Grammar Schools in Devon

Parents need to register for their child to take the 11 plus in the Devon area. The registration period varies according to the particular school to which you are applying for a place. Some schools start registering students as early as March and others open in April. The deadline is important to take note of, especially as some registration periods will close in July, with the test taking place in September. It’s a good idea to check the website of the school to see how to apply and what the registration period is.

There are seven grammar schools in the Devon area which use the 11 plus to assess pupils and see if they are of grammar school standard and are therefore eligible to apply for a place into Year 7. They are listed above. Devon also offer other secondary schools including independent schools (which will have their own admissions criteria), free schools and academies, which are open to all.

There are seven schools in the Devon area which use the 11 plus examination. Some of the schools have their own exam and some share exams. Colyton Grammar School has its own papers provided by FSCE. Devonport High School for Boys, Devonport High School for Girls and Plymouth High School for Girls share the same examination, provided by GL Assessment. Churston Ferrers Grammar School, Torquay Boys’ Grammar School and Torquay Girls’ Grammar School also use GL Assessment exams but with different subjects and papers.

The Devon 11 plus exams take place in September, with some schools occasionally using two weekends to sit different papers. It is advisable to check on the specific school website for the exam dates. The results are released in October, and those children who are then eligible to apply for a grammar school place can do so by the deadline for the local authority common application form, which is usually the end of October.

The Devon 11 Plus examination does have varying dates depending on the school. Once parents are registered, they will receive an email with the exact dates on which their child will be sitting the exam. It should be noted that unless there is a very good reason, an alternative date is not generally offered.

As there is no standardised Devon 11 plus examination, the length of the exam will depend on the school. Children applying to the seven grammar schools in Devon will either take two papers or three papers. The length of each paper is around one hour, meaning that the examination is likely to last a morning or afternoon, around two and a half hours in total. Parents should check carefully through all the information that has been sent through to them, including drop off and pick up times for the test.

The exact content of the Devon 11 Plus test will depend on the specific school, but there are some consistencies. Most schools in the area use GL Assessment to provide their papers, but interestingly no schools have opted for verbal or non-verbal reasoning papers. The only subjects covered in any of the 11 plus exams are maths and English, making this an easier 11 plus for which to prepare than some of the others around the UK. Maths and English have generally been taught thoroughly in schools, but there is always the option for students to undertake some extension work prior to the test to ensure they answer as many questions correctly as possible.

Depending on the school, either GL Assessment or FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise). The former is a nationwide provider of 11 plus tests and the latter is less well-known, but provides standardised tests for a smaller number of schools up and down the country. Only English and maths papers are used, so parents should not worry about reasoning papers.

The Devon 11 Plus tests will have multiple sections, and there is some information available on this. Most questions are multiple choice (except for the FSCE creative writing paper and some sections of the Maths paper) and therefore there will be a limited amount of time allocated to each one. It is likely that in a hour’s paper, there will be around 50 to 60 questions. If this number is multiplied by two, students are likely to encounter around 100 to 120 questions in total.

All tests in the 11 plus Devon area are marked using computer, meaning re-marks are not possible, as the accuracy is so high. If a child has achieved the correct score to be assessed as of grammar school standard then the parent is able to name a grammar school on their Common Application Form. However, this does not mean a place is automatically allocated. On National Secondary School Offer Day, parents will be offered a school place and at this point an appeal can take place.

In Devon, the 11 Plus exam does not have a pass mark – rather, children are assessed as either of grammar school standard or not. The specific mark at which a child will have been considered to have passed the exam and therefore be of grammar school standard is based on the number who apply, and the published admissions number for that school. There will also be oversubscription criteria applied based on different school requirements. Marks are age-standardised, so younger children are given a small advantage.

The Devon 11 Plus test is like any other 11 plus test and is designed to be passed only by a top percentage of children. Usually this is around 25%, meaning that 75% of children would not pass the test. However, the Devon 11 plus is unlike some other exams in that only maths and English are assessed; this makes it more likely that children and parents will understand the question types and will not have to undertake extensive preparation of other subjects. There is no reasoning in the exam, although creative writing is assessed for some schools.

A good score in the Devon 11 Plus exam would be a standardised score which placed the applicant in the top 25% of children in the area. This means that an average score of around 100 is likely to miss the entrance criteria and it would be better to aim for around 120 or 125. When undertaking past papers, it is best to try and gain 75% in these to maximise a child’s chances of being assessed as of grammar school standard.

The varying pass marks will be determined by how many applicants there are to that particular school and also whether or not the school is oversubscribed. Some schools will need to set higher pass marks to ensure they only take the top percentage of applicants, where others may be able to set the bar lower.

Grammar schools in areas with higher demand and a higher oversubscription for places will have higher scores. Normally candidates will be placed into a rank order based on their overall standardised score in the 11 plus exam, and then places will be offered in this order. Once this number has been reached the school may also apply criteria such as sibling priority or priority for looked after children or children of staff members.

Schools situated in areas with lower demand or with little to no oversubscription may well have lower required scores for admission into Year 7. As stated above, parents should carefully check the oversubscription criteria and take this into account when considering which schools they are going to apply to. There may also be an associated postcode area beyond which no child has been offered a place.