OPEN EVENTS 2024/25
Open Mornings
Open Mornings will be held on Wednesday 14 May and Tuesday 20 May 2025. The mornings are primarily for Year 4 and Year 5 pupils, and parents and carers, to come and see Marling School during a working morning. You will receive a talk from Mrs J. Godfrey our Principal and then you will be taken on a tour by our Year 7 and Year 8 pupils. We would like everyone attending to book an arrival time slot and we will insert a link to a booking form here in early 2025.
Open Evening
We hold an autumn Open Evening every year in late September or early October, starting around 5pm and closing at 7.00pm. This Open Evening is primarily aimed at Year 4 and Year 5 pupils, however, we welcome other years if you wish to view Marling School. Talks from Mrs J. Godfrey, will be held at a number of times during the evening. The school will be open for you to explore the curriculum subjects and school campus until 7pm, talking to our wonderful teachers and students. An Open Evening is the time to ask your questions and gain the feel for Marling School and our five principles: respect, inclusion, perserverance, academic excellence & pashion for learning. We do ask you to book a talk time, and the booking form will be available here in September 2024.
Year 6 Qualifying Students (October 2024)
After students are notified of their results in mid-October, we hold open mornings, exclusively, for pupils who have gained a qualifying rank to Marling in the Entrance Test. The morning consists of a talk, a tour and an opportunity to ask questions. Our Year 8 pupils always look forward to showing you around their school. A link to book a place is included in the result lettter which is emailed to the address you supplied on your test registration form. The results are out in mid-October and we advise that before they are released you read our Results are Out – What Happens Next document, a summary of the Gloucestershire grammar schools allocation procedure.
Marling School is a non-fee paying, selective Grammar School for boys aged 11-16 years with a co-educational Sixth Form.
To gain entry to Year 7, all pupils must sit and gain a qualifying rank in the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools' Entrance Test. Registration for the Entrance Test is in the summer of Year 5 and the Test is taken of Year 6. Marling School operates within the Gloucestershire County Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for Year 7 entry.
In year admissions for Year 8 to Year 11 can be made and should be directed to our Admissions Officer by submitting an In Year Application Form to admissions@marling.school.
All Sixth Form admission enquiries should be directed to the Senior Sixth Form Administrator, Mrs Jayne Elder JXE@marling.school
In the normal primary to secondary route of entry, all boys in their correct chronological cohort for Year 6 must sit the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools' Entrance Test organised by the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools and can be sat at Marling School. Parents/carers must register their child for the Entrance Test by completion of the Gloucestershire Grammar Schools' Registration Form (usually in the summer term of Year 5). The Registration link will appear on this website at the appropriate time. Boys interested in a place at Marling School must share their result with Marling on the Registration Form.
Boys who achieve a qualifying score in the Entrance Test will need to declare Marling School as one of their choices on their Common Application Form (CAF) which must be submitted by 31 October, if they wish to gain a place. In Gloucestershire, the form asks parents/carers to state their ranked preferences for up to five secondary schools. Only boys with a qualifying score will be considered for entry to Marling School.
All offers of school places will be made by the Local Authority (usually 1 March). This will be the school with the highest ranked preference for which your son has met the admission criteria.
Out of county applications will be accepted for candidates who live outside Gloucestershire, however, parents/carers will need to contact their own local authority in relation to the Common Application Form. The process should then enable your own local authority to liaise with Gloucestershire County Council regarding allocation of schools.
Out of cohort applicants must apply for approval from Marling School's Admissons Committee prior to registering for the Entrance Test in the summer. Read our Admissions Policy for more information.
Our current 2024 and 2025 Admissions Policy and the 2026 Admissions Policy variation for consultation, can be viewed below.
2026 Admissions Policy variation for consultation
The consultation will run for 6 weeks from Thursday 7 November 2024 until Thursday 19th December 2024. If you would like to submit any comments regarding this Admissions Policy, please forward them in writing to Rachel Jenkins, Clerk to the Governors c/o Marling School, Cainscross Raod, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 4HE. Alternatively, by emailing RMJ@marling.school . All comments will be considered by the Governing Body following the close of consultation before the final policy is determined and published on our website. The changes to the policy are detailed in the accompanying letter, sent on behalf of the Governing Body and can be downloaded below.
2026 Entry (current Year 5s)
The Entrance Test for September 2026 entry will be held on Saturday 13th September 2025. The registration window to register to take the Entrance Test will be open from noon Monday 19th May to noon Friday 27th June 2025. Results will be emailed to you in mid-October 2025 before the Common Application Form (CAF) deadline for secondary school choices. The CAF must be submitted to your local authority by 31 October 2025.
2025 Entry (current Year 6s) - School Allocation
National Allocation Day for Secondary School is Monday 3 March 2025. Local Authorities will notify you of your child’s allocated Secondary School and you should reply to your Local Authority within a week, by midnight Monday 10 March. Your reply will be to accept (or decline) the allocation offered and you may also opt to be put on waiting a list(s). You must have a qualifying rank to be put on a Grammar School’s waiting list. Further information can be found on the Gloucestershire County Council website at the appropriate time by using the following link: Transfer to Secondary School or from Middle to High School, September 2025 | Gloucestershire County Council
Parents are notified of waiting list request outcomes by Gloucestershire County Council after Friday 28 March 2025. Replies must be direct to Gloucestershire County Council by Wednesday 2 April 2025.
You can remind yourself of the procedure by reading our document Results are Out – What Happens Next, a summary of the Gloucestershire grammar schools allocation procedure. Please read this information before contacting Marling School's Admission Officer as it should answer your query.
