One-to-one 11+ tuition built around the school's English, maths and verbal reasoning papers
Book a Free ConsultationStockport Grammar School is a Stockport school that admits First Year (Year 7) pupils through its own entrance exam of three papers: English, mathematics and verbal reasoning, 170 timed minutes in all. For September 2027 entry the exam is Tuesday 12 January 2027, and applications close on Friday 11 December 2026. Preparation with our one-to-one tutors takes each paper in turn, using the school's six free practice downloads as its starting material.
Stockport Grammar School 11+ tuition, one to one
Our expert 11+ tutors help students across Stockport prepare for each of the school's four timed blocks, from 40 comprehension questions to 50 minutes of verbal reasoning, with a plan built around your child's current level and the time available.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe school sets four timed blocks and states each timing on its entrance exam page: 30 minutes of English comprehension, 30 minutes of creative writing, a 60-minute mathematics paper and 50 minutes of verbal reasoning. Added together that is 170 minutes. The four timings are the school's; the total is our arithmetic. Preparation for this school is organised around those four blocks, because a child who has practised English in general has not yet practised 40 questions in 30 minutes.
The table sets the school's published timings beside the pace each one implies. The pace column is ours: we divide the school's minutes by a question count and show the working. It is a training target, not a figure the school publishes.
| Block | The school's timing | What the school says it contains | Our training pace (our arithmetic) | What the preparation trains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English comprehension | 30 minutes | An unseen passage and 40 multiple-choice questions | 45 seconds a question (30 minutes × 60 ÷ 40) | Reading to a line reference, grammatical function, inference from evidence |
| English creative writing | 30 minutes | A choice of two prompts, one an image and one an opening line | At most 25 minutes (30 − 5) to plan and write, with the last 5 minutes kept for proof-reading | Planning three paragraphs, controlled writing, proof-reading |
| Mathematics | 60 minutes | Key Stage 2 content, with credit for working | About 109 seconds for each numbered question of the school's 33-question sample (60 minutes × 60 ÷ 33) | Arithmetic fluency, setting out working, unfamiliar problem formats |
| Verbal reasoning | 50 minutes | General knowledge questions and questions answered from the information given | 37.5 seconds a question if a full 80-question practice paper were sat in the live slot (50 minutes × 60 ÷ 80) | The question types in the school's three practice papers |
| All four blocks | 170 minutes (30 + 30 + 60 + 50) | Three papers: English, mathematics, verbal reasoning | Rehearsed as a full sequence once each block is secure | Stamina, order of work, calm |
Two cautions sit inside those paces. The comprehension pace assumes that reading the passage comes out of the same 30 minutes, and that is the assumption behind the 45 seconds. The verbal reasoning pace is a target built on the practice papers' 80 questions; it works as a speed target and is not a statement about how many questions the live paper holds.
Preparation works best one block at a time. Short timed sets, marked by question type, show which types lose marks, and the next stretch of work targets those types. Timed mock papers belong after the question types are secure, not before: a mock paper gives a total, and question-type work shows why the total is what it is.
The entrance exam page offers six files: an English model paper with answers, a maths paper with answers, a verbal reasoning parents' guide and three verbal reasoning papers with answers. The school offers them to give a child some familiarity with the style of paper. For this school they are the natural diagnostic material. Our 11+ programmes begin with a diagnostic assessment under relaxed, untimed conditions, and the plan is then built around the child's current level and the time available; for this school that means attempting one block at a time from the downloads and marking it by question type, so the plan comes from where marks were lost and not from a total.
The downloads differ in how closely they track the live timings. The English model paper allows 30 minutes for comprehension, and the maths sample asks for one hour, which matches the school's 60-minute slot. The verbal reasoning guide says each practice paper should take around an hour, against a 50-minute live slot, and it adds that the papers may not be exactly the same difficulty as the real tests, because difficulty varies between schools. A verbal reasoning practice score therefore shows which question types need work; it does not predict a result.
The guide's marking rule is one mark for each correct answer and no half marks, which keeps scores on the three practice papers comparable with one another.
Families who are also preparing for another Greater Manchester independent school's paper should keep the formats apart. Our pages on Manchester Grammar School, Bolton School and Manchester High School for Girls cover those schools' own routes.
Start from the school's own papers
Our expert 11+ tutors help students across Stockport turn the school's six downloads into a block-by-block plan covering English, maths and verbal reasoning, starting from your child's current level.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe school describes the comprehension section as an unseen passage followed by 40 multiple-choice questions, and lists five skills they test: following the events of the passage, making accurate inferences, defining words from their context, identifying the grammatical function of words, and appreciating how characters are depicted. On our arithmetic that is 45 seconds a question (30 minutes × 60 ÷ 40), which leaves little room to reread a paragraph twice.
The model paper contains an extract from The Hobbit with its lines numbered 1 to 61, and 40 multiple-choice questions. Questions 1 to 30 are worth one mark each and questions 31 to 40 two marks each, so the 40 questions carry 50 marks in all, and the last ten carry 20 of them. The 45 seconds above is an average per question, not per mark. Of the 40 questions, 34 point to a line number in the extract. Nine ask for the word class of a named word, and three more ask for a sentence type, a clause type and a tense, so 12 of the 40 are grammar questions. Five ask which technique the writer is using. That is the model paper's content; the live passage and question mix may differ, and the school presents the downloads as a guide to style.
