There is an uncomfortable truth about the modern 11-plus that middle-class Britain rarely acknowledges: it is less simply an exam, more an industry.
An entire parallel economy now exists around getting 10-year-olds into grammar schools. Tutors, mock exams, practice papers, online platforms and intensive courses – plus parents swapping strategies on WhatsApp groups with febrile intensity.
Children spend the final summers of their childhood doing timed verbal reasoning papers in the kitchen, while everyone insists it is perfectly normal. That’s why the decision by eight grammar schools to move their 11-plus exams from September into July feels surprisingly radical. A minor timetable adjustment? Actually, it is a tacit admission that the current system has become deeply unequal.
Traditionally, pupils sit the 11-plus at the beginning of Year 6 in September. That means the entire summer holiday beforehand becomes an unofficial cramming season. Although only five per cent of pupils in England go to grammar schools, some 100,000 sit selective exams . Wealthier, middle-class families often fill those six weeks with intense preparation – they can afford the extra help. Schools moving the exam to July hopes to tackle that advantage.
