Sutton Grammar School 11+ Tuition for Both Test Stages

Leading Tuition’s Sutton Grammar School 11+ tuition is one-to-one preparation for the school’s two-stage entrance process: a multiple-choice Selective Eligibility Test (SET) and a second stage that is not multiple choice. For September 2027 entry the school weights its four standardised scores 2:2:3:3, so the second stage carries 60% of the weighted total, before the school’s age and income-deprivation adjustments; neither stage includes verbal or non-verbal reasoning, so preparation need not spend sessions on them.

Which Parts of a Standard 11+ Course Are Not Tested for Sutton Grammar School’s September 2027 Entry?

The school’s admissions FAQ for September 2027 entry describes the SET as “made up of two papers; a multiple-choice Maths paper and a multiple-choice English paper”, and states: “The tests do not include verbal reasoning or non-verbal reasoning.” Of the second stage it says: “The tests will not include verbal or non-verbal reasoning, and are not multiple choice.”

That decides where the hours go before anything else does. Many 11+ tests include reasoning papers, and many courses are built around them. For Sutton Grammar those sessions would prepare a boy for papers the school does not set, so preparation for the 2027-entry tests gives its time to the two subjects both stages do test, English and Maths, at the level the school names: content “broadly based on the Key Stage 2 curriculum”.

Two conditions of the sitting then shape the working method. The maths guide linked from the school’s FAQ says that “calculators and other electronic devices are not permitted” in the SET maths test, and the FAQ says “we do not provide rough paper for workings out”, so a boy does every calculation by hand, on the question paper. Realistic conditions, the term our own 11+ plan uses for mock exams, therefore mean something specific for this school; the maths section below lists them. Our complete guide to the Sutton SET covers the shared format, and our Sutton Grammar School 11+ guide covers this school’s own entry.

How Should a Boy Prepare for the Sutton Grammar School English Paper?

The school publishes a guide to the English paper for September 2027 entry. It divides the paper into four sections with recommended times: spelling (5 minutes), a first text (25 minutes), a second text (10 minutes) and a comparison of the two texts (10 minutes). Together that is 50 minutes, the top of the 40 to 50 minutes the FAQ gives for each SET paper. By time, 45 of the 50 minutes (90%) go on reading and answering questions about texts and 5 (10%) on spelling. Candidates “will be allowed to spend as much of the given time as they like on any of the sections”, so the times guide pace without fixing it.

Every question is multiple choice, but the guide warns that “there are different types and so the instructions for each question must be read very carefully”. It describes the types and gives marking rules for two of them, select-two and select-all:

• Single answer. Spelling, the most accurate explanation of a line, and “Which of these is NOT correct? Select one answer.” each take one answer from five.
• Select the two. Here “candidates will only gain marks if they select both of the correct answers”. One right answer, or more than two answers, scores nothing.
• Select all that are correct. There may be “2, 3 or 4 correct answers”, and the correct answer “will never be all five”; selecting all five “will automatically score zero”. Beyond that the school says only that its marking “does not require the candidate to get all of the right answers to score a mark”, and that it will not share further detail.
• Across both texts. The final section asks which statements are “true about BOTH” texts, and more than one can be right.

The marking rules point to one method. A boy works through a text option by option, finding the line that supports or contradicts each of the five before he chooses, because the select-two and select-all items punish half-reading. Five options allow 10 different two-answer choices, so a blind guess at a select-two question is right 1 time in 10, against 1 time in 5 on a single-answer question. The school confirms there is “no negative marking in the SET papers”, so a blank can only cost marks: eliminate first, then guess, and never leave a question empty. The guide itself encourages families “to go through the various question types” before the test, which is how preparation for this paper is best organised.

How Should a Boy Prepare for the Maths Paper When There Is No Calculator?

The school’s maths guide, linked from its FAQ for September 2027 entry, gives six examples and says the sample “does not represent all of the question types used in recent years but should provide an idea about the level of difficulty and the way the questions are laid out”. They range from a multiplication sum (42 × 18) and a ratio problem set in words to fraction multiplication, angles in a right-angled triangle, decimals with brackets and the fraction of a shape that is shaded. Each has five options, A to E.

The level is broadly Key Stage 2. At that level the skills to build are speed and accuracy without a calculator, so preparation puts arithmetic by hand first. The school’s own answer to its first example shows the habit. For 42 × 18 the options are 727, 736, 748, 756 and 765. The school notes that “it is possible to ignore three of the answers”: 727 and 765 end in an odd digit, and the product must end in 6 because 2 × 8 is 16, which also rules out 748. That leaves 736 and 756. Splitting 42 into 40 + 2 settles it: 40 × 18 = 720, 2 × 18 = 36, and 720 + 36 = 756. Eliminating before calculating is quicker and catches slips.

Answers go on a separate sheet by filling in a lozenge for A, B, C, D or E, and a changed answer must be rubbed out “as fully as possible”. A boy brings two pencils (HB or B), a soft rubber, a pencil sharpener and a ruler in a clear plastic pencil case or bag. Only analogue watches are permitted, and the watch is placed on the desk in front of him. A useful mock copies those conditions: no calculator, no rough paper, working on the question paper and answers on a lozenge sheet, with a watch in view.

