Cranbrook School has its own admissions pattern, and the right preparation follows it. Because a place here depends on how Cranbrook actually selects — the Kent Test, sat in early September of Year 6, plus a separate boarding process — the smartest plan is to shape your child's practice around that exact test rather than around 11+ preparation in general. This guide walks through the school, the way selection works, precisely what to practise, a realistic build-up across Years 4 to 6, and how to keep calm on the day. You can find the same detail for other Kent schools on our grammar school directory, but everything below is specific to Cranbrook.
About Cranbrook School
One of the oldest grammar schools in England, Cranbrook is unusual for being a state boarding school: pupils pay only for board, with tuition state-funded. Admission is by the Kent Test, with boarding decided separately on a fee-paying basis. That two-part structure is the single most important thing for parents to understand. Passing the Kent Test makes a child eligible for a grammar place; choosing and paying for boarding is a distinct decision handled by the school, and boarding applicants also attend an interview. A child can attend Cranbrook as a day pupil or a boarder, but the academic gateway — the Kent Test — is identical for both.
- Location: Cranbrook, Kent
- Intake: Mixed (co-educational)
- Founded: 1518
- Type: Selective State Boarding
- Admissions test: Kent Test (GL Assessment) plus interview for boarding applicants
For dates, the current admissions policy and open events, the authority is always the school itself: check the official Cranbrook School website before you rely on any third-party summary, including ours. You can also read our full school profile for a Quest Arena overview and links to matching free practice.
How selection works at Cranbrook School
Cranbrook selects through the Kent Test, which is set by GL Assessment and administered across Kent's 32 state grammar schools — England's largest fully-selective system. Children normally sit it in early September of Year 6, having registered the previous term. The Kent Test is not a single paper; it is a set of assessments covering English, Maths and Reasoning, where Reasoning combines Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Non-Verbal Reasoning (NVR). GL papers are multiple-choice, tightly timed at roughly a minute per question, answered on a separate sheet, and sat without a calculator.
Results are reported as standardised age scores rather than raw marks. A standardised score adjusts for a child's age in months, so a summer-born pupil and an autumn-born pupil who get the same raw mark do not receive the same standardised score — the younger child's result is nudged up to keep the comparison fair. Kent typically looks at an aggregate across the subject areas with a rule that no single area falls below a set floor, and there is a head-teacher assessment and appeal route for children who narrowly miss. Exact thresholds move year to year and by area, so we will not quote a specific cut-off here; treat the school's own published figures as definitive.
| Element | What it covers | Format |
|---|---|---|
| English | Comprehension, spelling, grammar and vocabulary | GL multiple-choice, timed |
| Maths | KS2 arithmetic and problem-solving up to Year 5 level | GL multiple-choice, timed, no calculator |
| Reasoning | Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning combined | GL multiple-choice, separately timed sections |
| Interview | Boarding applicants only | Held separately by the school |
Because the boarding place is decided on a fee-paying basis and involves an interview, families considering boarding should plan for that conversation as well as the written test. The interview does not replace the Kent Test; it sits alongside it.
What to practise for this test
GL papers are the most learnable of the boards because the question types are published and stable, so systematic, type-by-type practice pays off directly. Split preparation across the four skill areas the Kent Test rewards:
- English: comprehension technique, a wide vocabulary, and quick command of synonyms, antonyms and spelling patterns. Build these with our free worksheet library.
- Maths: fluent times tables to 12×12, fractions, percentages and multi-step word problems worked at pace.
- Verbal Reasoning: drill the roughly 21 named GL question types — codes, letter sequences, hidden words, analogies, odd-one-out, closest-meaning and opposite, compound words, move-a-letter, number series and logic — until each is automatic.
- Non-Verbal Reasoning: series, matrices, analogies, odd-one-out, reflections, rotations and spatial patterns.
Start with our GL Assessment practice papers, all free, then move to full-length timed mock papers once individual types feel secure. For the run-in, our centre-specific mocks mirror the real Kent format so the September paper feels like the next in a long line rather than a leap into the unknown. No account is needed to start practising.
A realistic preparation timeline
Preparation works best when it is early, gentle and consistent rather than crammed. There is no need to invent exam-style pressure in Year 4; the foundations laid then do most of the heavy lifting later.
- Year 4: daily independent reading across fiction and non-fiction to grow vocabulary, plus times tables to 12×12. No formal papers yet.
- Year 5 autumn: begin 15–20 minutes of daily topic practice using the free worksheets, rotating through English, Maths, VR and NVR.
- Year 5 spring and summer: introduce whole-section timed work; register for the Kent Test in the window your local authority sets — confirm the exact dates on the key dates page and the school's own site.
- Year 6 summer holiday: one full timed mock paper a week; review the errors far more carefully than the score.
- Final weeks before September: switch to centre-specific papers in the Kent format and taper the volume so your child arrives fresh, not frazzled.
Across every stage, treat mistakes as the most useful data you have. A wrong answer that gets understood is worth more than ten right ones, and it is the surest way to lift a standardised score.
On the day and after
By September, the goal is composure. A child who has sat eight or ten timed mocks at the kitchen table walks into the hall treating the real paper as the eleventh. Practical tips:
- Rehearse the answer sheet, not just the questions — GL uses a separate multiple-choice sheet, and mismarking a row costs marks that knowledge cannot recover.
- Coach pacing: roughly a minute a question, and a firm habit of leaving a hard question and returning to it rather than stalling.
- Keep the night before calm — an early night, a familiar breakfast and no last-minute cramming beat any final revision.
- Afterwards, avoid dissecting the paper. Results arrive to a published timetable, and a near miss can still be pursued through Kent's head-teacher assessment and appeal route.
Whatever the outcome, the reading, number fluency and problem-solving your child has built are real gains that carry into secondary school regardless of which place they take up.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Cranbrook admissions test GL or CEM?
It is the Kent Test, set by GL Assessment. CEM's separate paper 11+ was discontinued around 2023, and Kent uses GL for its selective testing, so preparation should follow the GL question types.
Do I have to board to get in?
No. Academic selection is by the Kent Test, and children can attend as day pupils or boarders. Boarding is a separate, fee-paying choice that also involves an interview; the tuition itself is state-funded.
When is the Kent Test sat?
In early September of Year 6, after registering the previous term. Always confirm the precise registration deadline and test date on the official school website and your local authority's pages.