11+ results, explained

What the scores mean, why qualifying isn’t the same as a place, when results come in each area, and what to do next.

What the scores mean

Standardised scores

Every test turns the marks into standardised scores that take the child’s age into account, each on its own scale. Kent gives three scores from 69 to 141 and a total out of 423. Buckinghamshire’s run from 60 to 170, combined as 50% verbal, 25% maths and 25% non-verbal. The West Midlands’ and Bexley’s totals are centred on 200, CSSE’s are set so that an average candidate scores 300, and Northern Ireland’s come with a band from 1 to 6 and a cohort percentile.

Qualifying scores

Some are known before the test: Birmingham publishes its 205 and 224 in advance, and Buckinghamshire’s is 121. Others are set after marking: Medway’s minimum (478 for 2027 entry) is set so that the top 26% of Medway children pass, and Bexley’s so that about 30% are selective. In Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Sutton, each school sets its own after the test. Northern Ireland has no pass mark.

Ranking

Qualifying isn’t a place. Where more children qualify than there are places, each school follows its own rules. Some rank by score: Queen Elizabeth’s in Barnet takes the highest-ranked boys, and the CSSE schools rank by total. Others take qualified children by catchment, siblings or distance: in Buckinghamshire a score above 121 gives no extra priority. Some do both, keeping some places for the highest scores and some for children nearby.

When results come

Most areas in England send results in October, before the 31 October deadline for secondary school applications. These are the dates for the tests sat in 2026.

