155 places, the Grammar School Test sat on 12 September 2026, key dates and the 2027 test
Book a Free ConsultationThe Crypt School is a state grammar school in Gloucester offering 155 Year 7 places for September 2027 entry, up from a Published Admission Number of 150 for September 2025 entry. Admission depends entirely on the Grammar School Test — a paper set and marked by the school itself, not GL Assessment or CEM, despite what several 11+ guides claim — which took place on Saturday 12 September 2026 for September 2027 entry. This guide sets out the exact 2026 test arrangements, the September 2027 entry admissions dates between May 2026 and March 2027, the 2027 test for September 2028 entry, how competitive entry actually is, and a preparation plan for families at every stage, verified directly against The Crypt School's own determined admissions policy and Gloucestershire County Council's admissions pages.
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Registration and administration of the test are carried out by the grammar schools themselves, so follow Gloucestershire County Council’s grammar schools page and The Crypt School’s own admissions pages for September 2028 entry.
Updated for September 2028 entry — November 2026
For Year 6 families (September 2027 entry, 2026 test), the Gloucestershire grammar schools’ Entrance Test took place on Saturday 12 September 2026 and the closing date for listing grammar schools on the secondary school application form was 31 October 2026, according to Gloucestershire County Council’s grammar schools page.
For Year 5 families (September 2028 entry, 2027 test), the same page lists a registration window from noon on 8 February 2027 to noon on 19 March 2027 and a planned Entrance Test on Saturday 3 July 2027, with Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE) as the test provider.
The Crypt School sits on Podsmead Road in Gloucester (postcode GL2 5AE) and is the oldest secondary school in the city, founded in 1539 from a bequest left by Joan Cooke — making it 487 years old in 2026. It converted to academy status on 1 April 2011 and operates as a single-academy trust under the Department for Education reference URN 136578 (DfE number 916/5404). The current headteacher is Mr Nicholas Dyer. Although founded as a boys' school, The Crypt School has been fully co-educational for Year 7 entry since 2018, and the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools service lists its "Gender of entry" as Mixed. Families should not assume single-sex status from the school's historic name.
The school had around 1,100 pupils on roll in 2026, against a listed capacity of 800, with 28 pupils (3.6% of the roll) eligible for free school meals. The Crypt School was rated Outstanding by Ofsted following its inspection on 12 March 2024 — Outstanding in every one of the five judgement areas: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth form provision. The report was published on 24 April 2024. Since September 2024, Ofsted no longer issues an overall single-word effectiveness grade for state schools, so this remains the school's most recent full judgement.
Academically, official 2025 GCSE outcomes published by the Department for Education in April 2026 put The Crypt School well ahead of both the Gloucestershire and England averages. Its Attainment 8 score was 72.7, against 50.3 for Gloucestershire schools and 46.1 for England state schools overall. 98.0% of Crypt pupils achieved grade 5 or above in English and Maths GCSEs, against an England average of 45.4%. 60.5% of pupils were entered for the EBacc suite of subjects, against 40.5% nationally, with an EBacc average point score of 6.91 against 4.09 nationally. 99% of Crypt leavers stayed in education, an apprenticeship or employment for at least two terms after Year 11, against 92% nationally. The Department for Education notes that Progress 8 could not be calculated for 2024/25 leavers because no Key Stage 2 baseline data is available for that cohort, so treat any Progress 8 figure quoted for this specific year group with caution.
The Crypt School's sixth form is co-educational and has a minimum capacity of 175 places, with a minimum of 25 new external candidates admitted each year alongside continuing Year 11 students. Entry requires a minimum of 48 points across a student's best eight GCSEs, including grade 5 or above in both Mathematics and English Language GCSE, with higher subject-specific grade requirements for some A-Level courses.
