How much tutoring is typical for the Gloucestershire 11+?

[Exasperateddonut]

As the 11+ looms I’ve been speaking to more parents and have been astonished by the sheer levels of tutoring going on. I have been very naively thinking that a few sessions and a mock exam would be more than adequate.

For the parent's of children taking the exam this year, (specifically Gloucestershire!) what level of tutoring have you been using?

Is it possible to pass without tutoring?

What exactly does the tutoring give your child?

Are there other ways to learn the format and technique needed for the paper? One parent I spoke to talked about the order in which to do the paper to maximise results - something I had not even considered.

Panic has set in and I’m very concerned that we have not done enough - study and practice books and the familiarisation materials only.

Final question that I cannot find a concrete answer on the internet for - what ballpark percentage mark will translate into a place?

I really appreciate all the help I can get with this!

I’m not familiar with the Gloucestershire 11 plus but from experience of another area I think it depends on several factors.

1. Is admission purely score based or is there a form of catchment/ priority area so the local higher scoring children are more likely to be offered a place?
2. How capable is your child? Are they working above expected levels at school? Do they enjoy learning and very important, do they read a lot?

I have twins.Twin 1 was very average at primary school, didn’t want to do the 11 plus and went to the local, underperforming, comprehensive school where they were in top sets.

Twin 2, consistently at the top of their primary class and working above expected levels. A voracious reader. Took the 11 plus, no tuition just a few 10 minute test books and a few papers to get used to the format of MCQs and non verbal reasoning questions. Scored comfortably above the priority score for the Birmingham grammar schools, but possibly wouldn’t have been offered a place if it was purely score based.

Forwarding on 6 years: Twin 1 a solid set of GCSE results (excellent for the school!) 8s, 6s and 5s. Twin 2 mainly 9s and a couple of 8s.
Both are now predicted As and A *s at A level.

I guess what I am saying is don’t panic. The amount of tutoring some children are subjected to is unbelievable. Intensive or prolonged tutoring for a single test does not necessarily equate to the child continuing to perform well once at grammar school. There are many children at the grammar school who continue to have tutoring throughout school, just so they can keep up. Not doing the 11 plus, or indeed doing it but not scoring high enough, should not dictate the future of children. It’s a brutal process and I think some children are put under an immense pressure to succeed and may have the sense that they have somehow failed if they are not offered a place.

My practical advice would be for your child to concentrate on technique, as speed is crucial- don’t waste time - if they don’t know the answer- guess and move on. They are not allowed to go back to sections, so it’s good for them just to fill out all of the MCQ - Twin 2 says choose one, i.e, all Bs.
Reading is good as it helps increase vocabulary etc.
A solid grasp of maths up to end of year 5 level should be fine. The 11 plus shouldn’t introduce stuff that hasn’t been taught but it may test a deeper understanding and application of knowledge. The commercial maths practice papers are really tricky and often have concepts that aren’t introduced until year 7. Twin 2 tried one and had a meltdown and refused to do any more maths. The lack of maths practice didn’t disadvantage them at all.
Non verbal reasoning is worth practising just so your child knows what sort of things may be included.

I’m glad Twin 1 didn’t go to grammar as I know he would have struggled with the pace. He is doing A level subjects he enjoys and has absolutely flown.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for all of that. I’m beginning to get so disillusioned by it.

My child is working at a deeper level but panics if something ‘spooks’ them so I’m concerned.

The places are prioritised for local kids from what I can see - which is an issue as we’re out of area. So I guess a better performance is needed.

Really appreciate you advice thank you!

What school are you interested in? None of them use geography (unless a tie break) as far as I know.

Some of them do use geography now, @clarrylove - Pate's and Denmark Road, for certain.

We don’t really have a first choice at the moment but it appears Pates puts non-priority non-local children at the bottom of the list. Hopefully I’m wrong!

You are not wrong, @Exasperateddonut

The admissions criteria for each school are easily found on their websites.

I agree with @ChocoIateTeapot regarding preparation. I don't have first-hand experience of the Gloucestershire 11 plus, a friend's two children did home prep for Gloucestershire grammars and both got places at their chosen grammar. I should add that both children are very bright and their parents have Oxbridge degrees and were very proactive with preparing them.

My personal experience with DD was for the Birmingham 11 plus which is generally considered similar to Gloucestershire in terms of how difficult it is to get in - Birmingham possibly being slightly harder. DD had her pick of schools with her score, and we did home prep. This was 5 years ago though. The main thing is preparing for the style of test your DC will be taking - there is no point in practising creative writing if it isn't in the test! And, as @ChocoIateTeapot says, speed, and exam technique. Never leave a question unanswered.

Gloucestershire operates on a ranking system, with some weird catchment "fudges" for some schools - you can read the details on their websites.
It has become more competitive (I guess), because of VAT (more people taking the test). Historically you needed a top 200 ranking for Pates which also drives competition as that is the school in the Times Top 100 😉
As others have said, speed is important.
Practise getting speed up.
Also, there's no negative marking on the Glos test, so worth guessing and moving on, rather than spending ages on a question and not finishing.

