Trafford has one of the highest concentrations of selective grammar schools in the North West: six schools, two exam formats and a single registration window that determines whether your child can sit the test at all.
The exam takes place in September 2026 for a Year 7 place starting September 2027 and preparation needs to be underway well before most families realise.
Mathnasium's education specialists walk you through the schools, the timeline and the maths demands that catch most Year 5 pupils off guard.
The Trafford 11+ exam takes place in September 2026 for children starting secondary school in September 2027. If your child is currently in Year 5, it might already be time for test prep to start.
For families planning to apply to any of Trafford's five consortium schools (Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Sale Grammar, Stretford Grammar or Urmston Grammar) these are the registration and exam dates for 2026 to keep in mind:
Registration opened: 23rd April 2026
Registration closes: 19th June 2026; this deadline is, in practice, final; late applications are considered only in exceptional circumstances
Exam date: Monday 14th September 2026
Results released: mid-October 2026
CAF (Common Application Form) deadline: 31st October 2026, via the Trafford local authority admissions page
National Offer Day: 1st March 2027
Loreto Grammar School runs a separate process entirely:
Registration opens: 27th June 2026
Registration closes: 31st July 2026, via the school directly
Exam date: Friday 18th September 2026
Families who decide to apply to Loreto alongside any of the consortium schools must complete both registration processes separately. The two are not linked.
If your child is currently in Year 5, this is what the preparation timeline looks like between now and September:
Spring term: establish where your child is in maths and identify knowledge gaps against the 11+ syllabus
Summer term: structured, topic-by-topic work on the areas that need it
Summer holiday: consolidation, timed practice papers and pacing work
September: exam month
From registration closing in June to results in October, the Trafford 11+ moves through five months quickly and every term between now and September has a specific job to do.
📕 You May Also Like: What is the 11+ Exam and How Can Mathnasium Help Your Child?
Six selective grammar schools serve the Trafford area. Five sit inside the Trafford consortium and use the same GL Assessment test on the same day.
Loreto Grammar School sits outside the consortium and runs its own examination with a distinct format. Each school has its own admissions criteria, so be sure to understand them before registration.
AGSB and AGSG are two of the most sought-after secondary schools in Greater Manchester and for good reason, as both rank consistently among the highest-performing in the region. They are separate schools with separate admissions processes, so if you are considering both, you will need to register for each independently.
Before you register, there are a few details that could affect your child's chances:
AGSB offers approximately 202 Year 7 places; AGSG offers approximately 204.
Both schools use a priority admission area covering postcodes WA13, WA14, WA15, M33 and the Trafford-governed parts of M23. Children living within this area receive admissions priority.
A high score is essential but it does not automatically secure a place for out-of-catchment applicants if in-catchment children fill the available places first. It is worth checking whether your postcode falls within the priority area early in the process.
Loreto Grammar is a Catholic girls' school with approximately 150 Year 7 places and it works a little differently from the consortium schools in two ways that are useful to understand from the outset.
Faith criteria apply alongside exam score in the admissions hierarchy. This affects how competitive a non-Catholic applicant's score needs to be, so it is worth reading Loreto's admissions policy carefully if faith status is a factor for your family.
Loreto's exam format is also distinct and the differences have a direct bearing on how your child should prepare:
English and Verbal Reasoning papers: provided by GL Assessment
Maths paper: written in-house by Loreto staff, in standard written format (not multiple choice)
The content areas are broadly similar to the consortium exam, but the written maths format rewards different habits than multiple-choice practice alone can build. Children who have only drilled practice papers in multiple-choice format may find this element catches them out.
Sale Grammar School is co-educational, with approximately 190 Year 7 places. It follows the standard Trafford consortium process, with score as the primary criterion, a solid option for families across the Sale and Trafford area.
Both schools are part of the Trafford consortium and follow the same process and exam date as AGSB, AGSG and Sale Grammar. The place numbers break down as follows:
Stretford Grammar: approximately 160 Year 7 places
Urmston Grammar: place numbers to be verified directly with the school before publication
If your child's score falls near the threshold for the higher-demand schools, both are worth including in your application. Families across the broader Trafford area (particularly those in Stretford, Urmston and the surrounding neighbourhoods) should factor them in from the start rather than treating them as a fallback.
The right support at the right time makes all the difference in Year 5.
The test consists of two papers, each approximately 60 minutes long, covering maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning blended across both papers.
There is no separate English paper, though verbal reasoning sections may include a comprehension exercise covering grammar, punctuation and vocabulary.
All questions are multiple choice, except for Loreto Grammar's in-house Maths paper.
Please note that the Trafford 11+ uses GL Assessment familiarisation materials, not CEM, which is used in other regions. The two formats are different and preparation materials for one do not transfer to the other.
Each of the two papers runs for approximately 60 minutes and covers a mix of subject areas rather than testing one topic per paper.
In practice, this means your child moves between maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning questions within a single sitting.
Across both papers, your child can expect to encounter the following question types:
Maths and numerical reasoning questions, possibly in unfamiliar formats
Verbal reasoning: word patterns, codes, analogies and sequencing
Non-verbal reasoning: shape patterns, spatial reasoning and visual sequences
A possible comprehension exercise, embedded within the verbal reasoning sections, covering grammar, punctuation and vocabulary
If your child knows what the question formats look like before the day, they are far less likely to lose time to an unfamiliar layout.
The maths questions in the Trafford 11+ draw on the Key Stage 2 curriculum, but they sit a step above what children encounter in Year 5 classroom work.
Your child can be doing well in school maths and still find the 11+ component harder than expected. That gap catches a lot of families off guard.
