Specialist Year 9 entry preparation for RGS's own English, Maths and Science papers — for day and boarding applicants alike.
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Ripon Grammar School is a co-educational state grammar school in Ripon, North Yorkshire, that sets its own English, Mathematics and Science papers for Year 9 entry rather than using the ISEB Common Pre-Test that most independent schools require at 13+. Leading Tuition prepares Year 8 students for these three RGS-set papers, whether a family is applying for a day place or for one of the school's four reserved Year 9 boarding places.
Most 13+ preparation content assumes a candidate is sitting the ISEB Common Pre-Test or a form of Common Entrance, because that is how the large majority of independent senior schools admit pupils at 13+. Ripon Grammar School does neither. As a state grammar school, RGS designs, sets and marks its own Year 9 entrance assessment in-house, and the topic content, timing and structure have no relationship to either the ISEB or Common Entrance syllabuses. A family that prepares a Year 8 candidate using generic 13+ resources aimed at the independent sector is preparing for the wrong test.
The RGS Year 9 assessment is set across three separate papers. The table below summarises the format, drawn directly from the school's own published assessment information for Year 9 entry:
| Paper | Duration | Marks | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 1 hour 15 minutes (45 min reading, 30 min writing) | 50 | Unseen novel extract with comprehension questions, plus a choice of two writing tasks (narrative/descriptive or persuasive/argumentative) |
| Mathematics | Two papers, forty minutes each | 100 (50 per paper) | One calculator paper, one non-calculator paper; algebra, Pythagoras' Theorem, ratio and proportion, percentages, sequences and statistics |
| Science | One hour | Not separately published | Biology, chemistry, geology, astronomy and physics, plus scientific method (apparatus, reading scales, variables) |
Source: Ripon Grammar School, Information for Parents (Year 9 Entry) and subject assessment guidance, published on the school's admissions pages.
The English paper is closer in style to a Key Stage 3 comprehension and composition exercise than to an 11+-style verbal reasoning test: there is no multiple-choice element, and the writing task rewards a candidate's own structured, extended prose. The Mathematics topic list is noticeably more advanced than a typical 11+ paper — it includes Pythagoras' Theorem, reverse percentages and the formula for the nth term of a sequence, all early-GCSE content that a Year 8 pupil will not necessarily have met in school yet. The Science paper draws on the full breadth of Key Stage 3 science, including geology and astronomy topics that many other 13+ candidates never revise because their target schools do not test them.
Because Ripon Grammar's papers do not map onto a published exam board specification, preparation starts with the school's own assessment guidance rather than an off-the-shelf 13+ scheme. We begin with a diagnostic session against RGS's actual paper structure — timed reading and writing sections for English, a calculator and a non-calculator paper for Mathematics, and a topic audit across the Science content list — so a family knows precisely which of the three papers needs the most work before a programme is built.
From there, teaching runs as three linked subject strands rather than one generic 13+ course. The English strand focuses on timed comprehension technique and on planning and drafting a complete piece of extended writing inside a 30-minute window, since the RGS paper rewards structure and control as much as vocabulary. The Mathematics strand works systematically through the published topic list, with particular attention to the areas that a Year 8 pupil is least likely to have covered at school, such as reverse percentages, inverse proportion and Pythagoras' Theorem. The Science strand is deliberately broad rather than deep, because the RGS paper samples across five distinct areas — biology, chemistry, geology, astronomy and physics — rather than testing any one of them in detail.
Students sit full timed mock papers under conditions that mirror RGS's own Saturday-morning test, so that the length and structure of the real assessment is familiar before results matter. See our 13+ tuition service for how this fits alongside wider Year 8 and Year 9 support, and our 13+ resources for further reading on entrance exam preparation generally.
Preparing for Ripon Grammar School's 13+ Entry?
