South Wilts Grammar School 11+ Guide 2026: Admissions, Exam & Prep

South Wilts Grammar School is a fully selective state grammar school in Salisbury, admitting girls only to Years 7–11 with a co-educational sixth form. For September 2027 entry, girls currently in Year 5 must register for South Wilts’s own GL Assessment 11+ test by midnight on Tuesday 1 September 2026, sit the test on Saturday 26 September 2026, and reach the cut-off score set for that year’s cohort to be considered for one of the school’s 160 Year 7 places. South Wilts sets and marks this test entirely independently of Salisbury’s other state grammar school, Bishop Wordsworth’s School (boys) — the two schools share deep historical roots but do not share a joint consortium paper.

This guide covers South Wilts Grammar School’s history and character, the precise Wiltshire admissions arrangement and how it differs from a shared consortium test, the three-paper GL Assessment format used for entry, the school’s nine-tier oversubscription criteria, the key 2026 dates for September 2027 entry, the school’s Ofsted rating and recent exam results, and how to prepare effectively across all three tested subjects.

Key Facts: South Wilts Grammar School

About South Wilts Grammar School: History and Character

South Wilts Grammar School was established in 1927 on a site just north of Salisbury city centre, and was originally combined with Bishop Wordsworth’s School before the two institutions developed as separate single-sex schools — a shared origin that explains the close historical links the two grammar schools have maintained ever since, even though they have long operated as fully independent establishments with their own governance, staff and admissions arrangements. For over nine decades the school was known as South Wilts Grammar School for Girls, admitting girls only from Year 7 through to the end of sixth form.

The school gained specialist status in mathematics and computing in 2003, reflecting a particular institutional strength in those subjects that continues to be reflected in its exam results today. It converted to academy status in January 2011, becoming its own single-academy trust (a company limited by guarantee) rather than joining a larger multi-academy trust chain. Separately, South Wilts has spent “over 15 years” working collaboratively with other selective schools across the region as part of the South West Academic Trust — a voluntary network of grammar schools, including Colyton Grammar, Torquay Boys’ and Torquay Girls’ Grammar Schools, Devonport High School for Boys, Bournemouth School and Bournemouth School for Girls, and others, that runs joint CPD seminars, subject-leader meetings and student ambassador programmes. This is a collaborative teaching partnership rather than a governance structure, and is separate from the question of who actually runs South Wilts day-to-day.

A significant change came in September 2020, when South Wilts began admitting boys to its sixth form for the first time, ending the school’s single-sex tradition at that stage of education (Years 7–11 have remained girls-only throughout). The school changed its name that year from South Wilts Grammar School for Girls to simply South Wilts Grammar School, reflecting the broader intake at sixth form level. The school is currently led by headteacher Dr Amanda Smith, with Liz Ogilvie chairing the board of trustees, and serves approximately 1,130 pupils (October 2024 figures) aged 11 to 18. In 2009, South Wilts was recognised as the top-achieving school in Salisbury, including independent schools — an early sign of the consistently strong outcomes the school has gone on to post in the years since.

Is South Wilts Grammar School Part of a Shared Wiltshire Consortium Test?

This is one of the most common points of confusion for families new to Salisbury’s grammar school system, and the answer is a clear no. Salisbury has two single-sex state grammar schools: South Wilts Grammar School for girls, and Bishop Wordsworth’s School for boys. Both schools use test materials supplied by GL Assessment, and both schools share a common historical origin dating back to 1927. However, unlike the consortium arrangements found in counties such as Kent, Essex, Buckinghamshire or Lincolnshire — where a single shared paper, sat on one date, produces one score usable across every consortium school — South Wilts and Bishop Wordsworth’s each set, administer, register for and mark their own separate 11+ test, on their own schedules, with their own independently-determined cut-off scores.

The two tests are not even structured identically. South Wilts Grammar School’s test comprises three papers — Mathematics, English, and Verbal Reasoning — sat in a single sitting on one Saturday. Bishop Wordsworth’s test, by contrast, is built around two combined papers: one blending reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation, grammar and verbal reasoning, and a second blending Key Stage 2 mathematics with non-verbal reasoning. Registration windows differ too: Bishop Wordsworth’s registration has typically opened earlier in the spring than South Wilts’s, which opens on 2 June 2026 for September 2027 entry. The practical consequence is that a family with both a son and a daughter hoping to attend Salisbury’s grammar schools must register separately with each school, prepare each child for a different test format, and cannot assume that qualifying for one school says anything about qualifying for the other. For full detail on the boys’ school, see our companion guide to Bishop Wordsworth’s School 11+ admissions.