2025 Entry (current Year 6s) - Missed the Test Registraion Window?
Please refer to the document 'Missed Test Registration Window for September 2025 Entry' below if you have missed the test registration window.
2026 Entry (current Year 5 students)
The Gloucestershire Grammar Schools Entrance Test for September 2026 entry into Y7 will take place on Saturday 13th September 2025 and will be organised into two sittings, morning and early afternoon. Registration for the test is a 6 week window from noon Monday 19th May 2025 to noon Friday 27th June 2025. Registration is made when the sutdent is in the UK academic year 5 and the test is sat soon after the student starts their UK academic year 6.
Please note that correspondence with you will be through the email adress you put in the registration form. The postal address you suppy will be used to send you final Entrance Test day forms and drop off and pick up details, a week before the test and therefore if you change address between registering and the week before the entrance test, you must supply the Admissions Officer of the school at which your son will be taking the test with your new address. Important and useful informaton on registration, the test, results and appeals is made available in a document, undated annually. You will find the 2025 Entry document below, this will be updated in due course for 2026 Entry.
Students will be ranked in order of result. The ranked results will be emailed in Mid October. The closing date for the submission of the Common Applicaton Form to your Council or Authority is 31st October 2025. It is the local authority that allocate Marling School places on National Allocation Day, Monday 2nd March 2026.
The Gloucestershire Grammar Schools admissions test is provided by GL Assessment and is taken in the September in which the student is in Year 6. It assessed students’ verbal and non-verbal abilities, English skills and Mathematics. All questions are multiple choice style questions. Familiarisation materials can be found here.
- The test assesses students’ verbal and non-verbal abilities, English skills and mathematics, and is provided by GL Assessment.
- All questions are multiple choice style questions.
- In one paper, students are tested on their verbal skills (including comprehension, vocabulary and verbal reasoning).
- The other test paper assesses non-verbal reasoning and mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding.
- Each test session takes around an hour.
- At the beginning of each session there is time built in for the sharing of instructions and, for the non-verbal reasoning element, some worked examples. Students are allocated a total of 45 minutes to complete the tests themselves.
- GL Assessment is the largest independent provider of educational assessments in the UK, also providing assessment materials to schools in over 100 countries worldwide. They have been developing selection assessments for over 40 years and provide tests to the majority of grammar schools in the country. GL Assessment works hard to develop its material such that all children are able to demonstrate their levels of attainment and academic potential without excessive preparation.
Student Induction Day - July 2025
All of our 2025/26 intake will be invited to Marling School on Tuesday 8th July 2025, 9.30am to 2.30pm. We always look forward to meeting our new intake and introducing them to Marling School. Further details are emailed to parents and carers prior to the Induction Day.
New Parent Evening - July 2025
Marling School have a New Parent Evening on Monday 7th July 2025. The Parent Staff Association (PSA) have nearly new uniform available for any purchases and our branded uniform supplier, Bateman's, attends for parents to book a fitting or order new uniform.
Marling School is an Academy and as such the Governing Body is the admissions authority. However, Marling School operates its admissions policy and procedures in line with Gloucestershire County Council’s coordinated scheme for school admission, which in turn operates within the School Admissions Code.
Any application for school places made outside the normal primary to secondary year of entry to the school must be made directly to Marling School’s Admissions Officer, through completion of an In-Year Application Form. Please return the completed form to Marling School, C/o Admissions Officer, Cainscross Road, Stroud, Glos GL5 4HE or admissions@marling.school .
The School will notify the applicant’s parent, within 15 school days of receipt of the application, of either the date of the assessment of academic ability or the reason for refusal of an assessment and/or offer of a place with information about the right of appeal (see the Appeal Process page).
If an assessment is not offered, the candidate can request to have their name added to the Indicated Interest Register to be notified if there is a change of circumstances.
In-Year Admission candidates for secondary school transfers will be assessed on academic ability at Marling School. Where, on balance, the candidate matches the standard of the cohort, a place will be considered by the Admissions Committee of the Governing Body.
If the number of qualifying in-year candidates for a particular year group exceeds the number of places available, offers will be made in order of priority as set out in our Admissions Policy. Candidates will be notified within three weeks of the assessment of academic ability whether or not they have been allocated a place, and provided information about the right of appeal if appropriate. If a place has been offered transfer should be completed within six weeks.
Candidates are offered two applications to join Marling School (the Entrance Test taken in Year 6 is counted as the first attempt).
There is an Appeal Process which enables parents/carers to appeal against non-admission to the school. If you are not happy with the allocated school place on 3rd March 2025:
1. Any boys who have met the qualifying standard for Marling School can ask to go on our waiting list. Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC’s) waiting list deadline is in March 2025. GCC will notify parents of the outcome of waiting list requests at the end of March 2025.
2. All parents have a legal right to appeal and must set out the grounds for appeal in writing. Typically, if your son qualified and was not offered a place because admitting your child would cause prejudice to the provision of efficient education or efficient use of resources at the school (i.e. overcrowding), you would need to put a case forward for your son that outweighs the degree of prejudice caused to the school. If your son did not demonstrate the requisite ability for grammar school in the entrance test, you would be looking to provide evidence to the appeal panel that he is. Additionally, if you believe extenuating circumstances may have affected your son’s performance on the day of the test, or you are dissatisfied with the way the admission procedures were carried out - these would be included in your grounds for appeal. You may find it helpful to read the Admission Appeal Guidance notes for parents, which can be downloaded below.
'Appeal Packs' can be requested from the Admissions Officer by emailing admissions@marling.school after 3rd March 2025.
Key Dates
Deadline for lodging Y7 Appeals for 2025 Entry: TBC
In-person Appeal Hearings will take place during June/July 2025 at a local venue. Details TBC.