Leading Tuition builds Year 9 preparation around Ripon Grammar's own English, Mathematics and Science papers, not a generic ISEB or Common Entrance course. We work with families applying for a day place and those applying for one of the school's boarding places.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppBecause the three RGS papers are academically distinct, families are matched with a specialist tutor per subject rather than a single generalist covering all three. The English tutor works specifically on comprehension of unseen extracts and on the two writing task types the school sets, giving direct feedback on structure, vocabulary range and technical accuracy — the exact criteria the school's own marking guidance lists. The Mathematics tutor is comfortable teaching both calculator and non-calculator technique, and familiar with the early-GCSE topics on RGS's published list rather than only KS2-level 11+ content. The Science tutor covers the full breadth of the RGS Science paper, including the geology and astronomy strands that are frequently absent from other schools' 13+ syllabuses and are therefore under-served by generic 13+ material.
All tutoring is one-to-one and matched to where a student's Year 8 starting point actually is, rather than to a fixed generic course. Families can request specific tutor backgrounds and subject specialisms when booking a consultation.
This is the detail that most 13+ guidance gets wrong for Ripon Grammar School, because the school combines two features that rarely sit together: it is a fully selective state grammar school, and it also takes boarders. Understanding how the two interact matters more here than the exam format itself.
Education at Ripon Grammar School is free for every pupil, day or boarding, because it is a state school. Boarding is a separate, chargeable service layered on top of that free education — families pay for accommodation, meals and boarding pastoral care, not for teaching. RGS is one of only 38 state boarding schools in England, and because state boarding schools are exempt from VAT, the school's boarding fees carry none. The school itself states that this combination makes RGS typically around a third of the cost of boarding at a fee-paying independent school.
| Boarding fees, 2026-2027 (Years 7-11) | Weekly boarding | Full boarding |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | £15,098 | £16,268 |
| Sibling discount | £529 | |
| Refundable boarding bond | £1,750, paid on acceptance of a boarding place | |
Source: Ripon Grammar School, Boarding Fees. These are the school's own published fees for boarding only — tuition itself is free.
The two admissions routes are not simply the same test with an extra form attached. Ripon Grammar School reserves 4 boarding places at Year 9 entry, a much smaller allocation than the 14 places reserved at Year 7, reflecting the fact that most boarding families join at the standard Year 7 entry point rather than via the smaller Year 9 route. Boarding candidates sit exactly the same three papers as day candidates and must reach the same academic standard — boarding is never a lower academic bar. What differs is everything around the test: boarding applicants complete a separate Suitability for Boarding form, assessed independently of the academic result, and the school states plainly that day and boarding applicants are treated as distinct and separate groups under the admissions code, so a boarding place cannot later be converted into a day place. Withdrawing from a boarding place does not convert it to a day place either — it results in the loss of the school place altogether. Boarding houses are single-sex: Johnson House for girls and School House for boys, each accommodating up to 50 boarders across the school.
For families weighing whether to apply for a day place or a boarding place, the practical implication is to decide the route before the test, not after: the paperwork, the assessment (a Suitability for Boarding form, in addition to academic testing) and the place itself all follow separate tracks from the outset. See the school's own Boarding Admissions page for the full application process.
All admissions to Ripon Grammar School from Year 7 to Year 11, including Year 9 (13+) entry, are managed by North Yorkshire County Council rather than by the school itself — only Sixth Form admissions are handled directly by RGS. In practice this means the test is set and marked by the school, but the offer of a place is made by the council once results are known. Families should still direct Year 9-specific queries to the school's own Admissions Officer, Mrs Pip Drummond, at admissions@ripongrammar.com, since she coordinates the testing arrangements and, for boarding applicants, the Suitability for Boarding process. Full detail on the current cycle is published on the school's own Main School Admissions page, which should always be checked directly rather than relied on second-hand, since test dates and application windows are confirmed by the school each year.
Families already exploring Ripon Grammar's more common Year 7 entry point — including the GL Assessment format, catchment area and Year 7 key dates — should see our separate Ripon Grammar School 11+ guide, which covers that route in full. This page deals only with the Year 9 (13+) route, which uses entirely different papers and a much smaller boarding allocation.
Because the Year 9 test is set once a year, in February, for pupils currently in Year 8, most families begin structured preparation early in the autumn term of Year 8, giving several months to work through all three subject strands before mock testing begins in earnest. Sessions run weekly across English, Mathematics and Science, with the balance between subjects adjusted according to the diagnostic result — a student who is already strong in Science but has not yet met GCSE-adjacent maths topics will spend proportionally more time on Mathematics, and vice versa.
