Apply to Spalding Grammar School, in plain English.
Spalding Grammar School is a boys' selective academy in Spalding, Lincolnshire (its sixth form is co-educational). Your son qualifies by reaching a standardised score of 220 in the Lincolnshire Consortium 11+ — the county-wide standard, designed to select the top 25% by ability; it is a pass mark, not a ranking. Qualified children who live in the school's designated Priority Area — Spalding and the South Lincolnshire feeder parishes — take priority, and around 260 children apply for its 150 places, so register for the test by 31 March 2026.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
The 11+ is a pass mark of 220, not a ranking. Reaching it makes your son eligible — the Priority Area then decides priority.
Spalding Grammar uses the Consortium of Lincolnshire Grammar Schools' 11+ — two papers (verbal and non-verbal reasoning), sat in September of Year 6. The standardised scores are added together, and a child needs a total of 220 (the county-wide Lincolnshire standard, intended to identify the top 25% of children by ability) to reach the qualifying standard. Once a boy has reached 220 he is fully qualified, and that qualification lasts for the rest of his secondary education. If too many qualified boys apply for the 150 places, it is the Priority Area that decides — children living in the area are considered before those outside it.
Priority goes to children in the designated Priority Area — Spalding and the South Lincolnshire feeder parishes.
After children in care, the next group is qualified children who live in Lincolnshire County Council's designated transport area for the school — Spalding and the 26 feeder parishes of South Lincolnshire listed in the policy's "Priority Area" map (from Crowland and the Deepings in the south-west to Long Sutton, Holbeach and Sutton Bridge in the east). They are considered before children living outside the area. Any qualified boy can still apply from anywhere; out-of-area children are ranked by test score for the remaining places.
Registering for the test and applying for the place are two separate jobs — with two separate deadlines.
Register your son for the Lincolnshire 11+ by 31 March 2026 (registration opens in January of Year 5), through the Admissions section of the Spalding Grammar website — sitting the test is not an application. You then have to name Spalding Grammar on your home council's secondary application form by 31 October 2026. Miss the test registration and he cannot sit; miss the application and he cannot be offered a place, even if he passed.
Five steps — register by 31 March, sit the papers in September, apply by 31 October.
The 11+ registration closes on 31 March 2026, well before the autumn term. Put the registration date in your calendar now — it is the easiest one to miss.
If too many boys qualify, these criteria decide — in order.
Children with an EHCP naming Spalding Grammar are admitted before these criteria apply. All other qualified boys are placed in the highest criterion that applies to them; where a criterion has more qualified children than places, they are separated by test score. Tap any criterion to read the detail.
In plain English: Qualified boys who are currently in council care, or who were previously in care and left it through adoption, a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order (including those who were in state care outside England), get the highest priority. Where they live does not matter.
What the document says: Qualified Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children will be given first priority.
In plain English: Qualified boys who live in Lincolnshire County Council's designated transport area for the school — Spalding and the 26 feeder parishes of South Lincolnshire — are considered before any boy who lives outside it. If more than 150 qualified boys live in this area, the qualifying score of 220 is raised until the number fits, so within the area a higher test score helps. This is usually the group that fills the school.
What the document says: If more than 150 pupils qualify, then all those who live in Lincolnshire County Council's designated transport area for the School, defined as Spalding and the feeder Parishes of South Lincolnshire (Appendix 1), will be considered before those who live outside. If numbers still exceed 150, the aggregate score of 220 will be raised in order to contain the number of admissions.
In plain English: If fewer than 150 qualified boys live in the Priority Area, the remaining places go to qualified boys living outside it, taken in test-score order (highest first) until the 150 places are full. Ties for the last place are settled by straight-line distance to the school — "as the crow flies" from the home Post Office address point — and then, if still tied, an independent lottery.
What the document says: If fewer than 150 from Spalding and the Feeder Parishes qualify, then those who live outside Spalding and the Feeder Parishes who qualify will be considered in score order (highest first) until the limit of 150 is reached. In the event of two or more boys having the same aggregate score then a place will be offered to the boy who lives nearest to the School.
A designated Priority Area — Spalding and the South Lincolnshire parishes.
Spalding Grammar does not use a distance circle. Its priority area is Lincolnshire County Council's designated transport area for the school — Spalding itself and the 26 feeder parishes of South Lincolnshire named in the policy's Appendix 1 "Priority Area" map (Algarkirk, Cowbit, Crowland, the Deepings, Fleet, Fosdyke, Gedney, Gosberton, Holbeach, the Suttons, Long Sutton, Lutton, Moulton, Pinchbeck, Quadring, Surfleet, Sutterton, Tydd St Mary, Weston, Whaplode, Wigtoft and more). Once your son reaches the qualifying standard of 220, a boy who lives in that area is considered before a boy who lives outside it, whatever their test scores. A score above 220 only matters if the in-area group is itself oversubscribed — in which case the qualifying score is raised — or to rank the remaining out-of-area places.
The shaded area on our map is the real parish unionPriority Area parishesOur boundary is the real Ordnance Survey / ONS union of the 26 civil parishes named in Appendix 1 of the school's admissions policy — a faithful, buildable rendering of the council's designated transport area. It is a priority area, not a wall: out-of-area qualified boys can still win the remaining places on test score. If you are near the edge, check with the school. of the 26 Appendix 1 parishes — the council's designated transport area for the school — but check your address with the school if you are near the edge.
See the Priority Area on the GrammarBound mapTwo qualified boys — the one in the Priority Area ranks higher.
Both boys have reached the qualifying standard of 220. Boy A lives in the Priority Area, so ranks above Boy B, who lives outside it — even if Boy B scored higher in the 11+. Score only separates boys within the same criterion.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Reserve list
If your son met the qualifying standard but was offered a lower-preference school, he is placed on Spalding Grammar's reserve list (unless you were offered a higher preference). The list is held in oversubscription-criteria order — not by how long you have waited — so a higher-priority later applicant can move above him. The school keeps the reserve list for the intake year until the end of the academic year.
Appeal
You can appeal if a place is refused, provided you named Spalding Grammar on your application form. As an academy the school may convene its own appeal panel, but at present it uses the independent panels organised by the County Council, whose decision is binding. A boy who did not reach the qualifying standard of 220 can only be admitted on appeal if the panel accepts he is of grammar-school ability. Appealing does not affect your position on the reserve list.
Joining Year 12 — co-educational, external students welcome.
Spalding Grammar's sixth form is co-educational and admits external students alongside the school's own Year 11, with an external admission number of 60. The grade floor is six GCSEs at grade 4 or higher, including Maths and English.
Six GCSEs at grade 4, including Maths and English, plus grade 5 in each A-level subject.
The general requirement is at least six GCSEs at grade 4 or higher, including Mathematics and English Language or English Literature. Any subject continued to A level should be at grade 5 or higher, and some subjects set higher subject-specific grades (for example grade 7 in GCSE Mathematics for A-level Maths) — these are listed in the school's subject information.
Apply direct to the school — internal students continue automatically.
Boys continuing from Spalding Grammar's own Year 11 progress to Year 12 once they meet the grade requirements; external students — male and female — apply directly to the school for the 60 external places. If the sixth form or an individual subject is oversubscribed, places go to children in care or with an EHCP, then the school's own students, then applicants living in Spalding or the feeder parishes, then the most qualified applicants ranked on predicted grades and average GCSE points score.
See spaldinggrammar.lincs.sch.uk for the sixth-form prospectus and subject entry requirements.