Stratford Girls' Grammar School is a fully selective girls' academy in Stratford-upon-Avon, housed in Shottery Manor, and girls enter at eleven on the shared West Midlands test. This page covers Stratford Girls' Grammar School entry at eleven by the GL Assessment test, for children now in Year 3 to Year 5, and not sixth form, fees or A levels.
What is Shottery Manor?
The building the school occupies. Shottery Manor is a historic fifteenth-century house, and the school says it represents the long-upheld traditions of the school. Very few state schools in the Midlands are housed in anything remotely like it, and it visibly shapes how this one talks about itself.
Of the Great Hall the school makes a careful claim, and we will repeat it just as carefully: it is reputed that William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were betrothed in that room. Reputed is the school's own word, and it is not offered as a matter of record.
The school is a good deal younger than the house. The property opened in September 1958 as Stratford-upon-Avon Grammar School for Girls, and it has remained a girls' school since, describing itself now as a fully selective girls' academy state school.
How is the school organised day to day?
Around four houses: Cygnus, Orion, Phoenix and Ursa, run on vertical tutoring.
The school describes the houses as a source of identity, an opportunity for merit and praise, an exposure to the qualities of leadership, and a chance to contribute to something bigger.
Structurally it is a standalone academy rather than part of a multi academy trust, and it runs its own sixth form, SGGS Sixth Form. The admissions page addresses parents directly about their daughter, which is the plainest signal of who the intake at eleven is for.
So what should we start with?
Reading, and earlier than feels necessary. Half the result depends on comprehension and verbal reasoning, and both are the slow kind of skill: vocabulary accumulates, it does not arrive. A girl who has read widely since Year 4 begins the year somewhere a crash course cannot reach.
Non-verbal reasoning is the opposite, and should be met early for the opposite reason. Progress is quick once the question types are no longer strange, and then it stops, so a modest amount of early exposure captures nearly all of the available gain.
Mathematics usually wants pace and multi-step problems rather than unfamiliar content, since the topics have already been taught. Rehearse the switching between question types as well, because both papers ask for it inside one sitting.
And keep the last step in view. Reaching the standard and being offered a place are different things, and the school's own published arrangements decide the second. Applying for a place is itself a separate job, done with your local council in the autumn of Year 6.
Check this first: you will not find a score, a date or a catchment description on this page, because all three are re-published each year by the people entitled to set them, and we are not among them. The two that matter:
Stratford Girls' Grammar School official website and the partnership's own site. Check the school's official admissions page for this year's figures.
Pathway Eleven has no connection to Stratford Girls' Grammar School, to the partnership or to any admissions authority. We cannot register a child, confirm eligibility, or say anything about catchment or your chances. Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
Common questions about Stratford Girls' Grammar School entry
Is the school housed in a historic building?+
Yes. It occupies Shottery Manor, a historic fifteenth-century house which the school says represents its long-upheld traditions. Of the Great Hall it says it is reputed that William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were betrothed there, which is offered as a tradition rather than as established fact.
How old is the school itself?+
Younger than the manor it sits in. The property opened in September 1958 as Stratford-upon-Avon Grammar School for Girls. It has been a girls' school throughout, and now describes itself as a fully selective girls' academy state school with its own sixth form.
How do the houses work?+
There are four, Cygnus, Orion, Phoenix and Ursa, and they run on vertical tutoring. The school calls them a source of identity, an opportunity for merit and praise, an exposure to the qualities of leadership, and a chance to contribute to something bigger.
Is there a separate entrance exam for this school?+
No. The school uses the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools entrance test, taken once in the September of Year 6. Registration is online, made by a parent in the summer term of Year 5, and the result then reaches every partnership school named on it.
Other schools in this consortium
Stratford Girls' Grammar School belongs to the partnership's Warwickshire group. A child sits the shared test once, and the result reaches each of these schools if you name them.
- Alcester Grammar School, mixed, in Alcester, Warwickshire.
- Ashlawn School, mixed, in Hillmorton, Rugby.
- King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, boys, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Lawrence Sheriff School, boys, in Rugby, Warwickshire.
- Rugby High School, girls, in Rugby, Warwickshire.
Where to go next
- The West Midlands 11 plus entrance test, the shared test, and the schools that use it.
- How to prepare for the 11 plus, a plan built around the weighting, not around guesswork.
- 11 plus verbal reasoning question types, the puzzles that sit inside both papers.
- 11 plus maths topics, a quarter of the marks, usually a question of pace.