The Gloucestershire FSCE 11 plus test for 2028 entry: the details, and our response

The details are out

In April the seven Gloucestershire grammar schools announced that their 11 plus entrance test would move from GL Assessment to FSCE, Future Stories Community Enterprise, a not-for-profit company owned by Reading School. Our first post on the Gloucestershire move to FSCE covered the announcement and listed what was still unknown. The schools promised familiarisation material by the end of September, and it is now on their admissions pages.

There are four documents, the same on each school’s site: a Familiarisation Guide for children, one for parents, an FAQ for prospective parents, and a short information sheet on the test. You can find them on the admissions pages of The Crypt School, Pate’s Grammar School and Denmark Road High School, among others. They are free, and FSCE describes them as the only genuine resource for its test. Read them yourself: they are clear and not long.

What follows is our summary, what we think it means for a child in Year 5 now, and how to use the nine months, including where 11+ Daily fits.

Key dates for September 2028 entry

The test is for children who are in Year 5 now, in the 2026 to 2027 school year.

A child may take the test only once, and all of it is sat on one day at one of the Gloucestershire grammar schools. Confirm the current arrangements with the schools, because dates can change.

The date is the biggest practical change. Under GL Assessment, Gloucestershire children sat the test in September of Year 6, so this Year 5 cohort loses the summer holiday that families used to lean on. The test is about nine months away.

The three FSCE papers

The Gloucestershire FSCE test is three papers, which may be sat in any order, each typically 45 to 60 minutes, with breaks between them.

• Adventure Paper: English and Maths, multiple choice.
• Beacon Paper: English and Maths, short written answers. For a number, the child writes one digit per box; for a word, one capital letter per box.
• Compass Paper: any of eleven school subjects, multiple choice. The list is Art and Design, Computing, Design and Technology, English, Geography, History, Languages, Maths, Music, Physical Education and Science.

A few details from the guides are worth knowing early. In the sample questions, multiple choice questions have four options, A to D, one of them correct, and the child shades an oval on a separate answer sheet in black pen. All instructions are given by audio recording, including the time allowed for each section. Calculators, rulers, protractors and scrap paper are not allowed, and nor is any kind of watch; there are clocks in the room. Marks are not lost for wrong answers, so a child should always put something down. The papers are marked by computer and age-standardised.

What is not in the test

This is the part that changes preparation most for a family who has been following general 11+ advice.

• No Non-Verbal Reasoning. FSCE’s FAQ says it outright: there is no Non-Verbal Reasoning in its tests, because it is not taught in the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum.
• No Verbal Reasoning as a subject. It is not on the list.
• Nothing beyond the end of Year 5. Every question draws on the curriculum up to and including Year 5. Where a question needs something a child may not have met, FSCE says the paper supplies the information.
• No past papers, and no authorised practice papers. FSCE says the question types, subjects, content and format change from year to year, so that no tutor, parent or company can claim to know what the test will be like. The sample questions in the guides are there for format, and FSCE says they are not indicative of the content.

One detail to check with the schools: FSCE’s general FAQ mentions creative writing tasks, but the list of three papers for the Gloucestershire FSCE test names only multiple choice and short written answers.

What the guides say about English and Maths

The parents’ guide lists the skills it is looking for in each subject, and the English and Maths lists are specific.

English is heavily about grammar and meaning inside sentences: past and present tense, the progressive form, words with similar and opposite meanings, speech marks, apostrophes for plurals and possession, commas after fronted adverbials, paragraphs and cohesion, pronouns, expanded noun phrases, prefixes and suffixes, relative clauses, modal verbs, conjunctions, and homophones. The sample English question asks which of four passages suits a story for a four-year-old, so reading for audience and purpose is in there too.

Maths is the Year 5 curriculum applied to problems: numbers up to and beyond 1,000,000, negative numbers, multi-step calculation, factors, multiples, primes, square and cube numbers, fractions, decimals and percentages, measures and converting units, perimeter, area and volume, angles, line graphs, tables and timetables. No calculator, and a strong emphasis on problems in context.

What this means for a Year 5 child in Gloucestershire now

1. Put the time into English and Maths. The schools say Maths and English form the main part of the assessment. They make up two of the three papers, and they are the part a child can build steadily over nine months. How 11+ For Gloucestershire FSCE practises them is further down this page.
2. Drop the reasoning papers. Time spent on Non-Verbal Reasoning, or on Verbal Reasoning puzzle types, is time not spent on the subjects FSCE lists.
3. Read widely. It is FSCE’s first piece of advice for English, and it helps the Compass Paper too, which rewards a child who has paid attention across all their school subjects.
4. Be wary of anything that claims to know what is on the paper. FSCE says it has authorised no commercial books or papers, and that nobody has knowledge of the test beyond the guides. We agree, and it applies to us as well.
5. Plan for July, not September. The step-up that other areas make over the summer before Year 6 has to happen during Year 5. Our term-by-term Year 5 plan still applies, compressed.

Practising the part that can be practised

Update, October 2026. This section first described using 11+ Daily with the reasoning subjects switched off. It said a Year 5 only option for Maths and typed answers were on our list, that no product could cover the Compass Paper, and that we would say where we stand before registration opens in February 2027. 11+ Daily now has a version set up for this test, and this section describes it.

11+ For Gloucestershire FSCE is 11+ Daily set up for the Gloucestershire FSCE test, with Gloucestershire FSCE 11 plus practice in English, Maths and Across the Curriculum. After you sign up, the app asks when the exam is: set the exam board to FSCE Gloucestershire, and the daily session draws only on it: no reasoning subjects, and every question aimed at Year 5 or below.

Maths. The Year 5 Maths the parents’ guide lists: place value, negative numbers, the four operations, factors, multiples and primes, square and cube numbers, fractions, decimals and percentages, measures and converting units, perimeter, area and volume, angles, line graphs, tables and timetables, asked as problems in context. Each skill is practised both as multiple choice and as a written answer, one digit per box, the format the Beacon Paper uses.

English. Grammar inside sentences, spelling and vocabulary, and reading with passages, again as multiple choice and as written answers, one capital letter per box, plus punctuation as multiple choice. A word of the day runs alongside, to stretch vocabulary.

Across the Curriculum. Practice for the Compass Paper in the nine subjects it lists beyond English and Maths: Art and Design, Computing, Design and Technology, Geography, History, Languages, Music, Physical Education and Science. The Compass Paper changes every year, and nothing replaces paying attention at school and reading widely. What daily practice can do is keep those subjects familiar.

Seeing it work. The parents area shows which skills have been covered and how accurately, so you can watch the nine months being used rather than take it on trust.

What no product can give a Gloucestershire family is knowledge of the paper. FSCE says nobody has any beyond the guides, and it has authorised no practice material from anyone. That includes us: every question is original to 11+ Daily, aimed at Year 5 or below, and none of it is FSCE material.

11+ For Gloucestershire FSCE starts with a 14-day free trial that needs no card, and within a week you will know whether the daily routine suits your child. Alongside it, print the official Familiarisation Guides, work through the sample questions with your child so the answer sheets and audio instructions are not a surprise in July, and keep reading together. For the wider picture of which areas are changing provider, our guide to the GL Assessment 11 plus lists who is moving and when.

Questions parents ask