Lincolnshire grammar schools 11 plus guide

Are you considering a grammar school in Lincolnshire for your child? We’ve collated everything you need to know about admissions in 2025–2026. Keep reading to:

• Find out more about grammar schools in Lincolnshire

• Learn about the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools 11 plus exam

• Discover which subjects your child will be tested on

• Plus, get exclusive resources to help your child prepare!

What is the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools?

The Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools is a group of grammar schools in Lincolnshire which use the same 11 plus exam. There are 15 grammar schools in total:

Co-educational (mixed) grammar schools

• Bourne Grammar School
• King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth
• King Edward VI Academy, Spilsby
• Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Alford
• Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Horncastle
• Queen Elizabeth’s High School, Gainsborough
• Skegness Grammar School

Boys’ grammar schools

• Boston Grammar School
• Carre’s Grammar School
• Spalding Grammar School
• The King’s School Grantham

Girls’ grammar schools

• Boston High School for Girls
• Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School
• Kesteven and Sleaford High School
• Spalding High School

Caistor Grammar School is not a member of the Lincolnshire Consortium. The school uses its own bespoke 11 plus test and has separate admissions dates.

Dates for your diary

• Friday 10th January 2025: Lincolnshire Grammar School 11+ registration opens
• Monday 31st March 2025: Lincolnshire Grammar Schools 11+ registration closes
• Saturday 13th September 2025: Lincolnshire Grammar Schools 11+ verbal reasoning paper
• Saturday 20th September 2025: Lincolnshire Grammar Schools 11+ non-verbal reasoning paper
• Mid-October 2025: Lincolnshire Grammar Schools 11+ results day
• Friday 31st October 2025: secondary school common application deadline
• Monday 2nd March 2026: national school offers day

Dates can vary, so always check with your target schools!

What is the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools 11 plus?

The Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools 11 plus is an academic entrance test. It’s used by the 15 grammar schools in the Consortium. If you’re interested in more than one grammar school in Lincolnshire, your child will only have to take the exam once.

The exam takes place in September in Year 6. Children who were born between 1st September 2014 and 31st August 2015 will take the first paper on Saturday 13th September 2025 and the second paper will take place on Saturday 20th September 2025.

The test is designed to be challenging. Grammar schools use the 11 plus to select children working in the top ability range in their year group. Children who are working at least within the top 25% of their year group are normally well-suited for grammar school.

What's on the Lincolnshire 11 plus?

The Lincolnshire entrance test consists of two papers provided by GL Assessment. Most grammar schools in the UK use 11 plus papers provided by GL Assessment.

Both papers are multiple-choice. Your child will have separate pre-printed answer sheets, which they will use to mark the answer(s) they think are correct.

The two papers assess verbal reasoning and non-verbal and spatial reasoning. These subjects are not taught on the national curriculum, so your child might be unfamiliar with these types of questions. Grammar schools often use 11 plus verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers because they analyse children’s academic potential, rather than what they have already learned.

There is a short unmarked practice exercise at the start of each test to help your child understand how to answer the different types of questions.

Verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning involves reasoning with written information, such as words, letters, numbers and symbols. Your child will need to understand how words are produced and used, and the relationships between them. They might also need to use logic to solve codes and work out the next item in a sequence.

Common types of verbal reasoning questions include:

• Vocabulary: identifying synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, odd ones out, and spotting connections
• Finding words: solving anagrams, jumbled words, jumbled sentences, and finding a missing word
• Building words: joining words, morphing words, transferring letters, and identifying missing letters
• Codes and sequences: solving codes and/or sequences using letters, numbers, and/or symbols
• Logic: statement logic, number logic, letter logic and deductions

The verbal reasoning paper lasts 50 minutes and consists of 80 questions. These are split into around 15 sections, with 5–6 questions of the same style in each section.

Non-verbal and spatial reasoning

Non-verbal and spatial reasoning involves reasoning with visual and abstract information, such as shapes, diagrams and pictures. Your child might need to look at the relationships between shapes and sequences of shapes by spotting common features from a set of shapes and applying them to a new figure. Some questions might ask them to solve codes, where they will need to match features of a shape with particular letters.

Non-verbal reasoning usually involves interpreting shapes. Common question types include pairing shapes, solving sequences, solving matrices, finding a code, spotting the odd one out, and matching to a group/pair.

Spatial reasoning usually involves manipulating shapes. Common question types include finding parts within a shape, shape logic, rotations and reflections, and following folds

This paper consists of 70 questions. These are split into five sections – three non-verbal reasoning sections, and two spatial reasoning sections – with around 14 questions in each section.

Your child will work through each section at a time following instructions from their invigilator. Each section has a time limit of around 7 minutes (after the practice questions have been completed). They will not be able to move onto the next section until they are told to do so.

How is the Lincolnshire 11 plus scored?

After the test, your child’s answer sheets are marked using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR). This technology picks up the marks your child has made to indicate which answers they think are correct. Your child receives a mark for every correct answer.

