissions round must be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging them.
What the published pages do not say
Neither Trafford Council's entrance test page nor the Consortium schools' admissions pages we checked give a results date for the September 2026 test, or a qualifying score. Those come from the schools, and the council directs parents to contact them.
We have not invented either. If you need them, ask the school you are registering with — and ask early, because the answer affects whether you put them first on the form.
Sources
4 official pages, checked 22 September 2026
Admissions rules are set again every year, so check the council's own pages before you rely on a date, and tell us if you find something out of date.
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
When the Trafford dates change
An email when a new area guide is written or a new year of papers goes up. A few times a year, no more — and nothing else, ever.
We send a confirmation email first, and the address does nothing until you click the link in it. One click to leave, any time. What we do with it.