Skip to content

Trafford Grammar Schools

The Trafford Consortium 11+ and the move to FSCE

Five grammar schools in Trafford share one entrance test. From the September 2027 sitting it moves from GL Assessment to Future Stories Community Enterprise, and verbal and non-verbal reasoning disappear.

Children currently in Year 5 sit the test in September 2027 for entry in September 2028.

One test, one registration, five schools

The Consortium is an admissions arrangement, not a trust. The five schools keep their own governors, character and admissions policies. What they share is the test.

Your child registers once, sits one test, and gets one standardised score used by all five. There is no advantage in applying to more of them.

Loreto Grammar School is not part of the Consortium, and neither is St Ambrose College. Both run their own admissions and their own tests. If either is on your list, that is a second exam to prepare for, not a second application using the same score.

The same score does not mean the same outcome

One test and one score, but each school sets its own qualifying score and its own oversubscription criteria. Clearing the standard at one school does not mean clearing it at another.

Qualifying is only the first stage. All five are oversubscribed, so places then go by each school's own criteria, usually a priority area then straight-line distance, with children in care and some pupil premium applicants ranked ahead. A child can qualify comfortably and still miss out purely on address.

Those rules differ sharply, so each school's page carries its own score, catchment and allocation order.

What is changing, and when

In July 2026 the Consortium appointed Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE), a not-for-profit subsidiary of Reading School, to replace GL Assessment. Three cohorts are affected differently.

How the entrance test changes across three admissions cycles
Entry to Year 7Year group nowTestProvider
September 2027Year 6September 2026GL Assessment (no change)
September 2028Year 5September 2027FSCE (first affected cohort)
September 2029Year 4Summer term of Year 5FSCE (test moves earlier)

Two changes, worth keeping apart. Provider and content change for the September 2027 sitting. Timing changes a year later: from 2029 entry the test moves out of September of Year 6 into the summer term of Year 5.

What actually changes in the test

The current GL test is two papers of about an hour each, multiple choice, covering maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning.

The Consortium has confirmed that the new test will instead draw on the Key Stage 2 English and mathematics national curriculum programmes of study, up to the end of Year 5. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are removed.

That is a real shift. Reasoning papers test a skill outside the school curriculum, and they respond well to practice at the format. A curriculum-based test measures whether a child has secured what they were taught. Drilling puzzle types will not transfer.

The format of the new papers, and what is known about how FSCE tests work elsewhere, is set out on our page about the FSCE exam.

Key dates

Entry September 2027: the last GL cycle

For children currently in Year 6, who sat or will sit the test in September 2026.

Registration opens
12 noon, Thursday 23 April 2026
Registration closes
12 noon, Friday 19 June 2026
Test date
Monday 14 September 2026
Results
Consortium results are issued in October, before the Common Application Form deadline.
Common Application Form deadline
31 October 2026

Entry September 2028: the first FSCE cycle

For children currently in Year 5, who will sit the test in September 2027. The Consortium has confirmed the provider and the content but has not yet published the cycle's dates.

Registration opens
Not yet published. In recent cycles registration has opened in late April.
Registration closes
Not yet published. In recent cycles registration has closed in mid-June.
Test date
Confirmed as September of Year 6, so September 2027. The exact date is not yet published.
Results
Not yet published.
Common Application Form deadline
The Common Application Form deadline is set nationally at 31 October.

We recheck the schools' admissions pages and update these dates as they are published. Where a date is not shown above, it is because no school has published it yet, not because we have not looked.

How to prepare for a curriculum-based test

The question stops being "has my child practised enough papers?" and becomes "which Key Stage 2 objectives has my child actually secured, and which only look secure?"

That is what our assessment answers. We map a child against the curriculum objective by objective before teaching starts, so preparation targets measured gaps. The same small family team does every session, so nothing is lost between tutors.

We have worked through this change in detail: both FSCE papers, the exact Key Stage 2 domains in scope, how standardisation produces a qualifying score, and how the format behaves at the eleven schools already running it. That is set out in full on our FSCE exam page.

It comes down to this: the new test measures whether a child has secured the Key Stage 2 curriculum, and measuring exactly that is what our assessment has always done.

Find out exactly where your child stands.

A free diagnostic assessment maps your child against the Key Stage 2 curriculum, topic by topic, so preparation starts from evidence rather than a guess.

Book a free assessment Or download the parent guide

The assessment is free. You get a written report showing exactly where your child stands, and you’re welcome to use it to work on things at home, whether or not you book tuition. See a sample report.

Trafford Consortium 11+: common questions

Do the five schools share one test?
Yes. There is one entrance test, one registration, and one standardised score. You do not sit a separate exam for each school, and the score is used by all five.
Does one score mean the same result at every school?
No, and this is the part parents most often miss. The test and the score are shared, but each school sets its own qualifying score and its own oversubscription criteria. Clearing the standard at one school does not mean clearing it at another, and being offered a place depends on how the school ranks qualified children afterwards, usually by catchment and distance.
Is Loreto Grammar School part of the Consortium?
No. Loreto Grammar School runs its own separate entrance exam and is not part of the Trafford Grammar School Consortium. St Ambrose College is also outside the Consortium. If either is on your list, you will be preparing for a different test as well as this one.
Which children are affected by the change to FSCE?
The first cohort to sit the FSCE test is the one entering Year 7 in September 2028: children in Year 5 during the current school year. Children entering Year 7 in September 2027 sit the existing GL Assessment test and are not affected.
Will verbal and non-verbal reasoning still be tested?
Not from the September 2027 test onwards. The Consortium has confirmed the new test draws on the Key Stage 2 English and mathematics national curriculum, up to the end of Year 5. Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are removed.
When will the dates for the 2028 entry cycle be published?
They have not been published yet. The Consortium has confirmed the provider and the content of the new test, but not the registration window or the exact test date. In recent cycles registration has opened in late April and closed in mid-June, and dates have typically appeared in the spring. We recheck the schools' pages and update this page when they do.
Is the test moving out of Year 6?
Yes, but not immediately. For entry in September 2028 the test stays in September of Year 6. From entry in September 2029, the Consortium has said the test moves to the latter part of the summer term of Year 5, meaning children will sit it several months earlier than families are used to.
Should we still be preparing if the test has changed?
Yes, though the preparation is different. A test drawn from the Key Stage 2 curriculum rewards secure English and maths rather than practice at reasoning puzzles. That makes it more important to know precisely which curriculum objectives a child has and has not secured, and less useful to drill technique.

Admissions details on this page were last checked against the school’s own published policy on .Arrangements change: always confirm directly with the school.