Does the 11 plus include creative writing?

In its own words, on its entrance test information page: “There are no sections of writing within the test – all questions are multiple choice and children record their answers on a separate answer sheet.”

The format around that statement is published in two places, and the two do not print the same number. The West Midlands Grammar Schools partnership publishes that candidates sit two papers, each approximately 50 to 60 minutes long, and that each paper is divided into smaller individually timed sections. The King Edward VI Foundation publishes the same structure for the same test and describes each paper as approximately 60 minutes long, including time for instructions and example questions. We have not reconciled the two figures, because reconciling published figures is guessing; the letter from your child's allocated test centre is the version that applies. Both sources name the same four areas: English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics and non-verbal or spatial reasoning.

The King Edward VI Foundation publishes that the test “is provided by GL Assessment”, and West Midlands Grammar Schools publishes that the one test is shared across the partnership, so one sitting covers applications across the region. Nobody publishes a count of those schools, so this site does not print one either; what it does carry is a page for each school in the partnership. Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment. Everything above is a reading of published material with the source linked at the foot of this page, so that you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.

Everything writing would have shown, examined by selection rather than by production. That is worth understanding, because parents often read “no writing” as “less English”, and the opposite is true: the English side carries the heaviest weighting of the four areas.

The published weighting puts English and verbal reasoning together at 50% of the result, with non-verbal reasoning and mathematics at 25% each. A child who cannot write a story will not lose a mark for it. A child with a thin vocabulary loses marks in half the paper. 11 plus English explained sets out what is inside that half.

Want practice shaped like the paper rather than like a general English workbook? Start a free week of Pathway Eleven: the Starting Assessment shows where the comprehension and vocabulary work needs to begin, and the daily plan follows from that rather than from a syllabus.

Independent schools set their own entrance assessments, and many include written English. Solihull School, for example, publishes an 11 plus English paper whose first task is comprehension of a prose passage and whose second is creative, descriptive or original writing chosen from a number of options. That is a school-set paper, entirely separate from the shared consortium test.

Independent schools that use the ISEB Common Pre-Tests are a different case again. ISEB publishes that its Pre-Tests are online, adaptive assessments covering four subjects: mathematics, English including reading comprehension and grammar, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Some schools that use the Pre-Tests add a paper or an interview of their own later in the process, and some do not; the school's own admissions page is the only place that settles it.

So the honest general answer is that it depends on the school, and the only reliable source is the admissions page of the school you are applying to. For the state partnership schools in the West Midlands the answer is settled and published: no writing in the shared test. Each of those schools has its own page here, with a link to its own admissions pages: start from the West Midlands 11 plus entrance test page.

Three areas outside the West Midlands that parents ask about

The answer above is about one region. Selective areas elsewhere publish their own arrangements, and they do not all match. Three come up in almost every conversation, so here is what each one publishes, quoted from its own page, and where a page could not be read, that is said rather than filled in.

Essex, and CSSE. The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex publishes on its home page: “The candidates sit two tests. One in English and one in Mathematics. The English paper will last sixty minutes with ten minutes additional reading time. The Mathematics paper will last sixty minutes.” (CSSE, read 6 September 2026.) Separately, its practice material page publishes past papers under their own titles, among them “English Continuous Writing Paper 2023 Entry”, “English Continuous Writing Paper 2022 Entry” and “English Continuous Writing Paper 2021 Entry” (read 6 September 2026). That is the sourced way to put it: CSSE publishes separately named continuous writing papers alongside its English and Mathematics papers. We describe what it publishes and stop there, because characterising a paper we have not sat would be guessing.

Buckinghamshire. Buckinghamshire Council publishes that, in its Secondary Transfer Test, “Children sit two test papers, each about 60 minutes long, with a break between”, and that the test measures “verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills” (Buckinghamshire Council, read 6 September 2026). That published description names no writing task. So Buckinghamshire is a second named area, outside the West Midlands, whose own account of its test contains nothing to write.

Kent. Kent is the area parents ask about most after their own, and this page does not describe it. We could not open Kent County Council's own Kent Test page when we tried on 6 September 2026, so we have no wording from the council to quote and we will not repeat somebody else's summary of it. The link goes straight to the council's page: read it there, and treat what the council publishes as the only account that counts.

