The 11+ in Trafford

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.

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.