Shake-up planned for grammar school admissions tests

There are also plans to get rid of the current unmarked familiarisation test which aims to help students get used to the style of questions when sitting exams to get into Ermysted’s Grammar, a boys’ school in Skipton, and Ripon Grammar.

Instead, North Yorkshire County Council is proposing to produce sample test booklets which will ensure pupils have a chance to prepare. The plan is to have a single day of testing with children sitting both a verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning paper. The tests will be held at Ermysted’s and Ripon Grammar.

The council says having the test in a single venue would create a “level playing field for all children”. The consultation is for changes being proposed for the 2016-17 academic year.

North Yorkshire County Council is responsible for admissions for both Ripon and Ermsyted’s.

The other grammar school, which selects pupils on the basis of ability, in North Yorkshire, Skipton Girls’ High, is an academy which is run separately from the council.

Ripon Grammar School was named as the best state school in the North of England in the Sunday Times Parent Power school guide with Ermysted’s Grammar School finishing fourth.