How Does Admission to South Wilts Grammar School Actually Work?

South Wilts Grammar School is a selective academy, which means it manages its own admissions arrangements while cooperating with Wiltshire Council’s coordinated admissions scheme so that families receive a single offer on National Offer Day. Registering for the South Wilts 11+ test is a separate step from applying for a secondary school place through the local authority. To be considered for Year 7 entry in September 2027, a family must both (1) register directly with South Wilts Grammar School for its own 11+ test via the school’s online registration system, and (2) submit Wiltshire Council’s Common Application Form (CAF), naming South Wilts as a preference, by the national closing date of 31 October 2026. Missing either step means a child cannot be offered a place, however strongly she might otherwise have performed in the test.

Around 278 girls typically register for the South Wilts test against the 160 available places — a ratio of roughly 1.7 applicants for every place, reflecting how the school describes itself as one of the highest-performing selective schools in the region, with “approximately three girls” sometimes applying for every place once informal interest and non-registering enquiries are accounted for. All applicants who register and sit the test and reach the school’s cut-off score are ranked using the oversubscription criteria below when demand for places exceeds supply, which happens every year.

What Does the South Wilts Grammar School 11+ Test Involve?

South Wilts Grammar School’s entrance test is supplied by GL Assessment and is sat in a single sitting, unlike some standalone-testing grammar schools that split their assessment across two separate Saturdays. The test comprises three distinct components:

• Mathematics (50 minutes): based on Year 5 National Curriculum content, with some early Year 6 material included to stretch the most able candidates. This is a notable point of difference from many regional consortium tests (including Lincolnshire’s and several London and home-counties consortia) which test only verbal and non-verbal reasoning, with no mathematics component at all.
• English (45 minutes): covering reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation and grammar — testing a candidate’s ability to read closely, understand nuance and apply technical accuracy, rather than creative or extended writing.
• Verbal Reasoning (50 minutes): assessing logical thinking and problem-solving through language-based puzzle formats — codes, sequences, analogies, word relationships and similar question types common across GL Assessment 11+ papers nationally.

South Wilts does not publish a fixed pass mark. Instead, in common with several other standalone-testing English grammar schools, the school’s own admissions policy confirms that eligibility depends on a candidate achieving “the cut off score in the selection test,” with that cut-off determined each year with reference to how the full cohort of applicants performs, rather than being fixed in advance. This means a strong performance one year may set a different bar to a strong performance the year before or after, depending on the overall strength of that year’s applicant pool. Free practice materials in the GL Assessment multiple-choice format are available to help candidates familiarise themselves with the question style ahead of test day, and the school runs a familiarisation session on 19 September 2026, a week before the main test.

What Are South Wilts Grammar School's Oversubscription Criteria?

Because more girls consistently reach the cut-off score than there are places available, South Wilts Grammar School applies its published oversubscription criteria in the following strict order, applying only to candidates who have already reached the required cut-off score:

1. Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) naming South Wilts Grammar School, who meet the entry criteria
2. Looked-after children and previously looked-after children, including those who became subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order
3. Pupil Premium-eligible children living within the designated catchment area
4. Service Premium-eligible children meeting the academic standard
5. All other children meeting the academic standard who live within the catchment area
6. Pupil Premium-eligible children living outside the catchment area
7. Children of staff employed at the school for two or more years, meeting the academic standard
8. Siblings of current pupils, ranked by distance from home to school, for those living outside the catchment area
9. All other qualifying children, ranked by straight-line distance from home to school

Distance, wherever it is used as a tie-break, is measured “as the crow flies” using a straight-line calculation from home to school; if two or more applications cannot be separated by distance for the final available place, the school uses random allocation by casting lots as the final tie-break. South Wilts publishes a catchment area map covering Salisbury and the surrounding parts of south Wiltshire, and this catchment status materially affects a family’s position in the priority order — notably, Pupil Premium-eligible candidates inside the catchment area (criterion 3) are prioritised well ahead of all other academically-qualifying candidates outside it (criterion 6), a deliberate design choice that widens access for lower-income families within the school’s local community specifically.

What Are the Key 2026 Dates for South Wilts Grammar School Admissions?

For girls seeking September 2027 entry to Year 7 at South Wilts Grammar School, the following 2026–2027 timetable applies:

Registration for the entrance test itself is completed directly with South Wilts Grammar School via the school’s own admissions pages — it is not handled by Wiltshire Council. Separately, every family must also submit the Wiltshire Council Common Application Form by 31 October 2026, listing South Wilts among their preferences if they want their daughter considered for a place there. Full official detail is published on the school’s own 11+ process page. For the broader national picture of grammar and independent school timetables, see our 11+ exam dates 2025–2026 guide.

