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Thinking about applying to Spalding Grammar School? Find out everything you need to know about admissions in 2025–2026 and how to prepare your child for success in the Lincolnshire 11 plus entrance exam.
Key information for Spalding Grammar School
Address: Spalding Grammar School, Priory Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2XH
Number of pupils: 900+
Admissions contact: [email protected]
Number of places in Year 7: 150
11+ exam: Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools 11 plus exam
Catchment area: yes
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
Friday 10th 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
About Spalding Grammar School
Spalding Grammar School is a selective school for boys aged 11-18, with a mixed sixth form, in Lincolnshire. It was founded in 1588, situated on the upper floor of St. Thomas’s Chapel in the Paris Church, before moving to the current conservation area in 1881.
Spalding Grammar School provides a high-quality education within a stimulating environment. It values the strong relationship between its staff and students, enhanced by an innovative vertical form tutor system.
How to apply to Spalding Grammar School
Spalding Grammar School is a selective state school. This means that your child will need to take the 11 plus exam to be eligible for a place in Year 7.
Spalding Grammar School is a member of the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools. There are 15 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 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.
The 11 plus exam is taken over two dates. The first paper will take place on Saturday 13th September and the second paper will take place a week later on Saturday 20th September. You’ll receive your child’s results on Friday 10th October.
To apply to Spalding 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 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 Spalding Grammar School below.
What subjects are on the entrance exam?
Spalding Grammar School uses the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools 11 plus. This consists of two papers which are taken on consecutive Saturdays in September:
Verbal reasoning: this paper consists of 80 questions split across 15 sections. The paper has a time limit of 50 minutes.
Non-verbal and spatial reasoning: this paper consists of 70 questions split across 5 sections. Each section is timed individually by the invigilator.
All of the questions in the Lincolnshire 11 plus are multiple-choice. Your child will have separate answer sheets which they will use to mark their answers. These are marked electronically.
Lincolnshire grammar schools 11+ practice papers and online learning
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How does place allocation work at Spalding Grammar School?
The pass mark for the Lincolnshire 11 plus can’t be decided until after the tests. The grammar schools in the Consortium 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.
If more than 150 applying to Spalding Grammar School achieve the qualifying score, the school applies oversubscription criteria. Children are prioritised for places in the following order:
Looked after and previously looked after children
Children who live in the school's designated transport area (catchment area)
Children who live beyond the school's designated transport area, ranked from highest to lowest score
The catchment area for Spalding Grammar School is defined as the designated area for free transport. This covers the areas of Spalding, Pinchbeck, Weston, Crowland, Whaplode Drove, Holbeach, Long Sutton, Sutton Bridge and Sutterton.
Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation
The Lincolnshire 11 plus is designed to select the most academically able children in the 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 Lincolnshire Consortium 11 plus entrance test. 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.
Free 11 plus course
Help your child prepare for the Lincolnshire 11 plus with Atom’s free 11+ course.
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