In our experience working with children preparing for the 11+, the maths component trips up even capable students in predictable ways. Three factors come up again and again:
Format: Questions appear in less familiar structures, with less scaffolding than a classroom exercise provides. A child may know the underlying concept perfectly well and still stall when it appears in an unfamiliar form.
Multi-step reasoning: Many questions require children to apply two or more concepts in sequence, with no prompts along the way.
Speed: The exam is timed and children struggling to retrieve number facts under pressure lose time they cannot recover. Slow retrieval compounds across the paper.
The content itself is not unfamiliar. These are familiar Key Stage 2 maths topics. The demand comes from applying them at speed, in less predictable formats, with no support. That is a specific skill and it needs specific preparation.
📕 You May Also Like: 11+ Maths Preparation: A Guide for Year 4 and Year 5 Families
Effective preparation starts with an accurate picture of where your child actually is, not where a school report suggests they should be. A child working at the expected standard for their year group is doing well by that measure.
The 11+ applies a different one and in our experience, the two rarely align as closely as parents expect.
The two patterns we see most consistently at Mathnasium: families starting later than they realise and children drilling practice papers before the foundational gaps beneath them have been identified.
The first leaves too little time for real conceptual work. The second trains children to encounter the same gaps repeatedly under pressure, which does not close them and just makes the experience more stressful.
One of the things our instructors notice quickly is that timed conditions are a skill in their own right, entirely separate from mathematical ability. A child who knows their maths can still underperform on the day simply because they have never had to work against the clock before. Regular timed practice removes that as a variable before it matters.
When we work with children on pacing, we are not just timing them and hoping for improvement. We are looking for one of three specific things, each of which requires a different response:
Slow retrieval: Is your child spending too long on individual number facts? This points to fluency gaps that need direct work, not more papers.
Unfamiliar question types: Is time being lost because the format is unexpected? Exposure and format familiarisation solve this relatively quickly.
Rushing and careless errors: Is your child moving too fast and making avoidable mistakes under pressure? Methodical pacing practice, not speed drills, addresses this.
Knowing which of these is costing your child time tells you far more than another practice paper score ever will.
There is something else our instructors see regularly: children who feel truly secure in their maths approach the timed element with a composure that children who are less confident simply do not have. Confidence and pacing are connected and both build through structured, cumulative preparation rather than last-minute paper practice.
Here is something most parents do not realise until it is too late to act on: the standard Year 5 curriculum and the GL Assessment maths component are not the same target. School maths is designed to take children to the expected standard for their year. The 11+ is designed to differentiate. Those are different jobs and the content reflects that.
At Mathnasium, when we assess children preparing for the Trafford 11+, we consistently find gaps in the same areas. These are not obscure topics. They are familiar concepts applied in ways that Year 5 classroom work does not fully prepare children for:
Multi-step problem-solving with limited scaffolding
Number properties: factors, multiples, primes and square numbers
Fractions, decimals and percentages applied in less familiar contexts
Data interpretation, including charts and tables with multiple variables
Area, perimeter and volume beyond basic formulas
The reason we start every student with a diagnostic assessment is precisely this: a school report tells you how a child is doing against the curriculum. It does not tell you where they stand against the 11+ syllabus. Those are different questions with different answers and only one of them is useful for preparation.
Gaps identified in the spring term can be worked through systematically before the September exam. Those surfaced in August almost certainly cannot. The earlier you have an accurate picture, the more options you have. If you are not sure where your child stands, finding the right support at the right time makes all the difference.
📕 You May Also Like: What Should My Child Know Before Starting GCSE Maths Revision?
Every child's maths journey starts with understanding exactly where they are.
Mathnasium is a maths-only learning centre dedicated to helping students build confidence and excel in maths.
We work with many students preparing for the Trafford 11+ to make sure they head into the exam prepared and confident.
Behind that work is not a one-size-fits-all preparation system but a proprietary teaching approach called the Mathnasium Method™, designed around each child's needs and the way they learn.
The method begins with a diagnostic assessment that identifies what your child knows securely and where the gaps are.
Using those insights, we create a personalised learning plan tailored specifically to them. Depending on what the assessment reveals, that plan may focus on rebuilding foundational skills the exam draws on, improving fluency with number facts and multi-step reasoning, or extending your child's ability to apply concepts in unfamiliar formats.
With the plan in place, our specially trained instructors follow it closely, delivering face-to-face maths instruction targeted to each student.
We break down challenging concepts into manageable steps, explaining not just how to reach the answer but why the method works. Over time, students develop their own problem-solving skills and critical thinking tools, exactly what exams like the Trafford 11+ demand.
Our instructors can also work on test-taking techniques: pacing under timed conditions, handling unfamiliar question formats and managing the pressure of exam day itself.
Parents tell us this approach makes the difference:
94% of parents report an improvement in their child's maths skills and understanding
93% of parents report their child's improved attitude towards maths after attending Mathnasium
90% of students saw an improvement in their school grades
With over 1,250 centres worldwide, including 40 across the UK, there is likely a Mathnasium near you.
If you are based in Altrincham, Hale, Timperley, Sale or the wider Trafford area, Mathnasium of Altrincham works with students from Year 4 upwards on exactly this: identifying where the maths foundations need work and closing those gaps before the September exam. A free assessment is the right place to start.
📅 Book a Free Assessment at Mathnasium of Altrincham
Not in Altrincham?
Mathnasium of Altrincham is a math-only learning centre for K-12 students in Altrincham, . Trusted by over a million parents, Mathnasium uses personalized learning plans and the proprietary Mathnasium Method™ to help students catch up, keep up, and get ahead on their math journey.
Our specially trained tutors deliver face-to-face instruction in a supportive and fun small-group environment, working with students both in centre and online to develop a deep understanding of math, build confidence, and improve academic performance.
Contact Us
07594 715374
