Pate's Grammar School 11 Plus Guide 2026

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Pate's Grammar School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, is a selective academy grammar school rated Outstanding overall at its Ofsted inspection on 5 March 2024. The school's published admission number for Year 7 entry in 2027 is 150, allocated through the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test, which uses GL Assessment as test provider and took place on Saturday 12 September 2026. Around 3,000 children register for the shared Gloucestershire test each year and approximately 2,500 take part. Pate's 2027 admissions policy sets its qualifying group as the highest-ranking 250 students. This guide covers the test format, key dates, qualifying criteria, how places are allocated, and how to help your child prepare effectively .

What Is Pate's Grammar School and Why Is It So Sought After?

Pate's Grammar School is a co-educational selective grammar school with academy status, located on Princess Elizabeth Way in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It accepts boys and girls from Year 7 to Year 13. The school's sixth form prospectus says Richard Pate founded Pate's Grammar School around 450 years ago.

In 2025, 92.6% of A level entries at the school were graded A* to B.

Pate's is one of seven grammar schools in Gloucestershire, all of which participate in the shared Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test. Families register once and tick on the online registration form which grammar schools should receive their child's results, so the child sits the test only once.

What Does the Pate's Grammar School 11+ Test Consist Of?

The entrance test used by Pate's Grammar School — along with all other Gloucestershire grammar schools — is the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test, for which GL Assessment is the test provider for September 2027 entry. The test consists of two separate papers, both taken on the same day in September with a break in between. Both papers are entirely multiple-choice in format.

The verbal paper (around one hour): This paper assesses verbal skills, including comprehension, vocabulary and verbal reasoning.

The non-verbal reasoning and mathematics paper (around one hour): This paper assesses non-verbal reasoning and mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding. Non-verbal reasoning questions test a child's ability to identify patterns, relationships and sequences in shapes and diagrams without relying on language.

GL Assessment provides free familiarisation materials on its website, which Pate's links to from its Year 7 September 2027 entry page. Pate's notes that these free materials are generic and may differ from the test's exact specifications, including the length of papers, the types of questions covered and the level of difficulty. Qualification is not a pre-defined pass mark: it reflects a child's position in the rank order of standardised scores in the test.

The test does not assess creative writing, extended prose, or subjects beyond the two papers described above. Children are not expected to produce any free-written responses.

When Are the Key Dates for Pate's Grammar School 11+ (September 2027 Entry)?

The timeline below covers the key dates for September 2027 Year 7 entry — the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test took place on 12 September 2026. Registration for this cycle opened on 18 May 2026 and closed on 26 June 2026. If your child is in Year 5 in 2026/27 and you are planning for September 2028 entry, the arrangements are different: Pate's says the seven Gloucestershire grammar schools have appointed FSCE as test provider from 2028 entry and are moving the test from September of Year 6 to the latter part of the summer term of Year 5, and Gloucestershire County Council says the registration window is set to open from noon on 8 February 2027 to noon on 19 March 2027, with the test planned for Saturday 3 July 2027.

Test registration and the Common Application Form (CAF) are separate steps. Their deadlines are months apart: registration for the 2027 entry test closed at noon on 26 June 2026, and the CAF deadline is 31 October 2026. Pate's does not accept late registrations for the September Main Test; a Late Test is available in January 2027 for children who did not register, but a child who takes it is only eligible for a place on the waiting list if they meet the Qualifying Standard, because no place is offered when the school will already have been allocated its quota. Families who discover Pate's Grammar School after the deadline can check Pate's Missed Test Registration document and, according to Gloucestershire County Council, the school's webpage in December 2026 for how to register for the Late Entrance Test. This is why awareness of the registration timeline is so important for families planning ahead.

Gloucestershire County Council says registration for the test is carried out by the Gloucestershire grammar schools themselves. Pate's says that if your child does not live in Gloucestershire you must apply to the local authority in which you live. It does not make any difference which of the seven Gloucestershire grammar schools your child sits the test at: it is the same test on the same day. For authoritative and up-to-date dates, visit the Gloucestershire County Council grammar school admissions page.

How Are Places Allocated at Pate's Grammar School?

The allocation process at Pate's is a two-stage system. First, a child must achieve a score within the qualifying group — the highest-ranking 250 students in the Admissions Test, including minimum standards in each part of the Test. Second, the local authority allocates places to qualifying children whose parents name Pate's on their Common Application Form, according to the school's admissions criteria.

There is an important exception built into the qualifying threshold for disadvantaged children, defined in the 2027 policy as children who are Looked After, Previously Looked After or Internationally Adopted Previously Looked After, eligible for Pupil Premium at the time of registering for the test, or living in one of the postcodes listed in Appendix 1 of the policy. These children can qualify for a Priority Place with a score within 15% or better of the 150th ranked standardised score in the test, rather than needing to reach the top 250 like other applicants. The policy states that the school wishes to prioritise disadvantaged students.

For children who achieve the qualifying standard, Pate's 2027 admissions policy then allocates its 150 places to four groups in the following order of priority, with the last two groups covered together in the third point:

1. Looked After children and Previously Looked After children. Children in the care of a local authority, or children who were previously looked after but subsequently became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order, receive the highest priority, provided they achieve the Qualifying Standard or a score within 15% or better of the 150th ranked standardised score.

2. Priority Places. A maximum of 15 Priority Places are allocated, in rank order, to disadvantaged children using the postcode and Pupil Premium criteria set out in the policy. Pupil Premium eligibility means having been registered for free school meals at any point in the six years before the closing date for test registration, or having been adopted from care or left care, or being looked after by the local authority.