What Ofsted Rating and Exam Results Does South Wilts Grammar School Have?

South Wilts Grammar School holds a Good overall Ofsted rating, with an Outstanding grading for behaviour and attitudes, from its most recent full inspection. Academically, the school performs well above national averages for a selective school: in the most recent published 2025 results, 78% of GCSE grades were 9-7 and 57.1% were 9-8, with an Attainment 8 score of 77 and a Progress 8 score of +0.79 — figures that placed South Wilts 131st out of 3,895 schools nationally (within the top 4% of all English secondary schools) and 1st among schools in Salisbury. At A-Level, 70% of grades were A*–B, with 40% at A* or A, ranking the school 465th out of 2,549 schools nationally and 3rd locally.

South Wilts Grammar School was named State Secondary School of the Year for the South West in The Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2026 — the school’s first time receiving this particular accolade, and a recognition the school says reflects its academic outcomes, extracurricular opportunities and inclusive ethos. Headteacher Dr Amanda Smith described the award as reflecting “the hard work, talent and dedication of our students, staff and wider community,” while Chair of Trustees Liz Ogilvie called it evidence of “extraordinary progress over many years.” For a broader sense of how South Wilts compares with other selective schools nationally, see our overview of 2026 grammar school league tables, and the Department for Education’s own Compare School Performance data for South Wilts specifically.

What Is the Sixth Form at South Wilts Grammar School Like?

South Wilts Grammar School runs a substantial, co-educational sixth form of around 400 students — a genuine change of character from the girls-only lower school, since boys have been admitted to Year 12 since September 2020. External candidates apply through a separate sixth form application process with its own prospectus, entry requirements and a January 2027 application deadline distinct from the Year 7 11+ timetable; internal Year 11 leavers who meet the school’s minimum general entry and subject-specific requirements are given priority continuation. Bursary support is available for eligible sixth form students, reflecting the school’s wider stated commitment to widening access.

The move to co-education at sixth-form level, alongside the continued strength of GCSE and A-Level results, has helped South Wilts build a reputation as one of the strongest state sixth-form options in Wiltshire, complementing its position as one of Salisbury’s two selective secondary schools. Girls weighing up South Wilts against neighbouring selective options may also find our guides to other single-sex grammar schools, such as Kendrick School in Reading, useful points of comparison for admissions structure and sixth-form provision.

How Should My Daughter Prepare for the South Wilts Grammar School 11+?

Because South Wilts Grammar School tests three distinct subjects rather than the two-paper verbal/non-verbal reasoning format common in many consortium regions, effective preparation needs a broader base than a typical “VR and NVR only” 11+ programme.

Mathematics deserves particular attention precisely because it is easy to overlook if a family has read generic 11+ advice aimed at consortium regions that omit maths entirely. Preparation should be built on rock-solid Year 5 National Curriculum content — times tables, fractions, decimals, percentages and the four operations applied quickly and accurately — layered with some early Year 6 material and multi-step reasoning problems, since the paper draws on content slightly beyond a straightforward Year 5 recap.

English preparation should focus on close reading comprehension, spelling accuracy, and punctuation and grammar technique, rather than creative writing, since South Wilts’s English paper does not include an extended writing task. Wide reading across fiction, non-fiction and quality journalism builds the vocabulary and inferential reading skills that comprehension questions reward, while targeted practice with SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) question types builds the technical accuracy the paper also tests directly.

Verbal Reasoning rewards structured practice with the pattern-based question types common across GL Assessment verbal reasoning tests: codes, sequences, analogies, word relationships and hidden words. Because South Wilts does not publish a fixed cut-off score and instead sets the required standard against that year’s cohort, preparation should aim for genuine, well-rounded strength across all three tested subjects rather than narrowly targeting a known score threshold. A personalised one-to-one approach is particularly valuable here, since a tutor can identify exactly which of the three areas — mathematics, English or verbal reasoning — is weakest for an individual child and adjust the balance of a preparation programme accordingly. At Leading Tuition, our specialist 11+ tutors work with families across Salisbury and Wiltshire, including online tuition for families further afield in the county.

Most families begin structured preparation in Year 4 or the autumn term of Year 5, giving twelve to eighteen months to introduce every question type across all three subjects, address individual weaknesses, and move on to full timed practice papers in the months before the September 2026 registration deadline and test date. For general background on how 11+ testing works across England’s different selective regions, see our guide to what the 11+ exam involves.

Frequently Asked Questions