Gloucestershire grammar schools are moving to FSCE: what has been announced and what it means for families

The headline

All seven Gloucestershire grammar schools have appointed Future Stories Community Enterprise (FSCE), a not-for-profit subsidiary of Reading School, to run their shared 11 Plus entrance test. The change takes effect for the test sat in summer 2027, which determines entry to Year 7 in September 2028. The test also moves out of September of Year 6 and into the summer term of Year 5.

Which schools are involved

The change is a joint decision by the Gloucestershire grammar school consortium, published simultaneously on each school's news page on 15 April 2026:

• Pate's Grammar School (Cheltenham)
• Stroud High School
• Marling School (Stroud)
• Sir Thomas Rich's School (Gloucester)
• The Crypt School (Gloucester)
• Ribston Hall High School (Gloucester)
• Denmark Road High School (Gloucester, also known as High School for Girls)

What the schools have said

The shared statement puts heavy emphasis on accessibility, alignment with the Key Stage 2 curriculum, and reducing reliance on specialist tutoring. Several heads have added their own wording:

• Dr James Richardson, Head of Pate's: "Moving to a test provider whose assessments are closely aligned with the national curriculum is an important step in ensuring that potential and passion for learning (rather than access to specialist tutoring) are recognised and rewarded in our admissions process."
• Mark McShane, Head of Stroud High: "As a school, widening access and ensuring fair opportunity are central to our admissions philosophy. FSCE's approach to assessment, with its strong curriculum alignment and inclusive design, closely matches these values."
• Alec Waters, Head of Ribston Hall: "Their strong alignment with the Key Stage 2 curriculum, combined with a clear commitment to fairness, accessibility and high-quality assessment, gives us confidence that the test will identify genuine academic potential."

Who FSCE is

FSCE stands for Future Stories Community Enterprise. It is a not-for-profit subsidiary of Reading School and already runs entrance assessments for a number of other grammar schools, sitting around 8,000 children a year. The consortium statement emphasises that FSCE's assessments are closely aligned with the Key Stage 2 national curriculum, with a strong focus on accessibility and reducing reliance on specialist tutoring.

What is still unknown

At the time of writing, these details are still being confirmed:

• The exact question formats and mark scheme of the FSCE paper for Gloucestershire.
• Which subjects and skill areas will be tested, and how Verbal Reasoning fits into the new format.
• The precise weighting between English and Maths.
• How practice materials and sample papers will be made available to families.
• Operational detail around the summer-of-Year-5 sitting, including dates and venues.

What this means for current Year 5 and Year 6 families

If your child is due to sit the Gloucestershire 11 Plus this September 2026 for entry in September 2027, nothing changes for you. You are still sitting the current GL Assessment paper, and the consortium has been explicit that FSCE starts from the summer 2027 sitting onwards. Keep preparing as you are.

If your child is currently in Year 4 and will sit for September 2028 entry, they will be in the first FSCE cohort. The test will also be earlier in the school year than it has been historically, in the summer term of Year 5 rather than September of Year 6.

Our honest view for families

Do not panic and do not stop practising. The underlying skills tested across UK 11 Plus exams are remarkably consistent: reading comprehension, vocabulary, written English, arithmetic, problem-solving and logical reasoning all remain valuable regardless of which provider runs the paper. A child who is strong in those areas is well placed for any reasonable 11 Plus style exam, including whatever the Gloucestershire FSCE paper looks like in practice. Good practice now is not wasted practice.

It is also worth saying that the stated direction, closer alignment with the national curriculum and less reliance on tutor-specific techniques, is broadly welcome. If it works as intended, it should make the test a fairer reflection of a child's school learning rather than their family's ability to pay for coaching.

How 11+ Daily will respond

11+ Daily is currently tuned to GL Assessment, which remains the most common paper style across UK grammar and selective school areas and the one Gloucestershire will use for at least one more sitting. That is not changing overnight.

What we can commit to right now:

• We are actively monitoring the FSCE rollout, and we will read the Gloucestershire-specific specification and sample materials as soon as they are published.
• We will assess, openly, how much of FSCE our existing English and Maths content already supports, and where gaps exist.
• Where it is feasible, we plan to adapt the app to cover FSCE-specific formats so Gloucestershire families continue to have a genuinely useful tool from Year 4 upwards.
• We will communicate clearly about what is and is not supported, rather than overclaim.

What we will not do is pretend we can support a test whose detailed specification has not been published yet. If FSCE turns out to require content or formats we do not currently cover, we will say so, and we will work on closing the gap rather than dressing up existing content as something it is not.

Staying in the loop

We will update this post and publish follow-ups as more information becomes available. If you are a Gloucestershire parent and you would like us to keep you informed as we learn more, please get in touch, and we will include FSCE updates in our occasional product emails.