3. All other qualifying children, in test rank order. The remaining places are Non-Priority Places: Non-Priority Places (Local) go by rank order to qualifying children who live in Gloucestershire or in a GL postcode until the total for the first three groups reaches 105, and a minimum of 45 Non-Priority Places (UK wide) go by rank order to qualifying children with a home postcode anywhere in the UK. If two children have the same test ranking, closeness to the school (measured in a straight line from the front door of the child's address at registration to the school's front entrance) decides, and any remaining tie is settled by drawing lots.

Families who do not name Pate's Grammar School on their Common Application Form will not be considered for a place in the initial admissions round, which completes on 1 March 2027, even if their child achieves a Qualifying Standard test score. The CAF naming step is mandatory.

Children who qualify but are not allocated a place at Pate's are placed on a waiting list, maintained in the same rank order. For 2027 entry the waiting list is administered by the school and maintained until 31 December 2027; any place that becomes vacant after the local authority allocation but before 1 January 2028 is offered to the child at the top of the waiting list.

How Competitive Is Entry to Pate's Grammar School?

Around 3,000 children register each year for the test shared by the seven Gloucestershire grammar schools, with approximately 2,500 taking part, and Pate's published admission number for Year 7 entry in 2027 is 150.

Where a child lives can matter at Pate's: the 2027 policy gives Priority Places to disadvantaged children and reserves Non-Priority Places (Local) for qualifying children who live in Gloucestershire or in a GL postcode. The same policy also sets a minimum of 45 Non-Priority Places (UK wide) for qualifying children with a home postcode anywhere in the UK, allocated by rank order.

Understanding the qualifying group figure is crucial for setting realistic preparation goals. Pate's 2027 admissions policy sets its qualifying group as the highest-ranking 250 students. The published admission number for 2027 entry is 150, and notification that a child has met the Qualifying Standard is not an offer of a place. Because qualification reflects a child's position in the rank order rather than a pre-defined pass mark, the aim is to rank as highly as possible, not simply to reach a set score.

At A level, 37.9% of the school's 2025 entries were graded A* and 77.2% were graded A* or A. Its sixth form prospectus lists the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford among the university destinations of the Class of 2025.

It also maintains a broad co-curricular programme that includes choirs, orchestras, jazz and other bands and ensembles.

How Should My Child Prepare for the Pate's Grammar School 11+?

Effective preparation for the Pate's Grammar School 11+ requires a clear understanding of what the test assesses and a structured programme that builds skills progressively. Pate's own FAQs say that, beyond the familiarisation material, the best preparation for the test is to read books and use mathematics on a regular basis. Below is a practical framework for approaching preparation.

When to start: For September 2028 entry, Gloucestershire County Council says the grammar schools are planning the Entrance Test for Saturday 3 July 2027; Pate's says the test is moving to the latter part of the summer term of Year 5, so children in Year 5 in 2026/27 have until then to prepare. Pate's September 2028 entry page lists preparing familiarisation materials among the next steps for FSCE and the seven schools.

Phase 1 — Curriculum consolidation (before 11+ specific practice): Before tackling 11+ specific preparation, ensure your child is confident in the KS2 maths curriculum taught so far in school, has strong reading comprehension skills across fiction and non-fiction, and has some familiarity with verbal reasoning question types. Reading widely — across genres, fiction and non-fiction — is valuable preparation for the verbal paper, building vocabulary, inference skills, and the ability to engage quickly with unfamiliar texts. Some children find non-verbal reasoning unfamiliar, and early exposure to NVR question types can help demystify the format.

Phase 2 — 11+ specific preparation: Once the curriculum foundation is secure, move to practice in the format of the test your child will sit. Use the official familiarisation materials first to ensure your child understands what each question type requires. The September 2027 entry test, sat on 12 September 2026, used GL Assessment's familiarisation materials; Pate's says the September 2028 entry test provider is FSCE. Then introduce timed practice papers to build speed and accuracy under pressure. The non-verbal reasoning and mathematics paper combines both areas in around one hour, so children need to allocate their time effectively; practising under timed conditions is essential. Our specialist tutors in 11+ tuition at Leading Tuition structure this progression carefully.

Phase 3 — Mock tests and technique (the final months before the test): In the run-up to the test, the focus shifts to examination technique, consistency under pressure, and error analysis. Sit full mock papers under realistic conditions. The September 2027 entry test, sat on 12 September 2026, was two papers of around one hour each with a break in between. Review each mock carefully: understand why wrong answers were selected, identify patterns in error types, and target those patterns with specific focused practice. Avoid the common mistake of completing many papers without reviewing them — it is the quality of review, not the quantity of papers completed, that drives improvement in the final phase.

Working with a specialist tutor: Families preparing for Pate's Grammar School can work with specialist 11+ tutors who have experience with the format of the Gloucestershire test. A good tutor provides diagnostic assessment to identify a child's starting point across all the tested areas, structures the preparation programme to address specific weaknesses, provides regular mock papers with detailed feedback, and adjusts the programme as the test approaches. For families based in or near Cheltenham, online 11+ tuition allows access to specialist tutors nationwide rather than being limited to what is available locally. See our Cheltenham tuition page for more information on how we support families in the area.

Finally, preparation must be balanced. The test is built from multiple-choice questions on verbal ability, numerical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, so preparation should build the underlying skills, not only test technique. Children who enjoy reading, who are curious about patterns and puzzles, and who engage actively with their maths at school will naturally build the underlying skills the test rewards. Structured preparation should complement this natural development, not replace it. For an overview of the wider 11+ grammar school landscape, see our 11+ School Guides section.

Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.

Reviewed September 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Pate's Grammar School's 2027 admissions policy, 2027 FAQs and September 2027 and 2028 entry pages, Gloucestershire County Council's grammar school page, Pate's 2025 A level results and sixth form prospectus, GIAS and Ofsted.

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