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Admissions


Admissions

 

Admission of children to Year 7 for September 2025

Admission Arrangements for boys and girls who will be 11 years of age by September 2025

(Date of Birth must be between 1st September 2013 and 31st August 2014)

The Admission Authority for this school is the Governing Body and the intended admission number for September 2025 is 160.

All information with regard to admission to Year 7 for September 2025 will be available on the school website from 18th April 2024 and you will be able to apply online from Thursday 25th April 2024 for your child to sit the entrance exam.

ENTRANCE EXAM DATE

Monday 16th September 2024

Please note the Application Form for the Entrance Exam 2024 will be available via the School website

from noon 25th April 2024 until noon 21st June 2024

OPEN EVENING

Thursday 27th June 2024 - 5pm - 8pm

* * * * *

Admission of children to Year 7 for September 2024

2023 Exam Date Information

In 2022, the Trafford Grammar Schools Consortium announced a change of provider for the candidates wishing to take the entrance examination in September 2023.  The move to GL Assessments was necessitated by the withdrawal of CEM from the market and has been made by Grammar Schools across the country.

To ensure the return of examination results before parents complete their local authority school selections, GL Assessments have informed us that we must bring the entrance exam date earlier for this year.  This will enable them to complete the necessary marking and standardisation on time.

We wish to announce, therefore, that the Trafford Consortium's entrance examination will now take place on Tuesday 5th September 2023.  Further details about the application process will be released on our school website after Easter.

Exam Provider Information

The Trafford Grammar School Consortium, comprising Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Sale Grammar School, Stretford Grammar School and Urmston Grammar are pleased to confirm our partnership with GL Assessment.

GL Assessment will be the test provider for Year 7 entry testing from 2023 for 2024 entry and beyond.

As specified in our Admissions Policies, GL will be providing test papers for the entrance exam consisting of two tests, each approximately one hour in length, containing questions that assess verbal, non-verbal and mathematics skills.  For each element there will be a range of different types of questions.  Questions that test verbal ability skills may include questions relating to word choice, knowledge of words and their meanings and how words relate to each other; students may also be asked questions that relate to verbal comprehension skills. Questions that test non-verbal ability skills may include questions relating to relationships between shapes and sequences of shapes, identification of common features from a set of figures and applying them to a new figure, codes and spatial awareness questions.  Questions that test mathematics skills generally cover content taught in schools up to the start of Year 6.  The areas assessed typically include aspects of number, measurement, geometry and statistics.  Some questions may involve using current mathematical skills to solve mathematical problems.

GL is creating a bespoke paper for the Trafford Consortium so students sitting this examination will not sit the same examination at any other school.  The types of questions however, will be similar to those provided in GL's familiarisation material, available below.

Please refer to the tabs for the Admissions Timetable for entry in September 2024 and the familiarisation information

The link for Registration is below but only available between 21st April and noon on 21st June 2023.

Applications to Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Altrincham Grammar School
for Girls, Sale Grammar School, Stretford Grammar School and Urmston Grammar

These five Trafford Grammar Schools are to be known as the Trafford Grammar Schools Consortium .

Please consult individual websites for further specific information including the Admissions Policy for each school.

Altrincham Grammar School for Girls

Cavendish Road, Bowdon, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 3NL                                                      

Single Sex - Girls Only

Altrincham Grammar School for Boys

Marlborough Rd, Bowdon, Altrincham Cheshire WA14 2RS                                                     

Single Sex - Boys Only

Sale Grammar School

Marsland Road, Sale.  Cheshire M33 3NH

Co-educational - girls and boys

Urmston Grammar

Newton Road, Urmston, Manchester M41 5UG

Co-educational - girls and boys

Please consult individual websites for further specific information including the admissions policy for each school.

Please note:  Loreto Grammar School and St Ambrose Grammar School are NOT part of the Consortium and do not do the same test.

ADMISSIONS PROCEDURE FOR ADMISSION IN SEPTEMBER 2024

Stretford Grammar School’s admission information is available on the school website and summarised below:

  • Please apply to any of the four schools for your child to take the entrance test on Tuesday 5th September 2023. You only need to complete one application form but you must state where you want your child to sit the examination and which schools you wish to share the results with.
  • You must also complete your Local Authority’s Common Application Form which, in Trafford, must be returned to the Local Authority by 31st October 2023. If you reside outside Trafford please check the return date for your own authority. You must ensure that you have named Stretford Grammar School as a preference on the Local Authority’s Common Application Form if you wish to be considered for Stretford Grammar School.
  • Your child should have a date of birth between 1st September 2012 and 31st August 2013.
  • To enter your child for the entrance test, please complete the online registration form which is available by clicking the link below from noon on Monday 21st April 2023 to noon on Friday 12th June 2023 at the latest, but preferably well before this date.

 

 

What happens next?

On receipt of your application to sit the entrance test we will send you a confirmation email. In the event our test centre reaches its maximum capacity then ALL spaces will be reallocated by distance i.e. those living closest to the test centre will be given priority. Details of the examination day, an attendance slip and a Special Circumstances Form will be posted to you by Monday 3rd July 2023. Your child must bring the Attendance Form on the day of the test with a photograph attached . Please contact our Admissions Officer on 0161 866 0130 if the information is not received by Friday 7th July 2023.   If your child does not have the correct Attendance Form and photo ID on the day of the test, they will not be allowed to sit the examination.  

  • If there are any exceptional circumstances and your child is unable to sit the entrance test on Tuesday 5th September 2023, please let us know when you apply and we will try to make alternative arrangements.
  • If your child is ill immediately prior to, or on the day of the test, please do not bring them. Please contact our Admissions Officer  by Friday  8th September 2023 and alternative arrangements may be made.
  • If you feel that there are any special circumstances that might affect your child’s performance on 5th September 2023, it is important that you let us know on the Special Circumstances Form which will be included in the information posted by Monday 3rd July 2023.