Area	Results
Kent	Thursday 15 October 2026, by email to the address used to register (by first class post where no email was given); online applicants could also see the scores after 5pm. Offers on Monday 1 March 2027.
Buckinghamshire	Friday 9 October 2026 for papers received by the Admissions Team by 18 September 2026 (by email, or through the primary school where no email was given). Papers received between 19 September and 16 October: results by 31 October 2026; after that, as soon as possible.
Birmingham	Scores sent by Friday 16 October 2026, before the 31 October 2026 preference deadline; a score is not an offer. Offers come from the home council on Monday 1 March 2027.
Lincolnshire	Emailed to parents at 12 noon on Friday 9 October 2026 (and to primary schools at 4pm). Caistor Grammar School emailed its outcomes on Tuesday 13 October 2026.
Essex	Emailed to all candidates after the close of business on Monday 12 October 2026 (raw score for each paper and the total standardised score), with a guidance sheet of the last scores offered at each school on 1 March 2026; local authority applications due 31 October 2026; offers on 1 March 2027
Southend-on-Sea	Emailed by CSSE after the close of business on Monday 12 October 2026, with the guidance sheet of last scores offered; applications to Southend-on-Sea City Council by 31 October 2026; offers on 1 March 2027
Bexley	Emailed from 4pm on Friday 2 October 2026 (families who had not received one by Monday 5 October 2026 were asked to email the School Admissions Team). Results also go to the child's Bexley primary headteacher.
Sutton	SET outcome emailed in the week after the test. Second stage outcomes emailed by each school before the October half term, ahead of the 31 October 2026 application deadline. Children who pass are not given their scores; those who do not pass are.
Trafford	Consortium schools: before 31 October 2026 through the Applicaa portal (AGGS gives qualifiers a 'pass' rather than a score); Loreto by Wednesday 21 October 2026; St Ambrose by Friday 23 October 2026. Offers on Monday 1 March 2027.
Wirral	Wednesday 21 October 2026 (Wirral Council); Upton Hall by Friday 23 October 2026; offers on Monday 1 March 2027.
Medway	Emailed after 10am on Wednesday 14 October 2026 (by post if no email was given), with the total score, each paper's score and a grammar or non-grammar decision.
Gloucestershire	Emailed in mid-October 2026 (no exact date published), before the Common Application Form deadline of 31 October 2026; each school the result was shared with sends its own result
Warwickshire	Friday 16 October 2026 on the Warwickshire Parent Portal, before the 31 October 2026 application deadline; the letter gives the three component scores, the total and the previous year's scores for each school. Offers come from the home council on Monday 1 March 2027.
Lancashire and Cumbria	Lancaster Royal Grammar School Tuesday 6 October 2026; Clitheroe Royal Grammar School by 12 noon Friday 9 October 2026; Lancaster Girls' Grammar School by Saturday 17 October 2026; Bacup and Rawtenstall before the 31 October application deadline. Places are offered by the local authority on Monday 1 March 2027.
Bromley	St Olave's: SET outcome mid-October 2026, before half term and before the 31 October application deadline; the final rank order goes only to the local authority and families learn on National Offer Day, Monday 1 March 2027. Newstead Wood: emailed between Friday 16 and Thursday 22 October 2026, giving the age-standardised score, the required standard and five years of cut-off scores.
Kingston upon Thames	Stage Two invitations: Tiffin School on or around Friday 16 October 2026, The Tiffin Girls' School on or around Wednesday 14 October 2026, both before the 31 October deadline. Final outcomes come with offers on Monday 1 March 2027; Tiffin School emails scores soon after to boys not offered a place, and Tiffin Girls' emails Stage Two results on Tuesday 2 March 2027 to girls on its waiting list.
Barnet	Queen Elizabeth's: by email, provisionally Thursday 1 October 2026. Henrietta Barnett: Round One results in late September 2026; girls not invited to Round Two are told their score and the top-300 cut-off before the CAF deadline; Round Two candidates get a letter in late October, without scores or rankings. St Michael's: before the end of October 2026 CAF deadline.
Enfield	Maths and verbal reasoning results through Applicaa+ before the end of September 2026; re-standardised results including English for the top 700 emailed before the end of October 2026, with the likelihood of an offer
Redbridge	Emailed in the middle of October 2026; before the 31 October deadline parents are told their child's overall position by total standardised score
Slough	From 4pm on Thursday 15 October 2026, in the Consortium portal (the standardised score only; no raw scores or breakdown)
Reading	Reading School: by email by mid-October 2026. Kendrick School: in the Applicaa portal before 31 October 2026 (now released).
Wiltshire (Salisbury)	Bishop Wordsworth's: result letters from Tuesday 6 October 2026 (current school timetable). South Wilts: in the admissions portal by Monday 26 October 2026.
Wolverhampton and Walsall	Queen Mary's Grammar School and Queen Mary's High School sent scores on Wednesday 14 October 2026 (published deadline Friday 16 October 2026); Wolverhampton Girls' High School sends a notification letter in October 2026. Offers come from the home council on 1 March 2027.
Telford and Wrekin (Shropshire)	Wednesday 14 October 2026 (Haberdashers' Adams published its scores and Newport Girls' High School emailed results that day). Offers come from the home council on Monday 1 March 2027.
North Yorkshire (Ripon and Skipton)	Ripon Grammar School: written results no later than Friday 16 October 2026. Ermysted's Grammar School: week commencing Monday 12 October 2026. Skipton Girls' High School: by email by Monday 19 October 2026.
Calderdale (Halifax)	Uploaded to parents' accounts by Friday 16 October 2026, showing whether the child met the standard and a banding; this is not an offer of a place.
Kirklees (Heckmondwike)	Target date Saturday 17 October 2026 (results online), before the 31 October application deadline; this is not an offer of a place.
Liverpool	Phase 1 results Wednesday 15 July 2026; Phase 2 results Friday 16 October 2026, given as Group A (should consider naming the school), Group B (not guaranteed a place; ranking position shared) or Group C (should not name the school); scores are not released. Offers on Monday 1 March 2027.
Devon, Torbay and Plymouth	Torbay: guidance letters on or as soon as possible after Monday 12 October 2026 (Torbay Council says 13 October), saying yes or no, never the score. Plymouth: emailed on Thursday 15 October 2026 (Plymouth High School for Girls and Devonport High School for Girls); Devonport High School for Boys sends A, B or C letters before the October deadline. Colyton: October 2026, at least a week before the 31 October deadline.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	Emailed by 4pm on Friday 16 October 2026
Northern Ireland	Statements of Outcomes online from the morning of Saturday 23 January 2027. Re-mark requests from Monday 25 January to Wednesday 3 February 2027 (£20 a paper, marked by hand, refunded if the total score changes).

Reviews and appeals

Scores usually can’t be re-marked or appealed. Some areas review a decision before or after results go out, and once offers are made on 1 March, families can appeal for a place at a school they named. Each area has its own rules: these are the reviews the areas publish.

Kent

Before decisions go out, the primary headteacher can refer an assessment decision they disagree with to the Headteacher Assessment Panel (HTA), a panel of local primary and secondary headteachers. It considers the test scores, recent work, the unmarked writing task and comments from the child's school, looking at the full range of work whichever scores are below the threshold, and changes a decision only if it is confident the child will be well placed in a grammar school. Parents cannot appeal the October decision itself, only appeal for a school place after offer day.

