Which Grammar Schools Use the FSCE 11 Plus?

Ask the internet which grammar schools use the FSCE 11 plus and you will get four different answers. One widely shared page says three schools. Another says eight. The most-cited blogs say ten. One says twenty-two if you count future adopters. Several still list Colyton Grammar School as an FSCE school when Colyton's own admissions page now routes families to a different provider entirely.

The reason they disagree is simple, and it is worth understanding before you trust any list, including this one. Future Stories Community Enterprise Ltd (company number 14018895, registered at Reading School) publishes no customer list. Its site has a Home, For Schools, For Parents, News, Testimonials and Contact section, and not one of them names a single school or consortium (fsce.co.uk). So every list you have read was assembled second-hand, then copied, then copied again, and the errors travelled with it.

This page was built differently. Each school below was checked on its own live admissions page, not on another blog. The source is printed beside every entry, the entry year is stated on every row, and schools that have announced FSCE are kept in a separate section from schools using it now. Last checked: 10 November 2026. If you are reading this months later, re-check the two or three schools that matter to you before you plan anything.

Myth: there is an official list of FSCE schools somewhere

There isn't. This is the single most useful fact on this page, because it explains every contradiction on the search results you have been reading.

FSCE's own For Schools page describes the product, not the customers. It states that test content "relies solely on knowledge and understanding of the KS2 National Curriculum taught up to and including the end of Year 5", and that papers are "reviewed and quality assured by SEN staff, primary and secondary teachers, an expert panel of teaching professionals and the RNIB". Useful. But no school names.

The closest thing to an official count comes from the Gloucestershire grammar schools' joint announcement, which describes FSCE as "a not-for-profit subsidiary of Reading School" whose tests are "currently used by twelve grammar schools and consortia nationally, with more than 8,000 pupils sitting FSCE papers each year" (patesgs.org). Note the wording: schools and consortia. That is why counts diverge. Count the Halifax pair as one consortium and you get a different number than counting them as two schools. Neither is wrong; the pages just never tell you which convention they used.

Confirmed: schools using FSCE for September 2027 entry

These schools' own admissions pages name FSCE as the provider for tests sat in 2026 for entry in September 2027. Registration windows below are the 2027-entry windows, now closed. They are printed because they are the best available guide to when the 2028-entry window will open at the same school.

• Reading School, Berkshire. Boys. Registration 27 March to midnight 17 May 2026. Two sitting dates: catchment applicants Thursday 16 July 2026, out-of-catchment Friday 25 September 2026. Separate Sporting Aptitude Assessment Sunday 12 July 2026 for its 10% reserved places. 138 day places plus 12 weekly boarding places. Source: reading-school.co.uk.
• Chelmsford County High School for Girls, Essex. Test Thursday 3 September 2026. Registration 9am 13 April to 4pm 3 June 2026. 180 places. Content "tests application and knowledge and skills from KS2 subjects taught up to and including the Year 5 programme of study". Source: cchs.co.uk/admissions/admission-to-year-7-september-2027.
• Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Penrith, Cumbria. Registration deadline 12 July 2026. PAN 160, of which 32 places (20%) are awarded purely on ranked test score. Source: qegspenrith.education (its FSCE FAQs for Prospective Parents PDF).
• Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton. Boys. Test Saturday 26 September 2026, registration closed noon 31 August 2026. Two papers only. Source: ermysteds.uk/admissions/admission-into-year-7.
• Skipton Girls' High School, North Yorkshire. Runs its own FSCE sitting; it does not share a score with Ermysted's. Confirm the current date on skiptongirls.co.uk before registering.
• The Crossley Heath School, Halifax. Applications 10am 20 March to 11pm 26 June 2026. Source: crossleyheath.org.uk.
• The North Halifax Grammar School. Shares the Halifax Grammar Schools FSCE test with Crossley Heath, but must be listed separately on your Common Application Form.
• Heckmondwike Grammar School, West Yorkshire. Registration opened 11 May 2026, applications due 22 June 2026, exam 14 September 2026, results mid-October, formal offer via the local authority in early March. Source: heckgrammar.co.uk/admissions/entrance-exam.
• Lancaster Girls' Grammar School. Test Saturday 26 September 2026, registration 1 June to 9 September 2026. Source: lggs.org.uk/admissions/year-7-admissions.
• Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, Lancashire. Test Saturday 26 September 2026, registration noon 1 June to noon 4 September 2026. 180 places, one sitting only, no resit. Source: its official 2027 Admissions Handbook.

If you are working out which of these is realistically within reach, start with the Trace Learn grammar-school directory to compare the verified test route, catchment and admissions evidence for each published school. Our pillar guide to grammar schools near me then explains how distance tie-breaks and oversubscription criteria interact once the test score is in.

Myth: FSCE means one standard four-paper test

You will read, in several places, that FSCE is "a four-paper format: Adventure, Beacon, Compass and Discovery". The schools' own pages do not support that as a universal rule.

• Ermysted's describes exactly two papers: one of "English and mathematics questions with multiple choice answer options", and one of "English and mathematics questions where you respond with short written answers".
• Clitheroe Royal also describes two, "both of which are age weighted": Paper 1 multiple choice English and maths, Paper 2 short written answers, and explicitly no non-verbal reasoning.
• QEGS Penrith describes three in its own parent FAQ: the Adventure Paper (multiple choice, drawing on any KS2 subject), the Beacon Paper (short written responses) and the Compass Paper (multiple choice), each typically 45 to 60 minutes with a break between. It states plainly: "There is NO non-verbal reasoning in the tests as it is not taught as part of the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum."
• Crossley Heath and North Halifax cover English, maths and creative writing, with everything except the creative writing marked by computer and all written elements sat on one day in September.
• Heckmondwike covers "application of knowledge and skills in English and maths, as well as exploring imaginative flair through creative writing".
• Reading School runs the most elaborate version: two separate test dates depending on catchment status, plus a wholly separate sporting aptitude assessment.

The practical consequence: buying a generic "four-paper FSCE" practice pack for an Ermysted's candidate means practising a structure the child will not meet. Prepare for the curriculum content, which is stable across all of these (KS2 English and maths to the end of Year 5), and let the school's own familiarisation material set the paper structure. Our FSCE 11 plus exam guide goes deeper on the question styles themselves.

Announced, but not using FSCE yet: the twelve

Twelve more schools have appointed FSCE but have not used it yet. Putting them in the same bullet list as the ten above, which most competing pages do, is how a Year 5 parent ends up preparing for the wrong test.

Gloucestershire's G7: The Crypt School, Denmark Road High School, Marling School, Pate's Grammar School, Ribston Hall High School, Sir Thomas Rich's School and Stroud High School. They have appointed FSCE "for entry to Year 7 from 2028 onwards", and at the same time the test moves from September of Year 6 to "the latter part of the summer term of Year 5", taking effect "from summer 2027 for first entry into Year 7 in September 2028" (denmarkroad.org).

Trafford's five: Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Sale Grammar School, Stretford Grammar School and Urmston Grammar.

The Gloucestershire and Trafford timing trap

This is where the copied lists get it wrong, and the error costs a year of planning.

One popular guide groups both areas as joining "from September 2028 entry" with the test in "summer term Year 5". That is right for Gloucestershire and wrong for Trafford. The Trafford consortium publishes a three-stage timetable: "For entry to Year 7 in 2027, the test provider will be GL and the admissions test will be held in September 2026"; "for entry to Year 7 in 2028, the test provider will be FSCE and the admissions test will be held in September of Year 6"; "for entry to Year 7 in 2029 onwards, the test provider will continue to be FSCE and the admissions test will be held in the latter part of the Summer Term of Year 5" (urmstongrammar.org.uk).

Work it through for two children both starting Year 5 in September 2026, both aiming at 2028 entry:

• The Gloucestershire child sits an FSCE test in the summer term of 2027, in Year 5. Preparation has to be complete roughly nine months earlier than the old timetable.
• The Trafford child sits an FSCE test in September 2027, at the start of Year 6. Same provider, same entry year, a full extra summer of preparation.

And for 2027 entry, both areas are still on GL Assessment. Gloucestershire County Council's own page for that cycle states "The schools are planning for the Entrance Test to take place on Saturday 12 September 2026" with registration "open from noon, 18 May 2026 to noon, 26 June 2026", and never mentions FSCE at all. Trafford's new FSCE paper "will draw on the Key Stage 2 English and mathematics national curriculum programmes of study up to the end of Year 5", replacing the verbal, non-verbal and mathematical reasoning of the GL papers. Use the Trace Learn grammar-school directory to open each published school's reviewed route and admissions evidence.

Myth: Colyton Grammar School uses FSCE

It does not, and this is the most common single error on the current search results. Colyton's own admissions page routes 11+ familiarisation to Quest Assessments and states that "our 11+ entrance test will include English, Maths and extended writing. It will NOT include verbal and non-verbal reasoning" (colytongrammar.com).

