Clitheroe Royal Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Guide

About Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Clitheroe Royal Grammar School is a co-educational, free, state selective grammar school with academy status, located in Clitheroe, Lancashire. The school admits 180 pupils into Year 7 each year across six forms.

Entry into Year 7 is by competitive entrance test, sat in the September of Year 6.

Key information for 2027 entry to Clitheroe Royal Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

• School type: co-educational state grammar school
• Test provider: FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise)
• Registration window: 1 June – 4 September 2026 (12:00 noon)
• Exam date: Saturday 26 September 2026
• CAF deadline: 31 October 2026
• National Offer Day: 1 March 2027
• Year 7 places available: 180
• Contact details: www.crgs.org.uk

Admissions information for 2027 entry to Clitheroe Royal Grammar School at 11 Plus (11+)

Clitheroe Royal Grammar School uses the FSCE Entrance Test, written by Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE), a company established in 2022 which is itself a trading company of Reading School. The test is therefore written by a grammar school for grammar schools rather than by an outside assessment provider.

Clitheroe sits two age-weighted papers covering English and maths, with no verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning or creative writing paper. For a general explanation of how the FSCE test works across all the schools that use it, see our FSCE 11+ explained guide.

Registration for 2026 entry runs from 1 June 2026, closing at 12:00 noon on 4 September 2026.

You must then name Clitheroe Royal Grammar School on your local authority’s Common Application Form (CAF) by its deadline of 31 October 2026. Registering with the school for the test is not the same as applying for a school place, and both steps are required.

How can I register my child for the 11 Plus (11+) exams at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School?

Registration for 2026 entry opens on 1 June 2026 and closes at 12:00 noon on 4 September 2026. You register directly with the school through the admissions section of the CRGS website.

Make sure you check the school website for the current registration link and admission policy, as dates can change from year to year.

The application process is:

• Register your child for the entrance test via the CRGS website
• Sit the entrance test on Saturday 26 September 2026
• Complete your local authority’s Common Application Form (CAF), naming Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, by 31 October 2026
• Receive your offer on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027

What is the 11 Plus (11+) entrance exam format for Clitheroe Royal Grammar School?

Children sit two age-weighted papers on the same day. Both papers cover English and maths together, rather than splitting the subjects into separate papers. All content comes from the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum taught up to and including the end of Year 5.

The two papers are:

• Adventure Paper – English and maths questions in multiple-choice format. Answers are marked by shading ovals on a separate answer sheet, which is then marked by computer.
• Beacon Paper – English and maths questions answered with short written answers, written into boxes on a separate answer sheet, one digit or one capital letter per box.

A rough guide to topics covered:

• Maths – arithmetic, fractions, decimals and percentages, measurement and unit conversions, geometry, statistics and handling data, word questions
• English – reading comprehension, inference, vocabulary in context, spelling, punctuation and grammar

There is no verbal reasoning, no non-verbal reasoning and no creative writing paper at Clitheroe. Some other FSCE schools do set a creative writing paper, so if you have read about an FSCE creative response task elsewhere, it does not apply here.

It is important to note that the way an FSCE test is run differs from most other 11+ exams:

• Instructions are played from a voice recording rather than read out by an invigilator. The recording says when to open the booklet, which page to turn to, and how long each section lasts.
• Answers go on a separate answer sheet. Nothing written in the question booklet is marked.
• Children must write in black biro or ballpoint pen. Frixion pens are allowed, but pencils are not.
• Rulers, protractors, dictionaries, calculators, scrap paper, stopwatches, phones and smart watches are not permitted.
• Multiple-choice ovals must be fully shaded. A line or a tick through an oval will not be read correctly.
• No marks are deducted for a wrong answer.
• Spare time at the end of a section can only be spent on that section. Once a section is closed, your child cannot return to it.

The papers are marked using optical mark recognition, with people checking any answers the scanner finds unclear. Results are then standardised and age-weighted, so a child born in August is not judged against the raw marks of classmates who are nearly a year older.

Clitheroe Royal Grammar School 11 Plus (11+) top tips for your child

• Make sure you are familiar and confident with the KS2 syllabus up to the end of Year 5, as this is what the questions are based on. You will need to apply what you know to unfamiliar situations.
• Read as much as possible in the run-up to the exam. This builds your vocabulary and gives you practice at reading and understanding texts quickly, which helps in the English sections of both papers.
• Listen to the recorded instructions carefully! Do not turn over any pages or start a new section before you are told to.
• Check your answer sheet as you go. Make sure the number on the answer sheet matches the number of the question you are answering in the booklet.
• Practise in black pen. If you are used to working in pencil, do a few papers in biro so that writing without an eraser is not new on the day.
• Shade the ovals fully. A line or a tick through an oval will not be read properly by the computer.
• Don’t leave any blanks! No marks are taken away for a wrong answer, so it is always worth putting something down.
• Pay attention to the time! Move on if you are stuck, and come back to the question later if there is time left in that section.

How to prepare your child for the 11 Plus (11+) Clitheroe Royal Grammar School exam

Start with the official FSCE Familiarisation Guides, which Clitheroe publishes free on its admissions page in separate versions for children and for parents, alongside sample questions. These are a useful first look at the layout your child will meet on the day.

Beyond that, the most useful way to prepare is to use practice tests to familiarise your child with the exam format. This gives them practice at working to a clock, transferring answers to a separate answer sheet, and answering both multiple-choice and short written questions, so that the format itself holds no surprises on the day.

Because Clitheroe sets one multiple-choice paper and one short-written-answer paper, practice in both formats is worthwhile. We would not recommend buying verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning or creative writing material for this school, as none of it appears in the test.

For Clitheroe Royal Grammar School 11+ preparation, we recommend the following packs: