Ribston Hall High School 11 Plus (11+) Exam Guide

About Ribston Hall High School

Ribston Hall High School is a girls’ state grammar school in Gloucester, taking girls from age 11 to 16 with a mixed sixth form. The headteacher is Alec Waters. The school admits a maximum of 150 girls into Year 7 in September 2027.

Entry into Year 7 is by the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools’ Entrance Test, the single test shared by all seven grammar schools in the county, sat in September of Year 6.

Ribston Hall was inspected in May 2026 under Ofsted’s current framework, which no longer awards a single overall word. The school reports that it was judged to meet or exceed the expected standard in every area, with most of its provision recognised as being at a strong standard. Older single-word ratings you may find elsewhere predate that inspection.

Key information for 2027 entry to Ribston Hall High School at 11 Plus (11+)

• School type: girls’ state grammar school with a mixed sixth form
• Test: the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools’ Entrance Test, shared by all seven Gloucestershire grammar schools and set by GL Assessment for September 2027 entry
• Registration: through one of the grammar schools, not the county council. For September 2027 entry the window ran from noon on 18 May 2026 to noon on 26 June 2026
• Test date: Saturday 12 September 2026, morning or early afternoon sitting
• Results date: emailed mid-October 2026
• Common Application Form deadline: midnight on 31 October 2026
• National Offer Day: Monday 1 March 2027
• Provider change: Future Stories Community Enterprise takes over for September 2028 entry, with that test sat in July 2027
• Year 7 places available: a maximum of 150
• Contact details: ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk, [email protected], 01452 382249 option 5

Admissions information for 2027 entry to Ribston Hall High School at 11 Plus (11+)

Gloucestershire does not publish a pass mark. Each school sets its own qualifying standard each year from the rank order of standardised scores, so the bar differs between the seven schools and between years. There is no figure from a previous year that you should treat as the target.

When the school is oversubscribed, priority runs in this order: girls in care and previously in care who met the qualifying standard, or who scored within 100 ranked places of it, taken in rank order; then 30 places reserved for girls who attract the Pupil Premium on the same widened basis, with Gloucester City residents ranked first and girls from outside the city ranked after them; and then all other qualifying girls in rank order of their test score.

Ribston Hall has no catchment area, so where you live does not decide whether your daughter can apply. Distance is used only as a tie-break, with a supervised random allocation if a final place is still tied. The reserved Pupil Premium block is unusually large for the county, so if your daughter is eligible it is worth reading that part of the policy closely. Make sure you check the school’s current admission arrangements for the full ordered list, as they are reviewed each year.

How can I register my child for the 11 Plus (11+) exams at Ribston Hall High School?

Registration for the Gloucestershire test is not handled by the county council. You complete a shared online Gloucestershire Grammar Test registration form, reached through whichever grammar school your daughter will sit the test at, and one registration lets you share the result with any of the seven schools.

Applying for a school place is a separate step. That is the Common Application Form, submitted to Gloucestershire County Council, or to your own local authority if you live outside the county.

For September 2027 entry the registration window ran from noon on Monday 18 May 2026 to noon on Friday 26 June 2026. The window opens in May and closes at noon in late June each year, so if you are working towards a later cycle it is worth putting mid-May in the diary. Make sure you check the school’s admissions page for the exact dates, as they are confirmed annually.

The application process is:

• Register your daughter for the entrance test through one of the seven grammar schools, between noon on 18 May and noon on 26 June 2026 for September 2027 entry
• Sit the test on Saturday 12 September 2026, in either the morning or the early afternoon sitting
• Receive the result by email in mid-October 2026, before the application deadline
• Complete your Common Application Form, naming Ribston Hall High School, by midnight on 31 October 2026
• Receive your offer on National Offer Day, Monday 1 March 2027

What is the 11 Plus (11+) entrance exam format for Ribston Hall High School?

All seven Gloucestershire grammar schools share one entrance test, the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools’ Entrance Test. For September 2027 entry it is set by GL Assessment, which took over from CEM. It is made up of two multiple-choice papers.