Preparation for that content has a clear shape. Because 34 of the 40 questions give a line number, a line-first habit pays: find the line, read the sentence around it, then read the four options. Because 12 are grammar, word classes, clause types and tenses are best taught directly instead of left to surface in reading, including the less common ones such as abstract and collective nouns and prepositions. For the technique questions a child needs the vocabulary (simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia) and the habit of saying what effect the technique has. Inference questions are answered by pointing at the words on the page that justify the choice. Because the last ten questions are worth double, reaching question 31 with time in hand matters.
Short timed blocks by question type come next, with the 45-second pace introduced once accuracy is steady; the full 30-minute section is for when each type is secure.
The school gives pupils a choice between two tasks. One supplies an image and asks for a description or a story suggested by it; the other supplies an opening line and asks for a story or description that begins with it. The task lasts 30 minutes, and the school's guidance is to aim for three developed paragraphs and to spend at least the last five minutes proof-reading as carefully as possible.
The model paper follows the same shape. It sets one of two tasks, with a picture to prompt ideas for the description, asks for three detailed paragraphs, and tells pupils not to copy phrases or sentences from the comprehension passage. It lists three things to aim for: a wide and interesting vocabulary, a range of sentence structures, and accurate punctuation and spelling.
Take the proof-reading time away and a child has at most 25 minutes (30 − 5) to choose a prompt, plan and write. Preparation therefore rehearses that split: a short plan that fixes what each of the three paragraphs does, writing to the plan, and a proof-read for punctuation, spelling and sentence variety, which are the model paper's three aims. Choosing between the prompts is a skill in itself, so it is worth practising how to decide quickly which one gives enough to say. Marking a piece against the three aims and rewriting one paragraph teaches more than correcting the whole piece.
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One-to-one English, maths and verbal reasoning
Our expert 11+ tutors help students across Stockport with the writing task, the 40 comprehension questions and the Key Stage 2 maths paper, one block at a time.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe school says the maths syllabus is national curriculum mathematics at Key Stage 2 and that no knowledge beyond it is assumed. Questions are to be attempted in any order, with space on the paper for working, and credit is given for correct working even if the final answer is missing or wrong. The first page tests arithmetic. The school adds that later questions require candidates to think beyond their normal mathematical experience, still without knowledge beyond Key Stage 2.
The school's maths download shows what that last sentence means in practice. It runs to 33 questions in one hour, which on our arithmetic is about 109 seconds a question (60 minutes × 60 ÷ 33). The opening questions are plain calculations. The middle covers topics such as the mean, angles, area and perimeter, time, highest common factor and lowest common multiple, and prime numbers. The final questions are the unfamiliar ones: question 32 asks for an unknown number from a comparison between a third and a quarter of it, and question 33 defines a new operation in words and asks five parts, from evaluating it to finding missing values. The paper tells pupils to answer in any order and ends by sending them back to the questions they missed. The mark scheme for question 30, a two-order café problem, notes that correct answers with no working still score all the method marks.
Preparation therefore has three layers. First, any Key Stage 2 gap is closed, because the school assumes nothing beyond that syllabus. Second, page-one arithmetic is made fast and accurate, so time is left for the later questions. Third, the child learns to set out working line by line and to use the leave-and-return instruction: skip a question that stalls, and come back at the end. For the defined-operation and unknown-number questions the practice is to read the question as a procedure to carry out, which is a reading skill as much as a maths one.
The school describes the verbal reasoning paper as general knowledge questions and questions answered from the information given, in 50 minutes. Its parents' guide defines verbal reasoning as reasoning with words, meaning producing them, using them and relating them, with some question types using letters and numbers as symbols; the guide says those types are not testing mathematics.
The three practice papers and the parents' guide are familiarisation material published by GL Assessment, whose copyright line they carry, and hosted on the school's site. The guide says the papers may not be exactly the same difficulty as the real tests and may not necessarily use the same question types as the real test. The school's own description of its live paper is the one above: general knowledge questions and questions based on the information given. The downloads therefore show the range of verbal reasoning question types a child may meet; they are not a preview of the live paper.
Each practice paper has 80 questions, most questions have five lettered options, and every question type opens with an instruction and a worked example. Paper 1 holds 10 question types, paper 2 holds 10 and paper 3 holds 11. Across them the types include moving one letter from one word to another to make two new words, finding the letter that fits two bracketed gaps, completing a word group by the same rule, continuing a number series, picking the most opposite or closest-in-meaning pair across two groups, finding a four-letter word hidden across two words, alphabet-based letter series and codes, sums in which letters stand for numbers, and choosing the two odd words out of five. Several types ask the child to mark two answers; the pair-from-two-groups types, for instance, give two groups of three words, lettered A to C and X to Z, and ask for one word from each. The papers use a separate answer sheet, and the instructions tell the child to keep their place on it, so that habit is part of the skill.