In the final weeks before the test, teaching shifts toward full timed mock papers under conditions that mirror the real Saturday-morning sitting, with detailed written feedback on the English writing task in particular, since that is the single component with no fixed right answer and the one where structured feedback improves a script most quickly. For boarding applicants, we also talk families through what the Suitability for Boarding form covers, so nothing about the process comes as a surprise on top of exam preparation.
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 from 57 reviews on Trustpilot, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades. Families can book a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss a Year 9 preparation plan built around Ripon Grammar's actual papers, whether applying for a day place or a boarding place.
No. Ripon Grammar School sets its own English, Mathematics and Science papers for Year 9 (13+) entry; it does not use the ISEB Common Pre-Test that most independent schools rely on. The English paper runs 1 hour 15 minutes and is split into a 45-minute reading section and a 30-minute writing section, worth 50 marks in total. Mathematics is assessed across two separate papers, one calculator and one non-calculator, worth 100 marks combined, and Science is a further one-hour paper covering biology, chemistry, geology, astronomy and physics. Families researching 13+ preparation elsewhere, including generic guides to the ISEB Common Pre-Test, should treat that format as irrelevant to Ripon.
The Year 9 Mathematics assessment at Ripon Grammar School consists of two 50-mark papers, one requiring a calculator and one not, for 100 marks overall. The published topic list goes beyond typical Key Stage 2 11+ maths and includes algebra with double brackets, Pythagoras' Theorem, direct and inverse proportion, reverse percentages, significant figures and the formula for the nth term of a linear sequence — content more usually associated with the early stages of GCSE study. Students moving from Year 8 into this assessment need targeted preparation in these specific topics rather than a generic 11+-style maths course, which is why Leading Tuition builds its Year 9 preparation around Ripon's own published topic list.
Ripon Grammar School reserves 4 boarding places at Year 9 entry, compared with 14 places reserved at Year 7. Boarders sitting the Year 9 test must reach the same academic standard as day applicants — there is no separate, lower bar for boarding candidates. Successful boarding applicants also complete a separate Suitability for Boarding form, assessed independently of the academic test result. The school's two boarding houses, Johnson House for girls and School House for boys, each accommodate up to 50 boarders across all year groups, drawn from Years 7 to 13.
Tuition at Ripon Grammar School is free for every pupil, boarder or day student, because it is a state grammar school — one of only 38 state boarding schools in England. Boarding families pay boarding fees only, covering accommodation, meals and pastoral care; for the 2026-2027 academic year those fees are £15,098 for weekly boarding and £16,268 for full boarding across Years 7 to 11, with a £529 sibling discount, and no VAT is charged because state boarding schools are exempt. The school states this makes RGS typically around a third of the cost of boarding at a fee-paying independent school.
No. Ripon Grammar School treats day and boarding applicants as distinct and separate groups under the admissions code, and a boarding place cannot be converted into a day place after an offer is made. The school is explicit that giving notice to withdraw from boarding results in the loss of the school place entirely, not a switch to day status. Families who are undecided between day and boarding should raise this with the school's Admissions Officer, Mrs Pip Drummond, before applying, since the application route, not just the outcome, differs between the two.
The most recent Year 9 selection test at Ripon Grammar School was held on Saturday 7 February 2026, for entry in September 2026; the school's own admissions page confirms applications for that intake are now closed. Testing is held once a year, in February, for pupils currently in Year 8. As of August 2026, Ripon Grammar School had not yet published the date of its next Year 9 test, so families should confirm the current cycle's date directly with the school's Admissions Officer rather than relying on a date carried over from a previous year.
All admissions to Ripon Grammar School from Year 7 to Year 11, including Year 9 (13+) entry, are managed by North Yorkshire County Council rather than by the school directly — only Sixth Form admissions are handled in-house. Families should still contact the school's own Admissions Officer, Mrs Pip Drummond, at admissions@ripongrammar.com for guidance on the Year 9 test and, where relevant, the boarding Suitability for Boarding form, since the council manages the offer process while the school manages testing and boarding assessment.
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