How to apply for a grammar school place

The exact deadlines vary by school and local authority — always check the specific school’s own page for the year you’re applying — but the overall shape of the process is consistent across almost all of England’s grammar schools.

The timeline, roughly a year ahead of entry

Spring/summer of Year 5. Registration opens for the following September’s entry. Some areas (Kent, Buckinghamshire) register through the local authority; others (most schools acting as their own admissions authority) register directly with the school or a shared consortium portal. Missing this window is one of the most common — and most avoidable — reasons families miss out, since a handful of schools don’t accept late registrations at all.

Early autumn of Year 6. The test itself is usually sat in the first two or three weeks of September, sometimes with a catch-up date a week or two later for illness or unavoidable absence.

Mid-October. Results come back — though “results” often means only a yes/no eligibility outcome rather than an actual score, especially at schools that don’t publish a fixed pass mark. See what is the 11+? for why that’s normal, not a withheld secret.

31 October, Year 6. The Common Application Form (CAF) — sometimes called the Secondary Transfer Form — is due to your home local authority. This is separate from 11+ registration: it’s where you list up to six secondary school preferences in order, grammar or otherwise, regardless of which authority actually runs each school. Because results typically land before this deadline, you’ll usually know your child’s eligibility before you have to finalise the list.

1 March, the following year. National Offer Day. Every family applying to a state secondary school in England gets their outcome on the same day, coordinated by local authorities working together — even if your preferences span several different council areas.

Spring/summer term. If you didn’t get a place at a preferred school, you have the right to an independent appeal, heard by a panel with no connection to the school. Waiting lists are also held, usually in score-rank order, and places can still come up over the summer.

A few things worth knowing before you start

Registering for the test isn’t the same as applying for the school. You generally need to do both: register directly for the 11+ (with the school, the council, or a shared consortium, depending on where you live), and separately submit the Common Application Form naming your preferences. Doing one without the other is a real and recoverable-but-stressful mistake families make.

“Eligible” doesn’t mean “offered a place.” At a school with no catchment area and heavy demand, plenty of children who clear the qualifying standard still don’t get in — the standard just tells you you’re in the running, not that you’re through.

Catchment can change year to year. Several schools in this index — Aylesbury High School, Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar School — publish catchment maps or priority areas that shift slightly between admissions cycles. Always check the live version on the school’s own site, not last year’s guidance from a forum or tutoring company.

Related

• What is the 11+?
• What does “superselective” mean?
• Browse all schools