Parkstone Grammar School 11+ guide

Atom Learning is partnered with Parkstone Grammar School. You can read more about our partnership here.

Thinking about applying to Parkstone Grammar School? Find out everything you need to know about admissions in 2025–2026 and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus entrance exam.

Key information for Parkstone Grammar School

• Address: Parkstone Grammar School, Sopers Lane, Poole, Dorset BH17 7EP
• Number of pupils: 1,200+
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Number of places in Year 7: 192
• 11+ exam: Dorset Consortium 11 plus exam
• Catchment area: yes

Dates for your diary

• Tuesday 22nd April 2025: Dorset 11 plus registration opens
• Thursday 10th July 2025: Parkstone Grammar School open evening
• Friday 5th September 2025: Dorset 11 plus registration closes
• Saturday 20th September 2025: Dorset 11 plus exam day
• Friday 10th October 2025: parents receive Dorset 11 plus results
• Friday 31st October 2025: national deadline to apply for school places
• Monday 2nd March 2026: national offers day

About Parkstone Grammar School

Parkstone Grammar School is a girls' grammar school in Poole founded in 1905.

Ofsted rate Parkstone Grammar School 'outstanding'. The report praises effective leadership, pupils' academic progress, impeccable behaviour and enthusiastic teachers.

Girls at Parkstone Grammar School are encouraged to succeed, but also to enjoy a range of activities beyond their subjects. The extracurricular programme includes music, theatre, public speaking and charity opportunities. A sixth form partnership with local boys' grammar Poole Grammar School broadens the range of A level subjects on offer.

How to apply to Parkstone Grammar School

Parkstone Grammar School is a selective state school. Your child will need to take the 11 plus exam to be eligible for a place in Year 7.

Parkstone Grammar School is a member of the Dorset Consortium. There are four grammar schools in the Consortium and they share the same entrance test. This means that your child will only need to take the test once, even if you’re applying to more than one school in the Consortium.

Registration for the Dorset 11 plus opens on the school websites on Tuesday 22nd April 2025 and closes on Friday 5th September 2025. Your child will take the Dorset 11 plus entrance test on Saturday 20th September 2025 and you’ll receive their results on Friday 10th October.

To apply to Parkstone Grammar School, you’ll need to name the school as one of your preferred schools on the secondary school common application form. This will be available on your home council website from early September and must be submitted by Friday 31st October 2025.

Remember – passing the 11 plus doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at your preferred school. Many grammar schools are often oversubscribed with qualified children. Schools and their admissions authorities work through admissions criteria to prioritise children for places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for Parkstone Grammar School below.

What subjects are on the entrance exam?

Bournemouth School uses the Dorset Consortium 11 plus entrance exam. This consists of three test papers:

• Maths: 50 minutes
• English: 45 minutes
• Verbal reasoning: 50 minutes

All of the questions in the Dorset 11 plus are multiple-choice. Your child will have separate answer sheets which they will use to mark their answers. These are marked electronically.

How does place allocation work at Parkstone Grammar School?

Your child’s marks in the Dorset 11 plus are age-standardised to ensure that younger children aren’t disadvantaged. All children’s standardised scores are then placed in rank order from highest to lowest. Parkstone Grammar School will then set a qualifying score based on this ranked list.

If the number of children who achieve the qualifying score exceeds the 192 places available, Parkstone Grammar School applies oversubscription criteria. Children who achieved the qualifying score are prioritised for places in this order:

1. Looked after and looked after children
2. Children eligible for Pupil Premium and who live within the school catchment area
3. Children who live within the catchment area
4. Children eligible for Pupil Premium and who live outside the catchment area
5. Children who live outside the catchment area

In each of the above categories, places are allocated based on rank order of the child’s 11+ score. If two or more children have the same test score and ranking, places are prioritised based on how close the child lives to the school.

What is the catchment area for Parkstone Grammar School?

The catchment area for Parkstone Grammar School covers the historic Borough of Poole, plus postcodes BH12, BH13, BH14, BH15, BH16, BH17, BH18 and BH21 3.

Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation

The Dorset 11 plus is designed to select the most academically able children in Bournemouth and Poole and the surrounding area. Here are our top tips to help you and your child feel confident for exam day!

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 Dorset 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.

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