The Quest parent guidance sets out three papers sat on the same day: English (40 minutes, 50 questions), Mathematics (40 minutes, 60 questions) and Writing (20 minutes, one prompt), with English and maths answered on OMR multiple-choice sheets. Assessment date Saturday 12 September 2026, registration portal open 31 March to 31 July 2026, results mid-October 2026, 160 Year 7 places.

The superficial similarity is what keeps the error alive: no non-verbal reasoning, a writing element, curriculum-based content. If your child is preparing for Colyton, prepare for Quest.

Which FSCE schools share a score, and which make you sit twice

"They all use FSCE" does not mean one test covers them all. Sharing a provider is not the same as sharing a sitting, and no competing page separates these three cases.

• One test, one score, several schools. Trafford "operates a shared testing process, enabling children to sit one test for entry to any of these schools" (from 2028 entry). Gloucestershire's G7 will likewise use one score across all seven from 2028.
• One test, but you still apply separately. Crossley Heath and North Halifax share a single Halifax Grammar Schools FSCE test. The child sits once, but both schools must be listed separately on the Common Application Form. Miss that and a good score buys you one offer instead of two.
• Standalone sittings. Reading, CCHS, QEGS Penrith, Ermysted's, Skipton Girls', Lancaster Girls' and Clitheroe Royal each run their own FSCE test with its own registration. Sitting at one does not transfer to another. Note that Ermysted's, Lancaster Girls' and Clitheroe Royal all sat on Saturday 26 September 2026, so those three were mutually exclusive for the 2027 cycle.

Build your shortlist around that arithmetic before anything else, then plan backwards from the earliest sitting date. Trace Learn's exam plan works the same way: pick the target date, and the schedule fills in from there. If the overall sequence is still opaque, start with the practical parent guide to the 11 plus.

Myth: you can buy official FSCE practice papers

Reading School, the school FSCE is registered at, states it about as directly as a school can: "there are no commercially available practice test papers for the FSCE Ltd tests", and "the Entrance Test content changes each year therefore the Familiarisation Guide is NOT definitive".

That is worth quoting because listings selling "FSCE format past papers" rank alongside this page. Since the papers are curriculum-based, the honest preparation route is:

1. Cover KS2 English and maths to the end of the Year 5 programme of study, since that is the stated ceiling for content at both FSCE and, in its own words, CCHS.
2. Practise both answer modes: multiple choice on an OMR sheet, and short written answers where working and legibility count.
3. Add creative writing only if the target school tests it (Heckmondwike, Crossley Heath, North Halifax, CCHS).
4. Drop non-verbal reasoning entirely for FSCE targets. QEGS Penrith and Clitheroe Royal both rule it out explicitly.
5. Rehearse timing under exam conditions, since 45 to 60 minute papers with a break punish pacing errors more than content gaps.

A worked example of the difference: a GL-style question might ask which shape completes a sequence. An FSCE-style maths question is closer to "a class of 28 collects 1,050 tokens; the teacher keeps 30 back and shares the rest equally, so how many are left over?" One rewards pattern drills, the other rewards secure Year 5 arithmetic and careful reading. Timed mock tests are the cheapest way to find out which of those your child is actually losing marks on.

How to verify a school yourself, and when to re-check

Because FSCE names no schools, the only reliable method is per school, per year. Use this protocol:

1. Open the school's own admissions page (search the school name plus "Year 7 admissions", and only trust a result on the school's own domain).
2. Find the entry year explicitly stated on the page. A page headed "September 2027 entry" tells you nothing about 2028.
3. Look for the provider named in full: "Future Stories Community Enterprise Ltd (FSCE)". If the page names GL Assessment, CEM or Quest, it is not an FSCE school for that year.
4. Note the sitting date and the registration window, then diarise the window opening one month early.
5. Re-check in the spring before entry. Across the ten confirmed schools, registration opened between mid-March and early June, and closed anywhere from mid-May to early September. March is the month to start looking.

One page, one date, one entry year. If a source cannot give you all three, it cannot tell you which test your child is sitting.

Ignore, for these purposes: aggregator blog lists (including the ones that agree with us), consortium partner pages that have not been updated since the previous provider, and any product marketing that promises a fixed FSCE paper structure. If you want to see how a child's coverage of the Year 5 curriculum is actually tracking against a target date, start a free account and use progress tracking rather than guessing from raw mock scores.

We will re-verify every school on this page each spring, and the "last checked" date at the top will move when we do.