Buckinghamshire

Selection Review for children who score below 121: parents submit a written case with academic evidence and evidence of exceptional circumstances by Friday 30 October 2026 (if results came on 9 October), and the child's headteacher completes a summary sheet. A panel of two grammar school headteachers and one primary headteacher (sometimes with an educational psychologist) decides; heads of state-funded Buckinghamshire primary and Partner schools also give a grammar school recommendation before results are known. Most reviews are heard between November and January and outcomes go out on Friday 12 February 2027. A successful review qualifies the child for all Buckinghamshire grammar schools. The council says most successful reviews have been for scores of 110 to 120; for 2026 entry, 296 children qualified after review.

Bexley

Headteacher Review: after results and after the 31 October application deadline, the child's headteacher can ask for a review of the score; an Independent Review Panel changes decisions only in exceptional circumstances and its decision is final. Beths Grammar School's 2027/28 policy says the panel ordinarily meets in November. The panel also decides for a child who fell ill during the test.

Trafford

Stretford and Urmston run a Local Review. Stretford: candidates scoring 324 to 333 not already raised by the automatic pupil premium review are considered by a Review Panel of the Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher, an Assistant Headteacher, the Heads of English and Mathematics and a primary headteacher. Urmston: scores of 321 to 333 (321 to 323 for pupil premium) can be reviewed by its Admissions Review Panel (Headteacher, Assistant Headteacher, an independent literacy adviser). A successful review gives a score of 334R; decisions come after 31 October 2026.

Lancashire and Cumbria

Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School only: parents of a child who did not reach the required standard can request a review by the school's admissions committee, which considers the standardised score, the invigilator's report and special circumstances; a successful review counts as reaching the standard. Clitheroe may ask the primary school for information about borderline candidates.

Devon, Torbay and Plymouth

Torbay only: parents can ask for a selection review within 14 days of the test if exceptional circumstances affected performance; the school's Admissions Panel considers it with information from the child's current headteacher (and an educational psychologist where appropriate) and may raise the child in the ranking (Torquay Boys' Grammar School policy; Torquay Girls' Grammar School has a similar panel review)

What to do next

Check what it means for each school
A score can qualify for one school and not another. Each school’s admissions policy says how it gives places: by score, by distance or catchment, or both.
Name your schools by 31 October
In England, the council’s secondary school application closes on 31 October. Name the schools you’d like, in the order you’d like them.
Send any form the school asks for
Some schools want their own supplementary form by the same date, for example for pupil premium places or a sibling.
Offers on 1 March
Offers come from your council on 1 March 2027. If a school can’t offer a place, you can appeal for one, and waiting lists run on through the year.
In Northern Ireland
Results come on 23 January 2027, and re-marks can be asked for until 3 February. Apply through the Education Authority from 27 January to 3 March 2027; the outcome comes on 8 May 2027.

Whatever the result, it’s one test, on a day or two. Tell your child what they did well, and keep the numbers between the grown-ups if that helps.

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Questions about 11+ results

What is a standardised score?

A raw mark turned into a score on the test’s own scale, taking the child’s age into account. Each test has its own scale: Kent’s scores run from 69 to 141 for each part, Buckinghamshire’s from 60 to 170, the West Midlands’ and Bexley’s totals are centred on 200, and CSSE’s total is set so that an average candidate scores 300.

Does qualifying mean a place?

No. Qualifying, or being assessed suitable, means a school will consider your child. Where more children qualify than there are places, each school follows its own rules: some rank by score (Queen Elizabeth’s in Barnet, St Olave’s, the CSSE schools), and others go by their own criteria, such as catchment or distance, once a child has qualified (in Buckinghamshire a score above 121 gives no extra priority).

Can you appeal an 11+ result?

Scores usually can’t be re-marked: Medway and Birmingham, for example, don’t re-mark. Some areas have a review instead: Kent’s headteachers can refer a decision to a panel, Buckinghamshire has a Selection Review, and two Trafford schools, Stretford and Urmston, review scores just below 334. Northern Ireland offers a re-mark for £20 a paper. Once offers are out on 1 March, you can appeal for a place at a school you named.

What should we do after the results?

In England, name the schools you’d like on your council’s secondary school application by 31 October, whatever the result. Some schools ask for a supplementary form by the same date, for example for pupil premium places. Offers come on 1 March 2027. In Northern Ireland, apply through the Education Authority from 27 January to 3 March 2027.

Sources

Every fact here comes from the official pages below. Dates and scores change from year to year, so check them there before you rely on them.

Checked 2 November 2026.

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