Why Does 60% of the 2027-Entry Score Rest on Papers the School Does Not Publish?

For September 2027 entry the school’s FAQ calculates four standardised scores: the multiple-choice English and maths items from the SET, and the English and maths papers from the second stage. They are “weighted in the ratio 2:2:3:3”, an age allowance is added and the total is rounded to the nearest four marks. Out of ten parts, each SET score carries 2 (20%) and each second-stage score 3 (30%), so the SET carries 40% of the weighted total and the second stage 60%. That is the weighting of the four standardised scores before the age allowance; the school’s 2027 admissions policy also adjusts marks for income deprivation, using the government’s IDACI index. So second-stage practice belongs in preparation from early on. Other Sutton schools weight the same SET score differently: see our guide to the six Sutton grammar schools.

The second stage is two papers, Maths and English, that are “not multiple choice” and run “around 45 minutes to 1 hour in length” each, in a morning session. The school says “we do not make sample tests available”, so there is no paper to rehearse on. Preparation for it therefore means practice in that form, not multiple choice, built from the Key Stage 2 content the school names and timed to the length of the real papers.

One rule changes the tactics. Sutton Grammar “does not have a separate pass mark for only the Second Stage Entrance Exam”; the pass mark “is based on the combined standardised scores of all four exams”. The SET still acts as a gate: “It is a requirement that your son sits and passes the Selective Eligibility Test in order for him to sit the shared Second Stage Entrance Examination.” Beyond that gate, no single paper decides the outcome on its own, and a strong paper can offset a weaker one.

What Do the 18 Days Between the SET and the Second Stage Change About the Plan?

For September 2027 entry the SET was sat on Tuesday 15 September 2026 and the Sutton Grammar School second stage on Saturday 3 October 2026. From 15 to 30 September is 15 days, and 3 more in October makes 18. The SET outcome email arrives “during the week after” the test, so the time between a boy knowing his SET result and sitting the second stage is shorter than 18 days. For 2028 entry the school’s admissions page lists the sittings as “Expected”: the SET on 14 September 2027 and the Stage 2 test on 2 October 2027, which is 18 days again (16 left in September plus 2 in October).

Two things follow on the 2027-entry timetable. First, nothing in the preparation can wait for the SET result. A plan that treats the second stage as a sprint after a pass has under three weeks for the practice that carries 60% of the weight, so it has to start before the SET. Second, there is no full dry run. The school says “Children can only sit the Selective Eligibility Test once” and that “A younger child cannot sit the test in earlier years as a practice.” It publishes sample questions but no specimen papers, so timed mock sittings are the only full timed rehearsal a boy gets, which is why a sound plan includes at least three full timed mock exams under realistic conditions, followed by targeted review of the two or three weakest areas, as our published 11+ plan does.

How Long Does Preparation Take, and What Happens in Each Part?

Our published guidance is that 11+ preparation typically begins in Year 4 or Year 5, and that a family starting later can compress the final stages into a focused six-month programme. For Sutton Grammar that means the final six months before a SET held in September of Year 6.

Our first session is a structured diagnostic, from which the tutor builds a baseline picture of where a boy stands on the Key Stage 2 content both tests draw on. Preparation for this school then runs in this order, drawing on our published 11+ plan:

1. Foundations. Mental and written arithmetic, times tables until they are automatic, and wide reading, on the Key Stage 2 content both stages are based on.
2. The school’s question types. The English types and marking rules and the maths sample types described above, once the base is secure.
3. Second-stage practice, alongside the multiple-choice work. Practice in the second stage’s format, which is not multiple choice, because under the 2027-entry weighting the second stage carries 60% of the score.
4. Mocks. At least three full timed mock exams under realistic conditions, then targeted review of the two or three weakest areas.
5. The final fortnight before the SET. Intensive practice tapers; sleep, calm and confidence take priority over new content, and then the boy sits the SET, with the second stage 18 days later.

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One Second Stage, Three Schools: Who Is This Preparation For?

Sutton Grammar School, Wallington County Grammar School and Wilson’s School admit only boys through the SET, and they share one second stage. For September 2027 entry the FAQ describes it this way: “The test will be common to all three schools, but the criteria applied to be of selective ability will be determined by each school individually.”

A boy preparing for Sutton Grammar’s second stage is therefore sitting the same papers as a boy aiming at either of the others, but each school has its own admissions criteria and its own way of combining the scores, so preparation should be built around Sutton Grammar’s. Our guides to Wilson’s School and Wallington County Grammar School cover those two. Families living outside the UK should read our guide to the Sutton SET for families overseas.

Reviewed October 2026 against Sutton Grammar School’s admissions FAQ, admissions page, admissions policy and English and maths guides for September 2027 entry; the 2028-entry sittings are the dates its admissions page marks as expected.

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