Apply to Sale Grammar School, in plain English.
Sale Grammar is a co-educational selective grammar that fills its 190 Year 7 places by the Trafford Consortium 11+: children need to reach the consortium's qualifying standardised score, and qualified children living in the school's priority admission area — postcode M33 plus the Trafford parts of M23, WA14 and WA15 — are ranked ahead of those outside it. With around 1,090 applications for 190 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.
Sale Grammar is part of the Trafford Consortium of Grammar Schools. Your child 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.
The score is a pass mark — then it's about where you live.
The test result is a qualifying bar, not a league table. Once your child reaches the consortium's qualifying score, qualified children living in the school's priority admission area — postcode M33, plus Trafford residents in M23, WA14 and WA15 — are ranked ahead of children from outside it, and within the priority area the place goes to the child living closest to the school by straight-line distance.
Living outside the priority area does not rule your child out.
The priority area confers priority, not exclusion. After the in-area children are placed, every remaining place goes to qualified children from outside the area (criterion 4) — and those are ranked by test score, highest first. Scores are standardised for a child's age, so a summer-born child 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 Sale Grammar for 2027 entry until after National Allocation Day.
If more children qualify than there are places, these 4 criteria decide.
Only children who reach the qualifying standardised score are considered at all. If more qualify than the 190 places, they are placed in the order below. The priority admission area splits the list: in-area children (criterion 3) sit above everyone outside it (criterion 4). Inside the area, places go to the child living closest to the school; outside it, places are ranked by test score. Tap any criterion to see the exact wording.
In plain English: Looked-after and previously looked-after children who reach the qualifying score come first, wherever they live. This covers children in council care, and those adopted from care (including from state care outside England).
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 1 — "Looked After Children and all previously Looked After Children." 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 15 qualified children who attract Pupil PremiumPupil PremiumChildren eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years (and other Pupil-Premium-eligible groups). You must verify the eligibility when you apply. funding are placed next, in two steps: first those living in the priority admission area (closest to the school first), then those attending a Trafford state primary whose home is in Trafford but outside the priority area (ranked by test score).
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 2 — "Up to 15 applicants who qualify for Pupil Premium," allocated first to (I) Pupil-Premium applicants residing in the priority admission area, with priority to those residing closer to the school, then (II) Pupil-Premium applicants attending a Trafford state funded primary school whose home address lies within Trafford but not within the priority admission area, allocated by rank score order, distance the tie-break.
In plain English: Every other qualified child whose permanent home is in the priority admission area — postcode M33, plus Trafford residents in M23, WA14 and WA15 — ranked by straight-line distance to the school, closest first. This is the criterion that places most local children, and it sits above all out-of-area children (criterion 4).
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 3 — "Applicants residing in the priority admission area as defined by postcode M33, plus Trafford Authority residents within the M23, WA14, and WA15 postcodes. Where the number of applicants qualifying for admission under this criterion exceeds the number of places available, priority will be given to those applicants residing closer to the school," measured in a straight line from home to the school using Trafford's Local Land and Property Gazetteer (BS7666).
In plain English: Any remaining places go to the other qualified children from outside the priority admission area — and here it is the test score that decides, highest first. This is how children from elsewhere in Greater Manchester or Cheshire get in: there is no minimum distance, just a qualifying score and a place left after the higher criteria are filled.
What the document says: Oversubscription criterion 4 — "Applicants from outside the priority admission area will be placed in rank order as determined by their scores in the selection tests. Where several applicants qualify for the final available place using ranked scores, priority will be given to the applicant residing closer to the school." An exact tie that cannot otherwise be separated is settled by random allocation.
A postcode priority area — priority, not a wall.
This is the bit parents most often get wrong, in both directions. Sale Grammar's priority admission area is defined in the policy as postcode M33, plus Trafford Authority residents within the M23, WA14 and WA15 postcodes. Qualified children living inside it (criterion 3) are ranked ahead of qualified children living outside it (criterion 4). It does not guarantee a place — in busy years the in-area list alone can fill the school — and it does not shut out children living further away, who still compete for any places left over.
Inside the priority area, the place goes to the child living closer to the school in a straight line, measured from the home address using the Trafford Local Land and Property Gazetteer. Outside the area, the test score is what ranks the remaining children — closest distance is only the tie-break.
See the priority admission area on the GrammarBound mapInside the area: priority. Outside: still in the race.
Child A lives in Sale, inside the M33 priority admission area, so a qualifying score places her under criterion 3 — ahead of every out-of-area child, with the nearest in-area children placed first. Child B lives in central Manchester, outside the area, so she competes under criterion 4; if a place is left after the in-area children, the highest-scoring out-of-area children get it. Her address never disqualifies her — it just sits her behind the in-area children.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Waiting list
If your child qualified but wasn't offered a place, they stay on the in-year waiting list, held for the duration of the academic year. When a place comes free it goes to the child ranked highest under the same oversubscription criteria — not first-come-first-served — so a later joiner who lives closer or scores higher can move above you. The list is reordered whenever anyone joins or leaves.
Qualified children who applied on time are added automatically; contact Sale Grammar Admissions after 1 March 2027 to confirm. Parents are asked to re-register at the end of each academic year to stay on the list.
Appeal
You have a statutory right of appeal against the decision not to offer a place, following National Allocation Day. The appeals timetable is published on the school website by 28 February, and appeal information is provided by your home authority with the refusal. Appeals are heard by an independent panel, and appealing does not affect your child's waiting-list position.
A separate route in at 16.
Year 7 is the main entry point, but Sale Grammar also admits external students into Year 12 — the Sixth Form admission number is 192. 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 an Attainment 8 score of at least 60, plus at least grade 6 in each subject you want to study and at least grade 6 in both GCSE English Language and Mathematics. Level 2 qualifications must have been sat in the summer 2026 or 2027 series.
Apply direct to the school.
External Sixth Form applications go straight to Sale Grammar — not through the Common Application Form — by the deadline published in the Sixth Form Prospectus each year. On receipt of the form, external students are asked to provide proof of identity and address; any offer is provisional on the summer GCSE results meeting the requirements. See the school's Sixth Form admissions page for the form and deadline.