Pate's Grammar School
Pate’s Grammar School in Cheltenham is a mixed grammar school with 150 Year 7 places, which takes children by their rank in the Gloucestershire test. Its qualifying group is the top 250 ranked children, at least 45 places are open to children from anywhere in the UK, and siblings aren’t considered.
At a glance
- Where
- Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
- Takes
- Mixed
- Year 7 places
- 150
- Applicants
- 300 for 2026 entry, about 2 for each place. This counts the times the school was named on local authority application forms; its policy says 460 children sit the test at Pate’s itself.
Applicants figures aren’t counted the same way at every school, so they don’t compare from one school to another.
Admissions
The test
The Gloucestershire Grammar Schools entrance test, set by GL Assessment and sat at all 7 Gloucestershire grammar schools: two multiple-choice papers of about an hour each, one on verbal skills and one on non-verbal reasoning and maths.
What qualifies
No fixed pass mark: the qualifying group is the top 250 ranked children, with minimum standards in each part of the test. Disadvantaged children (pupil premium, looked after, or a listed deprived Cheltenham postcode) qualify for a priority place within 15% of the 150th-ranked standardised score, which is not published.
Who gets priority
Places go by test rank in four groups: looked after and previously looked after children; up to 15 Priority Places for disadvantaged children (pupil premium with a listed Cheltenham postcode first, then pupil premium in Cheltenham Borough, then a listed postcode, then pupil premium in GL postcodes, then other pupil premium); Non-Priority Local places for Gloucestershire or GL1 to GL56 postcodes until these groups total 105; and at least 45 places for any UK postcode. Equal ranks are split by straight-line distance to the front entrance, then by drawing lots.
Registering
Registration was online through the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Central Registration Form linked from patesgs.org (paper form on request), from 12 noon on Monday 18 May to 12 noon on Friday 26 June 2026, choosing which schools to share results with. The test was on Saturday 12 September 2026; results were emailed in mid-October 2026, before the 31 October 2026 application deadline.
Open events
An Open Evening for Year 7 entry in the autumn and Spring Open Mornings on Wednesday 10 February and Thursday 4 March 2027 (booking from January 2027); the Sixth Form Open Evening is on Tuesday 2 February 2027.
Good to know
Co-educational 11 to 18 and super-selective, with at least 45 places open UK-wide; siblings and other test data (SATs, other counties' 11+) are not considered. A Late Test in January 2027 gives only a waiting-list place, an Appeals Test runs in April 2027, and the waiting list is held in rank order until 31 December 2027. The sixth form takes at least 80 external students, needing 57 points across the best 8 GCSEs and grade 6 in English and maths. The applicants figure is the number of times Pate's was named on local authority forms for 2026 entry (213 as first preference), from DfE school-level data; families learn their rank before applying, and the policy says 460 children sit the test at Pate's itself.
Not confirmed yet
- Number of children who sat the September 2026 test, or shared results with Pate's, is not published.
- The 150th-ranked score and the lowest rank offered for 2026 entry are not published.
- Date of the autumn 2026 Year 7 open evening (already past) was not found.
Check these on the official page: patesgs.org/Admissions/Year-7-11-Entry/2027/PGS_Admissions_Policy_2027_Entry.pdf
The 11+ in Gloucestershire
The papers, registration, test dates, results and how qualifying works for every school there.
With Exam Prep, Thena sets practice papers in your child’s test’s style and goes over every mistake with them on her board: £49 a month with the Solo plan.
More on the 11+
Sources
Every fact here comes from the official pages below. Admissions rules change each year, so check them there before you rely on them.
- patesgs.org
- patesgs.org/Admissions/Year-7-September-2027-Entry
- patesgs.org/Admissions/Year-7-11-Entry/2027/PGS_Admissions_Policy_2027_Entry.pdf
- patesgs.org/Admissions/Year-7-11-Entry/2027/Key_Dates_2027_Entry.pdf
- patesgs.org/Admissions/Year-7-11-Entry/2027/Frequently_Asked_Questions_2027_Entry.pdf
- patesgs.org/Admissions/Year-7-11-Entry/2027/Y7_Admissons_Infographic_2026_Entry.pdf
- patesgs.org/Admissions/Year-7-11-Entry
- patesgs.org/Events
- patesgs.org/Admissions/Sixth-Form-Entry
- explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/primary-and-secondary-school-applications-and-offers
- content.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/api/releases/0bf4f9cf-721d-44e3-8473-266c87e17e00/files?fromPage=ReleaseDownloads
Checked 2 November 2026.
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