| Key Fact | Detail (2026) |
|---|---|
| Year 7 PAN, Sept 2027 entry | 155 places (up from 150 for Sept 2025 entry) |
| School type | Selective, co-educational academy converter (since 2011); mixed entry since 2018 |
| Founded | 1539 — oldest secondary school in Gloucester |
| Pupils on roll | Around 1,100 (11–18) |
| Ofsted rating | Outstanding, all 5 areas — inspected 12 March 2024, published 24 April 2024 |
| Attainment 8 (2025 leavers) | 72.7 (Gloucestershire average 50.3; England 46.1) |
| Grade 5+ English & Maths GCSE | 98.0% (England average 45.4%) |
| Sixth form capacity | Minimum 175, including minimum 25 new external places |
| Address | Podsmead Road, Gloucester, GL2 5AE |
The Crypt School's own determined admissions policy states plainly: "The School administers its own admission test (the 'Grammar School Test')." Gloucestershire County Council's admissions pages confirm the same point for the whole consortium: "the registration for, and administration of, the Admissions Entrance Test is all carried out by the Gloucestershire grammar schools themselves." Neither document mentions GL Assessment or CEM. This matters because a number of well-ranked 11+ preparation sites currently describe the Gloucestershire test as a "GL Assessment" or "CEM" paper — that description does not match either The Crypt School's or Pate's Grammar School's own published policy documents for the current admissions cycle, and families preparing with GL-branded or CEM-branded practice materials on that assumption should treat the branding claim with caution even though the underlying question styles (multiple-choice verbal, numerical and non-verbal reasoning) are broadly similar to GL-style papers.
Under the shared consortium framework used by The Crypt School and confirmed in Pate's Grammar School's own determined admissions policy, the test comprises two multiple-choice papers covering verbal ability, numerical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, each carrying its own required minimum standard, alongside English comprehension content. All qualifying candidates also complete a creative writing task, which is marked only for children who have already reached the qualifying standard on the core papers. Raw scores are converted to a standardised measure that accounts for a child's exact age on the test day, so a child born later in the school year is not disadvantaged relative to an older classmate. There is no opportunity to resit: where a child sits the test more than once across different local authorities, only the first sitting counts.
| Test Element | Content Focus | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics / Numerical Reasoning | Arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, geometry, data handling — KS2 content to end of Year 5 | Multiple-choice, minimum standard required |
| English / Verbal Ability | Reading comprehension, inference, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation | Multiple-choice, minimum standard required |
| Non-Verbal Reasoning | Pattern sequences, matrices, rotations, reflections, odd-one-out | Multiple-choice, minimum standard required |
| Creative Writing | One writing task; marked only for candidates who reach the qualifying standard on core papers | Free-response, examiner-marked |
Looking further ahead, on 15 April 2026 all seven Gloucestershire grammar schools — Pate's Grammar School, Stroud High School, Marling School, Sir Thomas Rich's School, The Crypt School, Ribston Hall High School and Denmark Road High School — jointly announced a change of test provider to Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE), a not-for-profit subsidiary of Reading School that currently assesses around 8,000 pupils a year across other grammar school consortia. The new arrangements apply from the test sat in summer 2027, determining entry to Year 7 in September 2028, and move the sitting from September of Year 6 to the summer term of Year 5 — giving families results earlier and reducing pressure at the start of Year 6. This change did not affect the 12 September 2026 sitting (September 2027 entry), which used the existing school-administered Grammar School Test. Year 5 families, working towards September 2028 entry, are on the new FSCE timetable rather than the process described for September 2027 entry; the 2028 intake registration window and planned test date are in the section below.
For September 2027 entry, online registration for the Grammar School Test opened at noon on Monday 18 May 2026 and closed at noon on Friday 26 June 2026. Registration is handled directly by the school, not through Gloucestershire County Council's coordinated admissions team, so if you have a query about a registration already submitted it should go to The Crypt School directly. The dates below are the September 2027 entry milestones, from registration in May 2026 to National Offer Day in March 2027.
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Registration window opens | Noon, Monday 18 May 2026 |
| Registration window closes | Noon, Friday 26 June 2026 |
| Grammar School Test date | Saturday 12 September 2026 |
| Test results sent to parents | Mid-October 2026 |
| Common Application Form deadline | 31 October 2026 |
| Late test dates (late applicants only) | Listed on the preferred grammar school webpage from December 2026 |
| Local Authority offers made | Monday 1 March 2027 |
| Appeals process opens | From April 2027 |
One point families frequently miss: achieving the qualifying standard in the Grammar School Test does not itself secure a place. For September 2027 entry, parents had to list The Crypt School as a preference on the Common Application Form through their home local authority by the closing date of 31 October 2026; a school that is not named on the form cannot offer a place, whatever the test performance. The Year 7 waiting list, for children who do not receive an initial offer, is held by the Local Authority and then the school until 28 February 2027, after which remaining candidates must sit a baseline test to stay on the list, since the original Grammar School Test score is no longer considered an age-appropriate measure by that point. For a broader view of how grammar school testing works nationally, see our guide on what the 11+ exam is and how it works.
The Crypt School's PAN of 155 for September 2027 entry represents a five-place increase on the 150 places offered for September 2025 entry — a small but real expansion across just two admissions cycles. There is no catchment area or priority zone: distance from home to the school's main entrance, measured in a straight line using the Local Authority's Ordnance Survey-based computerised system, is used only as a tiebreaker within the top three oversubscription categories, and in the fourth category only when two children have an identical test score. This means a family in Cheltenham, Stroud or further afield competes on exactly the same terms as a family living a five-minute walk from Podsmead Road.
Where applications exceed the 155 available places, The Crypt School applies its oversubscription criteria in a fixed order: first, Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children who have met the qualifying standard; second, children in receipt of Pupil Premium who have met the qualifying standard; third, children of school staff employed for at least two years or recruited to fill a demonstrable skills shortage; and fourth, all other candidates who have met the qualifying standard, ranked purely by test score. Neither The Crypt School nor Gloucestershire County Council publishes the number of children who register or sit the test each year, so no reliable applicant-to-place ratio can be quoted — treat any specific oversubscription multiple you see elsewhere with caution unless it cites a named, dated official source.
The Crypt School sits within the seven-school Gloucestershire grammar consortium alongside Pate's Grammar School, Stroud High School and Marling School, all of which shared the same 12 September 2026 test date and the same registration window for September 2027 entry, and a broadly similar admissions framework, although each school sets its own PAN, qualifying standard and oversubscription detail independently. Families applying to more than one Gloucestershire grammar school sit the Grammar School Test once and can list multiple schools as preferences on the same Common Application Form. For the full list of Gloucestershire's seven state grammar schools and how they compare, see our Gloucestershire grammar schools guide.
Preparing for The Crypt School 11+ Entry?
Our specialist tutors build bespoke preparation programmes for The Crypt School's Grammar School Test, covering Mathematics, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning as well as the creative writing task, tailored to the test for their entry year and each child's starting level.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppThe right preparation plan depends heavily on which test your child will actually sit, since the 2026 Grammar School Test (September 2027 entry) and the 2027 FSCE assessment (September 2028 entry) are different papers on different timetables.
If your child sat the 12 September 2026 Grammar School Test (September 2027 entry): registration closed on 26 June 2026, and each grammar school the family shared the score with sends confirmation of whether the qualifying score was reached. A qualifying score is not an automatic offer, so the next step is the place offered on National Offer Day, Monday 1 March 2027. Families whose child did not sit the test can check their preferred grammar school’s webpage from December 2026 for the Late Entrance Test.
If your child is in Year 5 now, targeting September 2028 entry: this cohort sits the FSCE assessment in the summer term of Year 5 (the 2027 test), rather than the traditional Grammar School Test in September of Year 6, so the timeline compresses by roughly a full school term. Use the rest of Year 5 to build the foundations common to any 11+-style assessment: sustained daily reading of at least 20–30 minutes to build vocabulary and inference skills, secure arithmetic and fraction/percentage fluency, and light, low-pressure exposure to Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning question types two to three times a week. Because FSCE’s format has been described by the consortium as more closely aligned with the national curriculum, a broad, curriculum-based foundation should transfer well; check for updates directly with The Crypt School or the consortium before committing to test-specific practice papers branded for the outgoing format.
Leading Tuition provides specialist online 11+ tuition for children targeting The Crypt School and the wider Gloucestershire grammar consortium. Because families researching this page may be preparing for either the current school-administered Grammar School Test or, for Year 5 children, the FSCE assessment, our specialist tutors keep pace with both formats rather than teaching a single fixed syllabus. For Year 6 children who still need to sit a Late Entrance Test, sessions focus on timed accuracy across all four papers and structured creative writing practice. For children further out, we build the broad reading, arithmetic and reasoning foundations that transfer across both the current and incoming test formats, so families are not left exposed if the exact FSCE question style changes materially from what is described publicly today. Every programme is built around the child's current level rather than a generic syllabus, with regular progress reviews against real test-day timing. For details of our wider 11+ service, see our 11+ tuition page. External source for verification of the facts in this guide: Gloucestershire County Council grammar schools admissions page.
Year 5 families preparing for the 2027 test (September 2028 entry) can follow the stages below, using Gloucestershire County Council’s grammar schools page for the dates the grammar schools have published.
For September 2028 entry, the registration window is set to be open from noon on 8 February 2027 to noon on 19 March 2027.
The grammar schools are planning for the Entrance Test to take place on Saturday 3 July 2027, with Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE) as the test provider.
After the test, every grammar school a family has opted to share their child’s score with sends confirmation of whether the child has achieved a qualifying score for that school.
A qualifying rank is not an automatic offer: the school must also be listed on the secondary school application form to the home local authority. For September 2027 entry, the closing date was 31 October 2026.
Dates for the application stage of September 2028 entry will appear on Gloucestershire County Council’s grammar schools page.
Reviewed November 2026: Entrance Test dates, closing date and the 2028 intake registration window, planned test date and test provider checked against Gloucestershire County Council’s grammar schools admissions page.
The Crypt School sets and marks its own admission test, called the Grammar School Test, according to its determined admissions policy for both September 2025 and September 2027 entry. Gloucestershire County Council confirms that “the registration for, and administration of, the Admissions Entrance Test is all carried out by the Gloucestershire grammar schools themselves.” This means the test is not GL Assessment or CEM, despite several 11+ preparation websites describing it that way. The 2026 sitting (September 2027 entry) took place on Saturday 12 September 2026, and there is no opportunity to resit.
For September 2027 entry — the cycle determined by the test sat on 12 September 2026 — The Crypt School's Published Admission Number (PAN) is 155 places, confirmed in its determined admissions policy. This is an increase from a PAN of 150 for September 2025 entry, a rise of five places across two admissions cycles. Places are allocated to children who reach the qualifying standard, ranked by oversubscription criteria: Looked After Children first, then Pupil Premium recipients, then staff children, then all other qualifying candidates in test rank order.
The Crypt School is fully co-educational for all year groups, including Year 7 entry and the sixth form. Founded in 1539 as a boys' school, it became fully co-educational for Year 7 entry from 2018 onwards. The Department for Education's Get Information about Schools service lists its current “Gender of entry” as Mixed, and the school's own 2027-entry admissions policy describes it throughout as “a selective, co-educational academy for 11–18-year-olds.” Families should not assume single-sex status based on the school's historic name or founding.
No. The Crypt School's admissions policy describes a “Qualifying Standard” rather than a fixed pass mark — the minimum standardised score an applicant must achieve, set after each year's cohort has sat the test. Children who are eligible for Pupil Premium, or who are Looked After or Previously Looked After, are set a lower qualifying standard than other applicants. Confirmation of whether a child has met the standard is sent to parents before the 31 October 2026 Common Application Form closing date for September 2027 entry, but the exact numerical threshold is not published in advance or after the event.
Yes, but not for the 12 September 2026 sitting. On 15 April 2026, all seven Gloucestershire grammar schools — including The Crypt School — jointly announced a move to a new test provider, Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE), a not-for-profit subsidiary of Reading School that currently assesses around 8,000 pupils a year. The change applies from the test sat in summer 2027, which determines September 2028 entry, and moves the sitting from September of Year 6 to the summer term of Year 5. Children targeting September 2027 entry sat the existing school-administered Grammar School Test.
No. The Crypt School's admissions policy sets out no catchment area or priority zone. Distance from home to the school's main entrance, measured in a straight line using the Local Authority's Ordnance Survey-based system, is used only as a tiebreaker within the top three oversubscription categories (Looked After Children, Pupil Premium recipients and staff children) and, in the final category, only when two children have the same test score. A child from anywhere in England can apply provided they register for and sit the Grammar School Test.
Leading Tuition provides specialist 11+ preparation for children targeting The Crypt School and the wider Gloucestershire grammar school consortium. Our specialist tutors build bespoke programmes across all four Grammar School Test areas — Mathematics, English comprehension, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning — plus the creative writing task, calibrated to each child's starting point and the test they are preparing for. We track progress against realistic mock conditions rather than untimed workbook practice. Book a free consultation at leadingtuition.co.uk/consultation or message us on WhatsApp.
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Leading Tuition provides specialist 11+ tuition for The Crypt School and all Gloucestershire grammar schools. Grammar School Test format, all four papers plus creative writing. Rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot.
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