THE ENTRANCE TEST

  • The entrance exam consists of two tests, each approximately one hour in length, containing questions that assess verbal, non-verbal and mathematics skills. For each element there will be a range of different types of questions. Questions that test verbal ability skills may include questions relating to word choice, knowledge of words and their meanings and how words relate to each other; students may also be asked questions that relate to verbal comprehension skills. Questions that test non-verbal ability skills may include questions relating to relationships between shapes and sequences of shapes, identification of common features from a set of figures and applying them to a new figure, codes and spatial awareness questions. Questions that test mathematics skills generally cover content taught in schools up to the start of Year 6. The areas assessed typically include aspects of number, measurement, geometry and statistics. Some questions may involve using current mathematical skills to solve mathematic problems.
  • No extra time will be allowed if your child needs to leave the examination for any reason. He/she will be allowed a short break between the two tests for a toilet visit and/or a drink.
  • If your child does have to leave the room because of illness and subsequently goes home, if they have started one of the test papers they cannot return on another date and finish that particular paper. We can only let your child sit the paper they have missed.  The Special Circumstances Form should be completed and returned in the week immediately following the test and arrangements can be made for the missed paper to be taken on an alternative date.
  • Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Sale Grammar School, Stretford Grammar School and Urmston Grammar are using the same entrance test and consequently your child will only sit one

Loreto Grammar School and St Ambrose Grammar School are NOT part of the Consortium and do not do the same test.

TEST RESULTS

The test results will be communicated to parents prior to 31st October 2023.  For your child to qualify for a place at Stretford Grammar School your child must gain a qualifying score of 334 and you must ensure that you have named Stretford Grammar School as a preference on the Local Authority’s Common Application Form.  For the qualifying criteria for other schools within the consortium, please go to the relevant website. This form must be returned to the Local Authority in which you reside.

Please be aware that achieving the qualifying score is not an offer of a place.

If parents/carers have elected (on the TGSCC Registration Form) to share their child’s result with more than one school, a separate result will be given from each school.

Papers are marked electronically by computer and the two results are checked against each other. It is highly unlikely that an error could be made in the marking of the papers. Parents/Carers cannot request a remark of their child’s test paper.

As required under the National Co-ordinated Secondary Arrangements the list of qualifiers is then sent to the Local Authority, who will apply their allocation procedures to determine the offer of a place on national offer day, the 1st March 2024.

 

How are places awarded?

Oversubscription Criteria

If the number of qualifying applicants is greater than the number of places available, then the places will be awarded as follows to qualifying applicants:

  1. Looked After Children and all previously Looked After Children. A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority, in the exercise of their social services functions (as defined in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989). Previously Looked After Children are children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order
  2.  Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians). Children who have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. A child is regarded as having been in state care in a place outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any other provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society.
  3. Pupil Premium – 32 Places will be allocated to students on Pupil Premium, irrespective of distance. Candidates, on Pupil Premium, with equal scores to the lowest candidate in this allocation will also be offered places.  If fewer than 32 children eligible for the pupil premium achieve the test pass mark of 334, then pupils scoring more than 324 will be prioritised in order of test score until the 32 places are filled
  4. The top 20 scoring candidates, irrespective of home residence, will be allocated a place. Candidates with equal scores to the lowest candidate in this allocation will also be offered places.
  5. Children who will have a sibling attending the School within Years 7 to 11 at the time of admission (September 2024).
  6. Successful candidates who live within the immediate area of the school; being M32, M33, M41, M15 and M16 (both within Trafford and Manchester) and including M21, this being the next closest postcode to the school.
  7. Children who live nearest to the School, measured in a direct straight line from the child’s permanent place of residence to the School.

If there are more successful applicants than can be accommodated at the School in criterions 1 to 7 places will be offered to those children in each criteria whose place of residence is nearest to the School as defined in criterion 7. This will be measured using property co-ordinates provided through a combination of the Trafford Local Land and Property Gazetteer (557666), other LA data and Royal Mail Postal Address Information. In the case of a child living in a block of flats, the distance will be measured in the same manner.

Random allocation will be used as a tie-break to decide who has the highest priority for admission where the qualifying score and the distance between two applicants’ home and the school is the same.

Parents/carers should note that although Stretford Grammar School will inform them of their child’s assessment result prior to 31st October 2023, allocation letters will be sent on National Allocation Day, the 1st March 2024 (or the next working day) by their home authority on behalf of the Governing Body of the School.

 

Home Address

The criteria used by Stretford Grammar School in determining admissions refer, in every instance, to the child's home address. This means the address where the child lives most of the time, not the address of any child-carer, grandparent or other relative.  It is always assumed that the correct factual information will be provided when an application for a school place is submitted. However, proof of the child’s residency may be requested so that the application can be considered correctly alongside other applicants. The documentation required is not prescribed and applicants can submit whatever evidence is available, that is sufficient to demonstrate the claim.  In the case of parents who are separated the application will also be considered from the address where the child lives, even though the child may regularly spend some time at another address. Where it is claimed that the child’s residency is shared equally between two addresses parents may decide which address will be used for the purpose of the application.

REMINDER

Please complete the online application as soon as possible, so that your child can be registered for the entrance test but it must be before noon on Friday 12th June 2023.

  • If your child is ill on, or immediately prior to, 5th September 2023 DO NOT bring them to the test. Please contact the Admissions Officer and complete the Special Circumstances Form by Friday 8th September 2023, and we will make alternative arrangements for your child to sit the tests.
  • Please let us know as soon as possible if your child will not be taking the tests to avoid unnecessary expense to the school.