We are next door in Oxfordshire so no grammar schools here but we did prep our DS for independent secondary entrance exams. He did 1 hour a week from the January of year 5 (so about a year in all as his last exam was 31st Jan this year). The school we accepted did adaptive tests on Quest. Our tutor took him through the Bond books and then gave him past 11+ papers to complete. We started on our own using Atom but it became apparent that we were not teachers (although we both have degrees and one of us has a masters) and could not explain things in a way he understood. He responded much better to a tutor, and enjoyed his sessions. I really think she got the best out of him and he got the place he wanted.

Mine both passed 11+ in Gloucestershire without tutoring. Where we live it’s not well know that GS is an option.

Mine were Marling/Stroud high as closer.

Pick a school that suits your child. Pates is not for everyone.

So don’t worry about tutoring but do get some past papers to familiarise them.

good luck !🍀

We're in Bucks, so different area, but I don't know any children who have passed without being part of a formal tutor group throughout Y5. Tutoring raises the bar, and sadly makes it an unlevel playing field. A lot of it is exam technique and speed.

None in our case but DC were already coping well with school and ahead of most of their classmates. We did some practice papers and workbooks at home and that was it.

What I would say though is it was more important to us to have kids that were comfortable at that level. We didn't want to make it a big thing. If they did well, they did well. If they didn't it wasn't an issue. Well being is far more important at this stage and when you took selective entry into account the GCSE results were no different to our local good non-selective school. One DC went, another chose the local.

try not to panic, plenty of families do this with just practice books and no formal tutoring, especially if your dc is already working at greater depth. the out-of-area bit is the thing worth focusing energy on rather than matching what other families are doing tutoring-wise. speed and technique really is most of it for glos from what people say on here, so timed past papers will get you further than extra content tutoring at this stage. if you want to see exactly where marks are being lost rather than guessing, the ace 11+ diagnostic breaks it down by question type, took a lot of the guesswork out for us - https://www.ace11plus.org/diagnostics . good luck, you're clearly on top of it

When I grew up, most didn't do tutoring and those that did it was 5 sessions or so. But, my nephew is 10 and he and all his friends have been in tutoring since part way through year 4 to try and pass 11+ for london and kent GS. That was a shock to me.

If he is performing at a deeper level and has some extra curriculars, also try some private school scholarships.

We are Gloucestershire. It changes next year to July instead so this is the last year at September. Different provider and set up too. It's difficult. We were told only top 10% get in. Stroud is local to us. Most of DC classmates have been tutoring from yr4. It is competitive and there's no weighting for area. In my child's reception class there are 3 families who have moved from London because their child got into the grammars here. Its a very rich area and increasingly middle class families are choosing not to go grammar. I see alot of : clever autistic kids go to grammars and that's good for them. It might be. But the reported sen in the grammars here is less than 1% so these arnt diagnosed kids and the extra provision available reflects this. Because there's an uplift overall the local schools are also pretty good. If you have a clever child with tutoring you are likely to get the same result. (As could be said anywhere I guess!) So take heart - there's summer to practice and if it's not a goer they will most likely be absolutely fine anyway. Don't get trapped into the middle class hype. We go to some extra curriculars and play grammar bingo every week to see which one is performance parenting this week the most!!! 'oh Daahhhling, you just muuuust try for pates but it's absolutely fiiiine if it's marling and much more convenient too!'

Am local to Pates. It is well known to be very competitive and generally draws the absolute highest performing kids. The Gloucester grammars are also good but Pates I’d suggest you’d need to be very bright to be in with a chance without/with little tuition.

Most kids at our primary school have had at least a year of tuition, some, many years regardless of intelligence.

As others have said, go look at some grammars. I would have chosen one of the Gloucester ones over Pates personally as my child would not have enjoyed it there.

All the kids I know that got in were either tutored or did prep at home with their parents and good resources. They were also the more able kids in the class. The ones that got into Pates were very able; the maths taught in primary had always been far too easy for them. They had been to at least a couple of mock tests.

Oh here is research project on what tutors list for using the publicly available First Tutors data. Its not the most complete dataset for every region but it is a good starting point: Most parents looking for a Primary Entrance Exams tutor in Gloucestershire pay between £35 and £50 an hour. Bottom 25% = £35, Median = £40, Top 25% £50 = Top 25%, Top 10% =£120
I wont link to the report itself because I don't know if you can include links but it gathers all the data from 9,138 profiles that listed a price, and the data set was richest just before the pandemic so take those averages as a starting point. Its called the 'The UK Private Tutoring Rate Report 2026' if you want to read. I think its really helpful information for parents about what UK private tutors actually charged, by subject, level, region and reputation and its interactive with 'Pick a subject, level and region' and it'll show you what tutors in that cell of the market actually charged.

In my personal opinion 11+ tutoring can build confidence, strengthen skills (especially ones parents are familiar in), and teach effective exam techniques but...tutoring cannot guarantee a place at grammar school, can add pressure if expectations are too high. For some children, especially those who are already anxious or reluctant, too much preparation can reduce enjoyment of learning.