Timing needs care. The guide says each practice paper should take around an hour, and it also invites parents to work through the example in each section with their child; the live slot is 50 minutes. If a child met all 80 questions inside 50 minutes, that would be 37.5 seconds a question (50 minutes × 60 ÷ 80). That works as a training target for speed, not as a statement about how many questions the live paper contains.
Preparation for verbal reasoning goes type by type. Vocabulary comes first, because synonyms, antonyms and word-building sit under so many of the types, so word families and relationships between words are worth practising regularly. The letter-and-number types are drilled for speed once the rule for each is secure. Only then does a mixed timed block make sense, then a whole paper, always on a separate answer sheet.
The school describes the last stage of admissions as an informal meeting. Families who are invited are told by email within two weeks of the entrance exam, and the child and a parent meet one of six senior leaders: the Head, three Deputy Heads, the Head of Lower School or the Head of Middle School. The school also asks each applicant's primary head teacher for a confidential report, and says a child's chances will not be damaged if one is not provided. Offer letters say whether a child has been offered a place, placed on a reserve list from which further offers may be made, or not offered a place.
Because the school calls the meeting informal, preparation for it is light: ease in talking to an unfamiliar adult about a book the child has read, something they have made or done, and why they would like to join the school. Scripted answers are not the aim.
The school's admissions FAQ page says approximately a third of the First Year intake comes from its own Junior School, so many children arrive from elsewhere, and a number are the only applicant from their primary school. For those children it helps to know the four timed blocks beforehand, so that the papers hold no surprises.
From the first timed block to the informal meeting
Our expert 11+ tutors help students across Stockport prepare for the whole sequence, from verbal reasoning practised type by type to the informal conversation that follows the papers.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppSometimes. The school says places are sometimes available in other years and asks families to check availability with its Admissions department before completing the online form; its apply page sets out each route. For late entry to First Year (Year 7), a child takes an assessment in English and mathematics, and the outcome is normally notified within 48 hours. The child sits the entrance exam in full if the exam for the next intake has not yet taken place, and the school seeks a reference from the child's current school.
Preparing for a late Year 7 assessment centres on the English and maths blocks, with verbal reasoning added if the child is to sit the full exam. The school also admits to Second and Third Year (Years 8 and 9) by an English and mathematics assessment; our Manchester 13+ tuition page covers Year 9 (13+) entry only.
The school states four timings: 30 minutes of English comprehension, 30 minutes of creative writing, a 60-minute mathematics paper and a 50-minute verbal reasoning paper. Added together, that is 170 minutes of timed papers across three papers: English, mathematics and verbal reasoning. The total is our arithmetic; each timing is the school's own, taken from its entrance exam page for September 2027 entry.
The school states that applicants take three papers: English, Mathematics and Verbal Reasoning. The English paper has two sections, a comprehension section of 40 multiple-choice questions on an unseen passage and a creative writing task with a choice of two prompts. Mathematics follows the Key Stage 2 national curriculum, and the school says no knowledge beyond it is assumed. Verbal reasoning runs for 50 minutes. In the school's English model paper the 40 comprehension questions carry 50 marks: questions 1 to 30 are worth one mark each and questions 31 to 40 two marks each.
On the school's figures there are 45 seconds a question: 30 minutes divided by 40 questions. That is our arithmetic, not a figure the school publishes, and it assumes that reading the passage comes out of the same 30 minutes. The pace is best introduced once a child is accurate, using timed blocks of line-referenced questions, because 34 of the 40 questions in the school's model paper cite a line of the extract.
They are a guide to style. The school offers six downloads: an English model paper, a maths sample, and a verbal reasoning parents' guide with three verbal reasoning papers, which are GL Assessment familiarisation material hosted on the school's site. The guide says the papers may not be exactly the same difficulty or question types as the real tests, and each has 80 questions. The school describes its own live paper as general knowledge questions and questions based on the information given.
Yes. The school says credit is given for correct working even if the final answer is missing or wrong, and that space is given on the paper for working. In the school's 33-question maths sample, the mark scheme for question 30 adds that correct answers with no working still score all the method marks. Writing working on every multi-step question protects marks when an answer slips.
The school describes the final stage as an informal post-examination meeting. Families who are invited are notified by email within two weeks of the entrance exam and meet one of six senior leaders, from the Head to the Head of Middle School. The school also requests a confidential report from each applicant's primary head teacher and says a child's chances will not be damaged if one is not provided.
Sometimes. For late entry to First Year (Year 7) the school sets an assessment in English and mathematics and normally notifies the outcome within 48 hours; the child sits the entrance exam in full if the exam for the next intake has not yet taken place. Entry to Second and Third Year (Years 8 and 9) is also by English and mathematics assessment. The school asks families to check availability with Admissions before applying.
The school's admissions FAQ page says approximately a third of the First Year intake comes from Stockport Grammar Junior School, so there are many children from other schools. It adds that a number of pupils are the only applicant from their school. A child from another primary therefore joins a year group in which most pupils did not attend the school's junior section.
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