Yes, and not for the reason most people assume. Writing is not on the paper, so there are no marks in it directly. What writing does is build the machinery the paper does test.

A child who writes regularly punctuates better, because punctuation stops being a rule to recall and becomes a habit of the hand. They use a wider vocabulary, because using a word is what fixes it far more firmly than reading it. And they understand how a text is put together from the inside, which is exactly what an author's-purpose question is asking about.

So keep the writing, and stop marking it as if it were an exam. Short pieces, often, with a conversation about word choice afterwards, do more for a comprehension score than a workbook of writing exercises graded out of twenty.

Reading that the paper is multiple choice is one thing; seeing an answer sheet is another. We will send you the pack of practice papers in the West Midlands format, with answer sheets and worked answers, plus the occasional preparation email. The free practice papers page explains what is in the pack before you ask for it.

The address you give is used for the papers and for the occasional preparation email described above. It is used for nothing else and shared with nobody. Unsubscribe whenever you like; the Privacy Notice covers what is held and how to have it erased.

Plenty of West Midlands families apply to a state grammar school and to an independent school in the same year, and the two assessments are not the same shape. Handle it in this order.

Build the shared foundation first. Comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, grammar, mathematics and reasoning are needed for both routes. That work is never wasted, whichever paper a child ends up sitting.

Read the independent school's own published assessment. Find out what it actually sets, and when. Some set a written English paper, some set an interview, some use an online adaptive pre-test, and the combination differs school by school.

Add the writing rehearsal last, and only if it is needed. If a school does set a writing task, six or eight timed pieces with proper feedback in the term before is usually enough for a child whose reading and vocabulary are already strong.

Pathway Eleven prepares the shared foundation described above, in the multiple-choice format the consortium test actually uses: comprehension, vocabulary, reasoning and mathematics, with every question reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher. Full mock rehearsals are part of full membership rather than the trial, and they unlock from Year 4. It does not mark creative writing, which is a thing a teacher does far better than software, so if your child is also sitting a school-set written paper you will still want a person for that half. Everything else sits on one plan at £49 a month, and the first week costs nothing.

Every source on this page, with the day it was read

This page separates a state consortium answer from an independent school answer, so it leans on several published sources rather than one. Each was read on the publisher's own page, on the date recorded against it.

• King Edward VI Foundation, Grammar Schools: Entrance Test Information. The published statement that the test is provided by GL Assessment, that there are no sections of writing within the test, that all questions are multiple choice on a separate answer sheet, and the two-paper format described there as approximately 60 minutes for each paper. Checked 5 September 2026.
• West Midlands Grammar Schools, The entrance test. The same four areas and multiple-choice format for the shared regional test, the two papers described here as approximately 50 to 60 minutes each, and the published weighting of 50% English and verbal reasoning, 25% non-verbal reasoning and 25% mathematics. Checked 5 September 2026.
• Solihull School, Entrance assessment. An independent school whose 11 plus English paper sets comprehension of a prose passage as task one and creative, descriptive or original writing as task two. Checked 5 September 2026.
• ISEB, Common Pre-Tests. Online adaptive assessments covering mathematics, English including reading comprehension and grammar, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, used by many independent schools. Checked 5 September 2026.
• CSSE, Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex. The published statement that candidates sit two tests, one in English and one in Mathematics, with the English paper lasting sixty minutes plus ten minutes additional reading time and the Mathematics paper sixty minutes. Checked 6 September 2026.
• CSSE, Practice material. The published past-paper list carrying separately titled English Continuous Writing papers for 2023, 2022 and 2021 entry. Checked 6 September 2026.
• Buckinghamshire Council, The Secondary Transfer Test. The published statement that children sit two test papers, each about 60 minutes long, with a break between, and that the test measures verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills. No writing task is named on that page. Checked 6 September 2026.
• Kent County Council, The Kent Test. Listed as a link, not as a source: we could not open this page on 6 September 2026, so nothing on it is quoted or described here. Read it at the council directly.