Apply to Bishop Wordsworth's School, in plain English.
Bishop Wordsworth's is a selective boys' grammar in Salisbury — ages 11–18 — that draws around 235 applications for its 160 Year 7 places, all decided by the school's own 11+: GL Assessment papers in verbal skills, maths and non-verbal reasoning. Reaching the qualifying standard makes a boy eligible; boys whose permanent home is inside the school's designated area around Salisbury are then placed ahead of those outside it, with straight-line distance to the Exeter Street gate breaking ties. Register for the test directly with the school by 1 September 2026, separately from the council application that closes at the end of October.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
You register for the 11+ directly with the school — by 1 September 2026.
Bishop Wordsworth's sets its own 11+ selection test: GL Assessment papers — a verbal skills paper and a maths and non-verbal reasoning paper, age-standardised — sat at the school on Saturday 26 September 2026. You register on the Bishop Wordsworth's Year 7 admissions page; the deadline is midnight on 1 September 2026. Reaching the qualifying standard makes your son eligible — it is a met/not-met standard, not a ranking. Registering for the test is separate from naming the school on your council form: you must do both.
Where you live matters — even to get a seat in the test.
Only the 480 applicants who live nearest the school are admitted to sit the test, measured by shortest straight-line distance to the Exeter Street gate — so proximity to Salisbury counts from the very start. Once a boy has passed, the biggest factor is the school's designated area around Salisbury: eligible boys living inside it are placed ahead of those outside, and within every group the nearest by straight-line distance come first. There is no published distance cut-off — distance only ranks within each criterion.
Pupil Premium and looked-after boys get a lower qualifying standard.
Boys eligible for the Pupil Premium — or who are looked after / previously looked after — qualify at a standard 10% lower than other applicants. Pupil Premium also ranks near the top of the order, above the designated-area criterion, and Service Premium (armed-forces) families have their own priority too. Declare eligibility — with evidence — when you register, not afterwards.
Four steps — the test deadline is the summer, not October.
Registering for the 11+ (step 1) closes on 1 September 2026 — weeks before the council application deadline that catches most families out. Registering for the test is not the same as naming Bishop Wordsworth's on your council application; you must do both.
If more boys pass than there are places, this order decides.
Boys with an EHCP naming Bishop Wordsworth's are admitted first, within the 160. Everyone else must reach the qualifying standard in the 11+; eligible boys are then placed in the order below — Pupil Premium first, then the designated area, then staff children and Service Premium families, with straight-line distance to the Exeter Street gate ranking within each group. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: A boy whose Education, Health and Care Plan names the school, and who meets the entry requirements, must be admitted before the oversubscription criteria are applied — even if the school is full. These places come out of the 160.
What the document says: If an applicant has a statement of Special Educational Needs or an Educational, Health and Care Plan that names the School then a place will be offered provided the entry requirements specified in this Policy are met and the number of available places will reduce accordingly.
In plain English: A boy who is in local-authority care, or who left care through adoption, a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order, is the first oversubscription category once he has met the qualifying standard. Looked-after and Pupil Premium boys qualify at a standard 10% lower than other applicants.
What the document says: a) Looked after child — a 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order … (as defined by section 22 of the Children Act 1989).
In plain English: Eligible boys who attract the Pupil Premium — registered for free school meals at any point in the previous six years — are taken near the top of the order, ahead of the designated-area criterion. Pupil Premium boys also qualify at a standard 10% lower than other applicants. You must provide independent, verifiable evidence as part of the registration process.
What the document says: b) Applicants who, at the time of the entry exam are eligible for Pupil Premium. … Children attracting Pupil Premium are those who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the six years prior to the closing date for registration for the entry exam.
In plain English: This is the criterion most local families compete under. Eligible boys whose permanent home is in the school's designated area — Salisbury, Wilton and the surrounding villages — are placed here, ahead of any boy living outside the area. Within the group, the nearest to the Exeter Street gate as the crow flies are taken first.
What the document says: c) Applicants whose permanent home is in the School's designated area (map available on the School's website) at the time of application or who have evidence that they will be permanently relocated to live in the designated area.
In plain English: An eligible boy who lives with a parent or step-parent who is a contracted member of the school's staff, and has been for at least two years at the time the application is made, is placed in this band — after the designated-area boys, ahead of the general out-of-area pool.
