Sutton grammars 2026

Girls 2nd stage is on Saturday at either Nonsuch or Wallington. You will get a morning or afternoon slot, but they haven't sent details yet.

my son took the exam last year and passed with almost 90% in maths [he just missed Wilsons overall pass mark due to English so we got his grades]. We also had no tutor and just self taught. The concepts they have to contend with are far beyond anything at primary level. Its worth pushing your child - you have to remember they will pass around 900/1000 boys/girls at stage 2 but you need to be in the top 150 to get in, so you need to give them the best chance. better to show them harder stuff in preparation, then be pleasantly surprised in the actual exam rather than vice versa. we did not find Atom stretching enough last year. [Anecdotally in the first maths homework at Wallington my son had 3 previous GCSE questions!]

I would agree that EPP is the best/tougest level to aim for. Examberry is closer to the real exam and Atom is way lower in difficulty.

its not just about each question but the stack of questions that have to be done in a short span of time.

For the English creative writing paper, is it important there are three literary devices, colon, semi colon etc? Does anyone know how it’s marked?

hi friends
one question. If my child clears stage 2, how does the council decide which school will be offered? Is it based on ranking or else based on scores to decide between nonsuch and wallington? Because nonsuch seems to have better ranking than wallington?

i dont have a daughter but you put down your school ranking on the CAF, then a certain amount of places are ranked depending on whether you are in catchment or outside catchment area. all information should be on the school or Sutton council websites. All childrens scores are restandardised again after the second stage and then ranked

@KeerthiAaramumNonsuch & Wallington Girls will have 2 lists each in ranked order of score - inside catchment list and outside catchment list. At the same score the girls are ranked on distance to the school.
If a girl gets into both schools then the one offered is based on the order listed in the CAF. If not, she goes on the waitlist (as above) and gets offered a place by each school when she gets to the top of their list.

Hi,

For all those who have had children sit the Sutton grammar paper before (older siblings etc), is it expected for stage 2, that many won’t finish the exam? Is the actual content much harder than stage 1? We are going examberry papers (we’ve done 7). He gets 97% in St Paul’s papers, but somehow in examberry is getting on the low 60s and struggling to finish.

I think it is harder simply because it's no longer multiple choice - you have to provide the answer. the questions have more steps but there may be only 25 questions.

Hello,
Curious to know how everyone found the exam today! We were at Sutton grammar and the children seemed SO relieved.
My son said maths was easier than any EPP or examberry paper (even from stage 1).
However the comp part of English was quite tough and he followed the rules of 30 mins for CW quite strictly and so missed out on some comp questions.

My DS said the same. The CW was worth 50/80 marks so it made sense to focus on that. Did the easy comp questions, then the CW, then back for the hard questions - left out about 7 marks overall. Hope your DS is glad to have it over and done with now!

So relieved it’s over! I could hear boys complaining to their parents the comprehension was too hard and they didn’t finish! So it seems so be across the board. Hopefully boundaries are lowered to reflect that! Wishing them all success.

Hiya - it is harder. When my son did it he sayid he didn’t manage to finish his English paper nor his maths paper however when the results came out he had passed all 3 schools. He was doing the bond books and private tutoring.

So if your child passes stage 2 it means when you are applying you can put the schools that your child has cleared on the council form. It will then depend on applicants to the school. So my child cleared all 3 schools (Wilson, Wallington and Sutton grammar) so on the form I put those 3 schools in order of preference. Then depending on the score of the other children she will be offered a space.

Hi, this is super reassuring to know. My son is at a prep (which is non selective albeit and not very academic), so we don’t have private tutoring.

He managed to finish maths and in fact check over it twice. But for English missed out maybe 10 marks or more in comprehension. Although I imagine his creative writing piece was quite good based on what he’s told me. Do you mind me asking how many questions your child missed? We also have age standardisation as he’s August born, so hoping that helps.

DS’s feedback from today was that the maths was fine and he finished with time to spare. For English he said the comprehension has hard and took too long, so didn’t have enough time to do his best effort on the creative writing.

it would be great to hear feedback from others who sat Sutton stage 2 this morning!

My DS had a similar experience. Maths he found ok. He decided to go over time on the comprehension to complete it and rushed the writing prompt - even though he is a strong writer. He believes he missed marks here and that his handwriting was bad too - we're hoping not to the point of illegibility. We're a bit gutted but really hoping its enough. Good luck to everyone.

I spoke to a mum who has a son at one of the prep schools in Croydon where most of the boys sat the exam yesterday and she said all the parents were panicking. Their children spent too much time on comprehension and then felt they got most of it wrong anyway as the text was complex and then had barely any time for CW, so it just seems every child was impacted.

Same here. Maths was fine. The comprehension was hard and he spent a lot of time on it and I wish he didn’t as it was too hard and he could have gained marks with the creative writing where he only spent the last 15 minutes. I don’t really know what to think.

I'd be surprised if the standardisation doesn't take the time pressure into account for the english - as its seems such a wide experience for all sitting it i.e. generally kids had less than enough time to do the comp or the writing. Good luck to all.

This is actually very reassuring that many boys had a similar experience on the English. Feels like all our kids did the same thing so the creative writing pieces were done under similar time-pressured conditions. Legibility is a worry for us and DS said he finished his piece quite abruptly. Guess will just have to wait and see!