Apply to Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, in plain English.
AGSB is a wholly selective boys' grammar that fills its 202 Year 7 places by the Trafford Consortium 11+: most applicants need a standardised score of 334 or more to qualify, and boys living in the school's WA13/WA14/WA15/M33/M23 priority area (within Trafford) are ranked ahead of boys outside it. With about 490 applicants for 202 places, register for the consortium test by 19 June 2026 — separately from, and months before, the October Common Application Form deadline.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
Register for the Trafford 11+ by 19 June 2026 — separately from your council form.
AGSB is part of the Trafford Consortium of Grammar Schools. Your son sits one GL Assessment test — two papers of about an hour each, covering verbal, non-verbal and mathematics skills — on Monday 14 September 2026. Registration opens 23 April 2026 and closes 12 noon on 19 June 2026. This is completely separate from, and months before, the Common Application Form you send your home council.
You usually need a standardised score of 334 — and the priority area ranks ahead of everyone else.
Most boys qualify only with a total standardised score of 334 or more (looked-after and Pupil-Premium boys qualify at 324). Among qualified boys, those living in the school's priority area — the WA13, WA14, WA15, M33 and M23 addresses that lie within Trafford — are ranked ahead of boys living outside it. Within every group, places go in order of test score.
Living outside the area does not rule your son out.
The priority area confers priority, not exclusion. After the in-area boys are placed, every remaining place goes to the highest-scoring boys from any address (criterion 5). A high enough score wins a place from anywhere. Scores are standardised for the boy's age, so a summer-born son isn't disadvantaged.
Five steps — the first deadline is summer, not October.
Test registration (step 1) closes on 19 June 2026 — months before the Common Application Form deadline that catches most families out. Miss it and there is no route to a place at AGSB for 2027 entry until after National Offer Day.
If more boys qualify than there are places, these 5 criteria decide.
Only boys who reach the qualifying standardised score are considered at all. If more qualify than the 202 places, they are placed in the order below. Within every category, boys are ranked by their total standardised test score, and a tie is broken by straight-line distance to the school. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Looked-after and previously looked-after boys who reach a total standardised score of 324 or above come first. This covers children in council care, and those adopted from care (including from state care outside England).
What the document says: Priority Category 1 — "‘Looked After Children’ and previously ‘Looked After Children’ achieving a total standardised score of 324 and above." A "looked after child" is in the care of, or accommodated by, a local authority under section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989; "previously looked after" covers children adopted or on a child arrangements or special guardianship order immediately after being looked after, and those who were in state care outside England and were then adopted.
In plain English: Up to 20 places are reserved for boys who attract Pupil PremiumPupil PremiumBoys eligible for free school meals at any time in the last 6 years, plus armed-forces Service Premium children. AGSB's policy defines Pupil Premium to include Service Premium. funding, live in the priority area and attend a Trafford state-funded primary, scoring between 324 and 333 — ranked by score. Any such boy scoring 334+ is also offered a place, on top of the 20. You must verify Pupil-Premium status and upload your primary school's confirmation at registration.
What the document says: Priority Category 2 — "Up to 20 applicants who fall within the Pupil Premium criteria, whose permanent home address lies within the school's priority admission area, attending a Trafford State Funded Primary School and with a total standardised score of 324–333. Places will be offered on the basis of ranking as determined by their total standardised assessment selection scores. Those applicants who fall within the Pupil Premium criteria … and achieve a total standardised score of 334 and above will also be offered places in addition to the 20 places set out above." Pupil Premium (§5) covers free-school-meals-in-the-last-6-years children and armed-forces Service Premium children.
In plain English: Up to 10 further places go to Pupil-Premium boys who attend a Trafford state-funded primary and score 324 or more — wherever in Trafford they live (the priority-area requirement does not apply here). Ranked by score.
What the document says: Priority Category 3 — "Up to 10 Applicants who fall within the Pupil Premium criteria, who attend a Trafford State Funded Primary School and with a total standardised score of 324 and above. Places will be offered on the basis of ranking as determined by their total standardised assessment selection scores."
In plain English: Boys whose permanent home is in the priority area — the WA13, WA14, WA15, M33 and M23 addresses that lie within Trafford — and who score 334 or more, ranked by score. This is the criterion that places most in-area boys, and it sits above out-of-area boys (criterion 5).
What the document says: Priority Category 4 — "Applicants whose permanent home address lies within the school's priority admission area with a total standardised score of 334 and above … Places will be offered on the basis of ranking as determined by their total standardised assessment selection scores." The priority admission area (§8.2) is "postal addresses of WA13/WA14/WA15/M33 and M23 postcodes which lie within the Trafford Local Authority".
In plain English: Any remaining places go to the highest-scoring boys from outside the priority area, scoring 334 or more, ranked by score. This is how boys from elsewhere in Greater Manchester, Cheshire or further afield get in — there is no residence requirement at all, just a high enough score.
What the document says: Priority Category 5 — "Eligible applicants from outside the school's priority admission area with a total standardised score of 334 and above. Places will be offered on the basis of ranking as determined by their total standardised assessment selection scores." Where a category is oversubscribed at the cut-off score, priority goes to the boy living closest to the school by straight-line distance (§8.6–8.7); an exact tie is settled by random allocation (§8.8).
A priority area — not a catchment wall.
This is the bit parents most often get wrong, in both directions. The priority area — the WA13, WA14, WA15, M33 and M23 addresses that lie within Trafford — gives boys living there priority (criterion 4) ahead of boys living anywhere else. It does not guarantee a place, and it does not shut out boys living elsewhere: criterion 5 is open to any address, so a high-scoring boy from Manchester, Stockport or Cheshire still gets in. Within both pools, ranking is by total standardised test score.
Distance itself is only a tiebreaker: where two boys have the same score at the cut-off in any criterion, the place goes to the boy living closer to the school in a straight line, measured from the home seed point in Trafford's Local Land and Property Gazetteer to the school's fixed point.
See the priority area on the GrammarBound mapInside the area: priority. Outside: still in the race.
Boy A lives in Sale (M33), inside the priority area, so a qualifying score of 334+ places him under criterion 4 — ahead of every out-of-area boy. Boy B lives in Stockport, outside the area, so he competes under criterion 5; if his score is high enough he still gets a place. His address never disqualifies him — it just sits him behind the in-area boys.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your son qualified but wasn't offered a place, ask to join the waiting list after National Offer Day. When a place comes free it goes to the boy ranked highest under the same five oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served — so a later joiner with a higher score (or in a higher category) can move above you.
Contact the AGSB Admissions Department after 1 March 2027 to be added.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place, following National Offer Day. Appeal information is provided by your home authority with the refusal. Appeals are heard by an independent panel, and appealing does not affect your son's waiting-list position.
A separate route in at 16.
Year 7 is the main entry point, but AGSB also admits external students into Year 12. External applicants are judged on the same academic requirement as the school's own students, and apply direct to the school — not through the council form.
The grade floor.
The minimum for a Sixth Form place is at least grade 5 in GCSE English Language and Mathematics and an Attainment 8 score of 62 (your best 8 GCSEs, with Maths and English double-weighted). Individual A-level courses then set their own higher subject grades — for example a grade 6 in Maths, or a grade 7 in the sciences.
Apply direct to the school.
External Sixth Form applications go straight to AGSB — not through the Common Application Form — typically from mid-October to early February of Year 11. The admission criteria for external candidates are the same as for the school's own students. See the school's admissions page for the Sixth Form form and deadline.