Your child’s marks from each paper are then age-standardised. Age-standardisation is a common practice in 11 plus scoring and ensures younger children aren’t disadvantaged. 141 is the maximum standardised score for each paper. As a guide, a score of 100 indicates that a child is working at the ‘average’ level for their age group, while 110 would place them within the top 25% of the academic ability range.

The verbal reasoning paper and the non-verbal reasoning/spatial reasoning paper are equally weighted. The standardised scores from each paper are added together to create your child’s overall 11 plus score. The maximum score your child could achieve is 282.

Your child’s results will be emailed to you in October 2025. If your child meets your target school’s qualifying standard, you can then apply for a place for that school on your common application form (CAF).

What's the pass mark for the Lincolnshire 11 plus?

The pass mark for the Lincolnshire 11 plus can’t be decided until after the tests. The grammar schools usually select children working within the top 25% of their year group, so the top 25% depends on the scores achieved by the cohort. However, as a guide, children who achieve a total standardised score of 220 or above are likely to be working within this range based on national data.

Achieving a qualifying score isn’t a guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at their target school. Every grammar school uses different admissions criteria to prioritise places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for each Lincolnshire grammar school below:

• Boston Grammar School
• Boston High School for Girls
• Bourne Grammar School
• Carre’s Grammar School
• Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School
• Kesteven and Sleaford High School
• King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth
• King Edward VI Academy, Spilsby
• Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Alford
• Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Horncastle
• Queen Elizabeth’s High School, Gainsborough
• Skegness Grammar School
• Spalding Grammar School
• Spalding High School
• The King’s School Grantham

How to apply to Lincolnshire grammar schools

If you're considering a grammar school in Lincolnshire for your child, it's a good idea to speak to your child's teacher first.

Grammar schools are academically-selective and select children working towards the top of their year group. Your child's teacher will be able to indicate whether they think your child will be able to keep up with the pace in a grammar school.

1. Register for the Lincolnshire 11 plus

If you would like your child to be considered for a place at one of the schools in the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools, you’ll need to register them to take the entrance test.

Registration for the 2025 exam opens on Friday 10th January 2025 and closes on Monday 31st March 2025. You’ll be able to register your child for the test via the website of any of the participating schools.

2. Apply for school places

Your child’s test results will be sent to you by mid-October 2025. You’ll find out if your child has met the qualifying standard to be eligible for a place at your target school(s).

You can use these results to decide which schools to name on your secondary school common application form. Before listing a school on your form, check its admissions policy and make sure your child is eligible.

The application form must be submitted to your home local council by 31st October 2025.

3. National school offer day

In March 2025, you will find out which school your child has been allocated a place at. They will be allocated a place at your highest-preferred school for which they meet the entry criteria and which has places available.

If no places are available at your preferred schools, they will be offered a place at another school in your area. You can appeal via an independent panel. Information about how to appeal will be sent to you by your local authority along with your school offer on National Offers Day.

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How can I help my child prepare for the Lincolnshire 11 plus?

The 11 plus exam is designed to be challenging. Here are our top tips to help your child prepare for the Lincolnshire grammar schools’ entrance test in September 2025.

Bitesize learning

It’s important to build a good knowledge base before the 11 plus. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when learning is key – our brains encode new information more effectively when dealing with smaller ‘chunks’ of information. For children aged 10–11, child psychologists recommend regular study sessions of 20–30 minutes.

Atom Home makes learning a more enjoyable process for your child. They'll explore exciting worlds full of interactive questions, earning coins to spend in the Atom shop. Atom adapts to your child, showing them questions at just the right level of difficulty to keep them motivated.

Read widely

11 plus exams test your child’s ability to analyse and interpret written information. Regular reading is a great way to help your child build these skills.

Encourage them to read books from different genres and by a diverse range of authors. Increasing the variety of your child’s reading will help them understand different styles, tones and purposes. Meanwhile, reading a little every day will help widen their vocabulary, sharpen their analytical thinking, and enhance their imagination.

Refine exam technique

When your child feels confident with the topics they’ve learnt in Year 5, they’ll be ready to put their knowledge to the test.

Practice tests can help your child develop problem-solving skills and build confidence working under test conditions. They’re also a great way to consolidate learning and highlight knowledge gaps for further improvement.

With Atom Home, you'll unlock online mock tests and printable practice papers for the Lincolnshire 11 plus. Enjoy automatic marking and progress tracking with the online tests, and help your child get familiar with the real exam experience with printable practice papers.

Celebrate progress

Setting regular, achievable goals and celebrating your child’s progress – no matter how big or small – will help keep their motivation high.

Make sure to encourage a growth mindset. This means celebrating effort, as well as achievement! When your child makes mistakes or struggles to understand a particular topic, help them understand that they’ll improve through practice. Regular praise will help your child improve their resilience when tackling new and challenging topics.