Manchester Grammar School 11+ Preparation for 2027 Entry

Manchester Grammar School assesses in two stages, not one. Boys attend an Assessment Day from September 2026, then sit two English papers and two Arithmetic papers on Entrance Examination Day, Wednesday 13 January 2027. The school publishes its own past papers, says a boy scoring 50% and over is well on the way, and states that it operates no formal quota and offers no academic scholarships.

What does the MGS entrance process actually involve?

Two separate events, months apart. The school states that "Boys applying for entry to Year 7 attend one of our Assessment Days and also sit an Entrance Exam." The Assessment Days start in September; the examination is in January.

The Assessment Day is a teaching day. Boys "are taught a Maths lesson, a topic-based lesson, and participate in a series of group activities. They also complete a piece of creative writing." The school is direct about what this means for families: "the content and topics to be taught on Assessment Days will not reflect material a boy will have studied before. There is therefore no preparation required, or indeed possible, for the day itself. This places all boys on an equal footing." It is still assessed — the school calls the Assessment Day "an essential part of the admissions criteria" and adds that it may also request a reference from a boy's current school.

Entrance Examination Day is the written stage, and it is four papers rather than two: "In January, boys are then asked to attend Entrance Examination Day, on which they will sit two English papers and two Arithmetic papers." The afternoon is not assessment at all — boys "take part in one of a choice of activities (e.g. sporting, science-based, musical, outward bounds) that reflect the opportunities available to MGS pupils", with lunch in between.

Does MGS publish past papers, and what score should a boy be reaching?

Yes, and this is the single most useful thing the school publishes. It states that "Past papers are only available for Year 7 entry and can be found in the Past Entrance Exam Papers page on our website", and it gives a benchmark to read them against: "if your son is scoring 50% and over he is well on the way to reaching the MGS entrance criteria". Fifty per cent sounds low until you read one of the papers. The school says its papers "are designed to challenge the mind of any child (and parent) attempting them".

It also sets out how to use them, in an order most families reverse. "We suggest that the first set of papers is completed as a joint enterprise by you with your son." The second set is done by the boy first, and the school predicts it "will appear easier and much more interesting". The third "should be carried out by your son on his own and in the set time". Only then: "The fourth and fifth sets can then be used as out-and-out practice, focusing on time management and accuracy." Timed conditions are the last step, not the first.

One quirk explains a lot about the English papers. The school does not publish answers for the comprehension, "as every boy will express the answer in his own words and each response the boy makes is considered by the markers on its own merits". It adds that the questions and answer schemes are structured so that "boys are to determine the number of different responses required and encouraged to make those responses as detailed as they can". A boy who answers in one line because one line was asked for has misread the paper.

How many places are there, and does MGS offer scholarships?

There is no published place number, because the school does not work to one. Its FAQ states: "We do not have a formal quota for entry to the Senior School, and so we can adjust our provision accordingly. The important question is whether or not a boy will flourish. If we believe that he will thrive here, we shall offer a place." Any figure you read for the size of the MGS intake is somebody's estimate, not the school's statement.

On scholarships the school is equally short: "We do not offer academic scholarships." There is no award to aim at above an offer, and no separate paper to sit for one. What MGS runs instead is a means-tested bursary scheme, and it publishes the arithmetic of it. Fee assistance "is based on the total gross income of the household in which the pupil lives and will be on a sliding scale such that parents in receipt of assessable income in excess of £58,500 will receive no assistance for the 2026/27 academic year, whilst those with income of £32,500 or below will receive full remission of fees".

Three conditions on that are easy to miss. Bursary places "are only offered to families who are permanently resident in the UK, and living in the North West of England, at the point of application". The application has to be made at the same time as the entry application: "If you wish to apply for financial assistance, you must do so when making an Application for Entry." And the awards are live rather than fixed — "Family incomes are reviewed annually and the value of the bursary is adjusted accordingly." The school reports that 194 pupils currently receive full or partial bursaries, "with the vast majority being full".

Does MGS use CEM or GL Assessment papers?

No. MGS writes and marks its own papers, which is why it can publish them and why its past papers look like nothing else on an 11+ bookshelf. That much has always been true of this school. What has changed is the landscape it is being compared against.

CEM is no longer a live 11+ provider. Warwickshire County Council recorded its own move to GL Assessment as "the result of a joint procurement exercise with The Schools of King Edward VI Foundation, which took place when the previous contract with CEM came to an end". Cambridge sells a successor product, Cambridge Select Insight, marketed for "11+, 13+, late transfer and fair banding", but the only variant it describes for grammar schools is a late-transfer test "suitable for entry into years 8, 9 and 10". Despite that, one of the pages ranking alongside this one heads a section "Admissions Competitiveness & CEM Benchmark" for a school that has never sat a CEM paper. Our guide to CEM and GL Assessment traces where the name went.

The practical consequence for a family is narrow and worth stating plainly: generic GL-style practice packs do not prepare a boy for the MGS papers, because the MGS papers are not multiple-choice and are not written to a provider's specification. The school's own past papers are the only material that matches the exam. Where generic packs do earn their place is a second application to a school that buys its papers in, and that is a separate piece of work rather than the same one.

How should a boy prepare, and what does the school say about coaching?

The school states its position without hedging, and any honest guide has to quote it: "A boy who reads, enjoys puzzles, and does these past papers is well placed for the examination. It is our experience that a boy who needs intensive coaching over and above this is unlikely to be happy here, even if he is successful." That is a school telling families what it is selecting for, and it should shape a preparation plan rather than be argued with.

Read in that light, the work that helps is the work that would help anyway. Wide and demanding reading, because the comprehension is literary and the answers are written in a boy's own words. Arithmetic fluency and the habit of setting out reasoning, because the paper is written rather than multiple-choice. Puzzles, because the Assessment Day tests how a boy responds to unfamiliar material taught on the spot. What does not help is volume for its own sake — the school itself puts timed practice at the fourth and fifth set of papers, not the first.

That is also how we work with MGS candidates. The value a tutor adds here is not more papers; it is reading a boy's comprehension answers closely, since the school publishes the papers but deliberately publishes no comprehension answer scheme, and it is building the mathematical reasoning behind a method rather than the method alone. For the wider picture of selective entry in the city, see our guide to Manchester High School for Girls and the MGS format and past papers in more detail, or browse the full set of 11+ school guides.

What if we are applying to other North West schools too?

Most families do, and the second application usually has a different shape. Bolton School's entrance examination "incorporates three multi-choice assessment papers: Non-verbal Reasoning (20 minutes), Mathematics (50 minutes), English (45 minutes)", with the Boys' and Girls' Divisions each sitting on the same day — most recently Thursday 15 January 2026 — and an interview afterwards. Bolton points families at GL Assessment's own familiarisation material while adding that "there is no need to practice these papers".

So the two schools want different things on the day. Bolton is multiple-choice, timed tightly, and includes a non-verbal reasoning paper that MGS does not set at all. MGS is written, longer-form, and marked on the reasoning shown. A boy preparing for both needs practice at selecting a correct option quickly and at writing a full answer well, and those are not the same skill. The one genuine overlap is reading: it carries both papers, and it is the part that takes longest to build.

Timing helps here more than it hurts. The MGS examination falls on Wednesday 13 January 2027, and Bolton's has fallen in mid-January in each recent cycle, so both sit inside the same fortnight. That argues for finishing the format-specific work in the autumn term and spending January on rest, reading and light review rather than on new material. For official entry requirements and registration, see the Manchester Grammar School Year 7 Entry page, where every date above is published, and book a free consultation if you would like the plan mapped out.

Frequently Asked Questions