What the document says: d) Applicants who at the time at which the application for admission is made, reside with at least one parent or step parent who is a contracted member of staff at the School and has been so for at least two years.
In plain English: Eligible boys who attract the Service Premium — children of current or recent UK armed-forces personnel — are placed in this band, provided they have met the qualifying standard. Evidence that a parent is or has been a member of the regular Armed Forces is asked for at registration.
What the document says: e) Applicants who, at the time of the Examination, have been recorded as qualifying for the Service Premium in their school or who have been a Service Child in any of the previous three years or who are in receipt of a child pension from the Ministry of Defence … (AFCS) and the War Pension Scheme (WPS).
In plain English: Whatever places remain after the bands above go to the other eligible boys by nearness to the Exeter Street gate as the crow flies. For an out-of-area boy with no Pupil Premium, staff or Service-Premium connection, this is the route — and proximity to Salisbury is what counts.
What the document says: f) Other applicants who have met the entry requirements. … The shortest straight-line distance from the applicant's home to the School (the Exeter St Gate) will be used to determine priority where there is a tie in rank for places within any given criterion … then the available place(s) will be allocated by the casting of lots.
A designated area — not a radius — and in-area boys come first.
Bishop Wordsworth's has a genuine designated area rather than a simple distance circle. It covers Salisbury and Wilton and a wide tract of south Wiltshire around them — north to Winterbourne Stoke and Boscombe, east to Middle Winterslow and Whiteparish, south to Nomansland and Downton, and west to Chicksgrove and Bowerchalke. Eligible boys living inside this area are placed ahead of every boy living outside it, with the nearest to the Exeter Street gate taken first. Living inside the area, not your exact distance, is what lifts your son up the order.
Distance is the tie-break inside every criterion: among otherwise-equal boys, those nearest the school as the crow flies are offered first, and where two cannot be separated priority is decided by casting lots. The county supplies straight-line distances (OS eastings and northings) for the Year 7 round. A boy living closer but outside the designated area is still behind every in-area boy. The GrammarBound boundary shown on the map is an approximate trace of the school's published designated-area map (the school publishes it only as a printed map, with no postcode or parish list); always confirm a borderline address with the school.
See the Salisbury designated area on the GrammarBound mapInside the area: placed first. Outside: only the places left over.
Boy A lives in Wilton, inside the designated area, so he is placed ahead of out-of-area boys and ranked by his distance to the school. Boy B lives in Andover, outside the area: he competes only for the places left after the in-area boys are placed, however close he lives. Distance ranks within each band — it never moves an out-of-area boy ahead of an in-area boy.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
A boy who met the qualifying standard but isn't offered a place is held on a waiting list, ranked by the same oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served. When a place comes free below the 160, it goes to the highest-ranked boy on the list. The list is maintained until the 30 April following the 11+; after that, late applicants are handled through the school's post-11+ (Years 7–11) procedure, and boys are re-examined for the next year group.
A move into the designated area after the closing date can be taken into account, with documentary evidence of the new permanent address received by the school's stated deadline.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against a decision not to offer a place. A request for an appeal must be made in writing and is heard by an independent panel, assisted by an appeals clerk, convened under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. For a selective school an appeal can be made on the ground that your son met the qualifying standard, or that the school's decision was unreasonable. Appealing does not affect your son's waiting-list position.
Joining Year 12 at Bishop Wordsworth's.
Bishop Wordsworth's has a sixth form, and Year 12 entry is decided on GCSE results rather than the Year 7 criteria — the 11+ and the designated area do not apply. Applicants apply directly to the school, not through the council.
The grade floor.
The general requirement is a "Best 8" GCSE points score of at least 52 and at least grade 5 in GCSE English Language and Mathematics, plus the subject-specific grades set for each chosen A level (listed on the school's website). A conditional offer is made before results day to any applicant with the potential to meet these requirements, confirmed against actual grades in August.
Apply direct to the school.
Apply directly to Bishop Wordsworth's for a sixth-form place — entry is on GCSE results, separate from the Year 7 admissions round and the council form. See the Year 12 sixth form admissions page for the application form, deadlines and the subject-by-subject A-level requirements.