The FSCE 11+ is designed to assess how effectively children can apply their knowledge, think critically and respond to unfamiliar problems from the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum taught up to the end of Year 5. The assessment includes English and Mathematics, while some schools may also include creative writing or questions drawing on other areas of the Key Stage 2 curriculum. The exact content and format vary between schools, so families should always consult their chosen school’s familiarisation guide.
Together, the areas below assess how confidently children can use and apply learning from the primary curriculum up to the end of Year 5, while demonstrating the thinking and problem-solving skills needed for selective secondary education.
English
English skills are assessed through reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, spelling and punctuation, using knowledge developed across the Key Stage 2 curriculum. Children may be asked to interpret a text, explore relationships between words, recognise how language is structured or choose and produce accurate forms of written English. Questions may be presented in multiple-choice or short written-answer formats and can appear within other curriculum subjects.
Maths
Key areas are assessed including: number and calculation, fractions, decimals, percentages, measurement, geometry and the interpretation of tables and graphs. Children may need to apply mental or written methods to familiar and unfamiliar problems, break multi-step tasks into manageable stages and use reasoning to reach accurate solutions without a calculator.
The Trafford grammar schools switch fully to FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise) from September 2028 entry. The test will move earlier to the summer term of year 5. Trafford's five-school consortium currently sits a GL Assessment test, assessing Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Maths for 2027 entry.
If you are still unsure which membership you need please Get in touch.
Year 4 and 5