• Paper 1 – verbal skills: reading comprehension, vocabulary and verbal reasoning
• Paper 2 – non-verbal reasoning and mathematics

Each session lasts about an hour, of which roughly 45 minutes is the test itself and the rest is instructions and worked examples. Answers go on a separate answer sheet rather than in the question booklet, and scores are standardised for age, so a summer-born child is not judged against the raw marks of older classmates. For more on this provider, see our GL Assessment guide.

A rough guide to topics covered:

• Verbal skills – reading comprehension and inference, vocabulary in context, synonyms and antonyms, word relationships, letter and number sequences, codes and logic puzzles
• Mathematics – arithmetic, fractions, decimals and percentages, measurement and unit conversions, algebra, geometry, statistics and word problems
• Non-verbal reasoning – sequences, rotations, reflections, analogies and odd-one-out questions with shapes

There is no writing paper and no interview. Familiarisation material is published by GL Assessment and linked from the schools’ admissions pages ahead of the test.

The provider changes for September 2028 entry

This matters if your child is currently in Year 4 rather than Year 5. The Gloucestershire consortium is moving to a new provider, Future Stories Community Enterprise, for the test sat in July 2027 for September 2028 entry. Note the change of season as well as the change of provider: that test is sat in July rather than September. September 2027 entry is unaffected and still uses GL Assessment. If you are preparing for the 2028 cycle, our FSCE guide explains how that format differs.

The biggest change for the 2028 cycle is that non-verbal reasoning goes. FSCE tests only what is on the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum, and non-verbal reasoning is not part of it. The headteacher of Denmark Road High School confirmed the removal in the seven schools’ joint announcement of April 2026. FSCE papers are built around Key Stage 2 English and maths, with a creative writing response at some FSCE schools, so a child in Year 4 now can put their preparation into English and maths. The consortium has said it will publish the full paper details later in 2026, and we will update this page when it does.

Ribston Hall High School 11 Plus (11+) top tips for your child

• Split your practice the way the papers are split. Paper 1 is all verbal, Paper 2 is non-verbal reasoning and maths, so practising in those two blocks matches what you will actually sit.
• Read widely and keep a vocabulary notebook. A whole paper rests on comprehension, vocabulary and verbal reasoning, so this is where your effort pays off most.
• Practise marking answers on a separate answer sheet. The papers are marked by machine, so a clear mark in the right box matters as much as knowing the answer!
• Learn the common non-verbal reasoning patterns. Rotations, reflections and sequences come up again and again, and they get much quicker with practice.
• Keep your times tables and quick calculations sharp. Maths shares Paper 2, so slow arithmetic costs you time you need for the reasoning questions.
• Use the worked examples at the start properly. They are there to show you exactly what to do, so make sure you understand them before the timed section begins.
• Don’t panic about one difficult question! Move on, keep a steady pace, and come back to anything you skipped if there is time left.

How to prepare your child for the 11 Plus (11+) Ribston Hall High School exam

Preparing for Ribston Hall High School means preparing for the shared Gloucestershire entrance test, so the ground to cover is reading comprehension, vocabulary and verbal reasoning in Paper 1, and non-verbal reasoning and mathematics in Paper 2. Because a full paper is given over to verbal skills, reading widely and building vocabulary is the single highest-value thing your daughter can do over the year before the test.

The most useful way to prepare is to use practice tests that match this format, so your daughter gets used to multiple-choice questions in all three areas, to transferring answers accurately onto a separate answer sheet, and to keeping to time. That familiarity is what stops the format itself being a surprise on the day.

One registration and one test result covers all seven schools, so the same material serves Pate’s Grammar School, Denmark Road High School, Sir Thomas Rich’s School, The Crypt School, Marling School and Stroud High School. If your child is in Year 4 and preparing for September 2028 entry, the provider changes and our FSCE guide is the place to start instead.

For Ribston Hall High School 11+ preparation, we recommend the following packs: