Grammar Schools in the UK: Find Your Area and Its Entrance Test

Find grammar schools near you. Enter a UK postcode or choose a place in our 11+ school finder, then set a distance radius. It shows selective schools near that location and links to school guides where their admissions evidence has been reviewed. Distances are approximate straight-line measurements, not travel times or proof that you live in a catchment. Check each school's admissions policy before making a shortlist.

If you are exploring grammar schools for a child in Year 4 or Year 5, start with three questions: is there a school we could realistically get to, what exam does it use, and have we already missed a deadline?

A school list is only a starting point. You also need to know which test the school uses and when registration closes. That gap matters more than it sounds. In several regions the deadline to register for the entrance test falls in early summer, months before the secondary school application form is even open. A parent who starts researching in September can find the schools, love the schools, apply to the schools, and still discover that the test window closed in June.

So this guide is built as a decision sequence rather than a list. Four filters, in the order that actually saves you time: is it a state grammar or a private school with a confusing name, does your part of the UK have grammar schools at all, which test does your area use and what does it cover, and what are the dates you cannot miss. Every date below is cycle-specific, so treat it as a prompt to check the official source we link to, not as a substitute for it.

Compare schools around a town. Our town-by-town grammar school comparisons show state selective schools near twelve towns and their entrance routes. Choose Aylesbury, Dartford, Maidstone, Slough, Reading, Colchester, Chelmsford, Altrincham, High Wycombe, Orpington, Sutton or Tonbridge. Each comparison links to school guides and admissions routes. Distances are approximate straight-line measurements from the town reference point; they do not establish a catchment, admission priority or journey from your home.

Already have an autumn 2026 result? Read the current next steps for Kent, Medway, CSSE Essex or Bexley before completing your home council's school application. These guides separate a test result from an offer of a place.

Filter one: check a school’s funding as well as its name

In England, state grammar schools select pupils by academic ability through an entrance test (GOV.UK types of school). They charge no tuition fees. Boarding is different: state boarding schools charge for boarding, even though education is free. Check each school's published charges and support for uniform, travel, trips and any boarding place.

Several independent, fee-paying schools also carry "Grammar School" in their title. A school's name, test month or open-day timetable does not establish its funding. A fee schedule alone is not decisive either, because a state school may offer paid boarding.

To check a school's status, use the Department for Education's school register and read its Year 7 admissions policy. For a state grammar school in England, you name the school on your home council's secondary application, but you may need to register separately for its entrance test. The council, a consortium or the school itself may run that registration. Caistor Grammar School administers its own test while following Lincolnshire's coordinated school-admission scheme; Reading School has its own test registration too. Independent schools manage their own admission arrangements and charge school fees. A test registration fee on its own is not a reliable way to decide which type of school you have found.

Filter two: does your region have grammar schools at all

This is where a lot of searches quietly fail, and no one on the results page says it out loud.

• Scotland has no grammar schools in the selective sense. The Scottish Government has ruled out selection or grammar schools. A historic school name does not establish a selective admissions test.
• Wales has its own School Admissions Code, which generally prohibits ability selection while recognising legacy partial-selection arrangements. Do not apply an English grammar-test guide to a Welsh school.
• North Yorkshire has selective schools including Ripon Grammar, Ermysted’s and Skipton Girls’. Check the council’s selective-school guidance and each school’s rules if considering a school across a council boundary.
• Northern Ireland does have academic selection, but it works completely differently from England. See the SEAG section below.
• England has selective schools concentrated in a fairly small number of areas: Kent and Medway, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, several outer London boroughs, Essex and Southend, Lincolnshire, parts of the West Midlands, pockets of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria, and a scattering in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Devon.

If your county is not on that list, use the school directory and check neighbouring areas before deciding whether a state selective route is practical. The location and travel question is separate from each school's eligibility rules.

One more caveat before you go county-hunting: school counts published on aggregator sites drift. If you need an authoritative list of selective schools in a given local authority, use the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools service rather than a blog list, ours included.

Filter three: find your area, its test provider and its subjects

Below are area summaries of test routes, subjects and published timetables. Some areas have several separate routes, so check each school on your shortlist. Many English tests are sat around the start of Year 6, but some are earlier: Gloucestershire's grammar schools are planning a 3 July 2027 test for 2028 entry, while Reading School tested some 2027-entry candidates in July of Year 5. Registration and testing dates must be checked for the child's actual entry year.

Kent and Medway

Kent. The county runs the Kent Test, formally the Age 11 Procedure for Entrance to Secondary Education. Kent County Council states that the tests aim to identify children in the top 25% of the ability range. For 2027 entry, registration opened on 1 June 2026 and closed on 1 July 2026. Children at Kent primary schools sat the test on 10 September 2026; children at non-Kent primaries were tested on 12 or 13 September 2026. Note that several Kent grammar schools also run their own additional assessments, so check each school's admissions page as well as the county process.

For September 2028 entry, Kent has announced a provider change. Quest Assessments will replace GL for tests taken in 2027. Kent says the purpose, structure and timing will remain the same; detailed dates and familiarisation materials will follow. This does not change the September 2026 results for 2027 entry.

Medway. Medway runs its own separate test, and being registered for Kent does not register you for Medway. The Medway Test is three papers: English (30 minutes, covering comprehension, punctuation and grammar), Mathematics (50 minutes) and Reasoning (45 minutes in timed sections, including spatial, non-verbal and verbal reasoning). The 2026 test took place on 15 and 16 September, with alternative dates for special arrangements and for children outside Medway schools. Medway Council is explicit that you must register on time for your child to be considered (Medway Test information).

Buckinghamshire and Berkshire

Buckinghamshire. The Secondary Transfer Test is produced by GL Assessment and measures verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills. Children sit two papers and normally take a familiarisation practice test. For entry in September 2027, registration opened on 1 May 2026 and closed at 3pm on 2 June 2026, with the practice test on 8 September and the actual Secondary Transfer Test on 10 September 2026. Some Buckinghamshire pupils are entered automatically, while other families must register; check the council's rules.

Berkshire. Selective schools in Slough and Reading run consortium and school-level tests with their own registration portals and their own windows, typically opening in spring and closing in the early summer. Because arrangements sit with the schools rather than the county, check each school directly.

London's selective boroughs

London is not one system. It is a set of borough and consortium arrangements that happen to sit near each other.

Sutton. The Selective Eligibility Test (SET) is common to Greenshaw High School (selective band), Nonsuch High School for Girls, Sutton Grammar School, Wallington County Grammar School, Wallington High School for Girls and Wilson's School. It is two multiple-choice papers, maths and English, each taking between 40 and 50 minutes with a break between them, and answers are marked on a separate sheet by filling in a lozenge, according to the SET frequently asked questions. The SET contains no verbal reasoning or non-verbal reasoning. For 2027 entry, the SET was sat on 15 September 2026. Sutton Council distinguishes Greenshaw's ability route from the grammar schools' second stages; Nonsuch's timetable gave second-stage dates of 26 September for Nonsuch and Wallington High School for Girls, and 3 October for Wilson's, Wallington County Grammar and Sutton Grammar. Check the school you intend to name rather than assuming one second-stage date.

Other boroughs. Kingston, Barnet, Bexley and Redbridge have different school or shared-test arrangements. Check the route and each school's current policy before assuming Sutton's second-stage pattern applies.

Essex, Southend and the East

The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE) runs a common exam for most Essex and Southend grammar schools. Two papers are sat: English lasting 60 minutes with 10 minutes of additional reading time, and Mathematics lasting 60 minutes. One change matters a great deal for anyone using older practice material: with effect from September 2024 (2025 entry), the English paper no longer contains Applied Reasoning questions. The 2026 exam date was Saturday 19 September, with registration for 2027 entry already closed (CSSE).

Hertfordshire is different from a countywide grammar area. Hertfordshire County Council lists seven South West Herts consortium schools that use ability or aptitude testing, including the two Watford schools with Grammar in their names. They are partly selective, and Croxley Danes uses music aptitude rather than academic selection. Dame Alice Owen's School has a separate test. Start with the Hertfordshire school directory and the South West Herts test guide, then read the policy for each school you might name. A consortium test registration does not submit your home-council school application.

The Midlands, the North and the South West

Birmingham and the West Midlands. The West Midlands Grammar Schools partnership shares one age-standardised entrance test across Birmingham, Shropshire, Walsall, Warwickshire and Wolverhampton. Families had to select where their result could be shared during test registration. The schools still set different qualifying and priority rules: Birmingham's 205/224 scores do not apply to the two Queen Mary's schools in Walsall. Haberdashers' Adams applies its own academic standard and priority rules. Its 205 general and 195 Pupil Premium figures are explicitly for 2026 entry, not 2027. The 2027 policy describes a concession of no more than 5% below the general standard for eligible Pupil Premium or Service Premium applicants; it does not publish those absolute scores for 2027. If you have a 2026 result, check the relevant Birmingham, Walsall or Adams school guide before submitting your home council's school application.

Lincolnshire. Most of the county's grammar schools use the shared Lincolnshire Consortium assessment route. King Edward VI Grammar School's admissions FAQ confirms that Caistor is outside that consortium. Caistor Grammar School runs its own test arrangements, so a consortium registration does not register a child for Caistor. Use the Lincolnshire school directory to check the exact route for each school on your shortlist.

Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. Selective schools here are sparse, and there is no single Yorkshire-wide 11+ registration. One local exception is Halifax: The Crossley Heath School and North Halifax Grammar School share the Halifax Grammar Schools test, then apply their own school-place rules. The 2027-entry test and registration window have passed; a family with a result still needs to name either school it wants considered on its home council's secondary application. Calderdale residents have a 31 October 2026 deadline, while families elsewhere use their own council's date (Calderdale Council). Check other schools in the region individually rather than assuming the Halifax test covers them.

Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Devon. Gloucestershire's grammar schools administer their shared entrance-test registration; the council does not administer that test. For 2028 entry, the schools plan registration from 8 February to 19 March 2027 and a 3 July 2027 test with Future Stories Community Enterprise as provider. In the wider Devon geography, the school directories show Colyton in Devon County, three Plymouth grammars and three Torbay grammars. These are separate admissions authorities, not one Devon-wide 11+ route. Plymouth Council confirms its three grammar schools, while Torbay Council says Churston Ferrers, Torquay Boys' and Torquay Girls' share a selection-test result. Families with a 2026 Torbay result can use our Torbay results guide for the separate school application. Torbay residents' on-time deadline is 31 October; other families should check their home council.

Dorset. Bournemouth School, Bournemouth School for Girls, Parkstone Grammar and Poole Grammar share the Dorset Consortium 11+ route. For September 2027 entry, read the result from the school where your child registered, then apply separately through your home council. BCP Council gives its residents 31 October 2026 as the on-time deadline. The announced move to Quest Assessments is for September 2028 entry, so do not use that later test format to interpret a result from autumn 2026.

Northern Ireland: the SEAG entrance assessment

Northern Ireland has a separate transfer process. The SEAG Entrance Assessment is taken by Primary 7 pupils transferring to participating post-primary schools. Its key-dates page lists assessments on 14 and 21 November 2026 and outcomes on 23 January 2027. Check SEAG's latest registration notice and confirm any registration or late-entry position directly with SEAG. Use SEAG's current guidance for fees, waivers and review deadlines.

Or pick your local authority below to see its test, the subjects it covers and the key dates we have checked so far.

Filter four: registering for the test is not applying to the school

If you take one thing from this page, take this.

There are two entirely separate deadlines, and in most areas they are months apart:

1. Test registration. You tell the school, council or consortium that your child will sit the entrance test, unless that route enters them automatically. The window varies: some close in spring of Year 5, some in summer.
2. The secondary school application. In England, you list your preferred schools on your home local authority's common application form. The national closing date is normally 31 October, but you must check the date and time your home council publishes for this intake. For September 2027 entry, Kent accepts applications until Monday 2 November 2026; Warwickshire closes at 4pm on 31 October 2026.

Kent's test registration for the 2026 cycle closed on 1 July, months before its 2 November school-application deadline. Buckinghamshire's closed at 3pm on 2 June. Medway Council states plainly that registering for the test is not a school application, and that results arrive before the application closing date precisely so that you can decide which schools to list. Missing test registration can prevent on-time grammar consideration or require a separate late-testing process, even if you submit a school application. Ask the relevant test authority what is still possible for your child.

The practical implication is to check the next entry cycle during Year 5, or earlier if the school plans a Year 5 test. Our guide on when to start 11+ preparation explains how the timeline varies, and the broader parent guide to the 11+ covers the steps.

Same name, very different exam

"The 11+" is a category, not a paper. GL Assessment, one of the main providers, explains that the 11+ can cover English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, but that "local authorities or individual schools decide which subjects to test, as well as the balance of question types within the tests" (GL Assessment FAQs). Schools can also add their own questions to a provider's test.

Compare three areas. Sutton's SET tests maths and English without separate verbal or non-verbal reasoning papers. Buckinghamshire tests verbal skills, including comprehension, alongside maths and non-verbal skills. Medway has a separate reasoning paper. The right practice depends on the actual papers for your child's shortlist.

So the order of operations is: confirm your region's test first, then buy or build practice material to match it. If your area does test reasoning, our non-verbal reasoning guide covers the question families and a method for working through them. If it does not, skip it entirely and put the time into maths fluency and reading. GL also notes that English and maths content is based mainly on curriculum work reached in the early part of Year 6, which is why the papers can feel like they arrive a term too early.

How competitive is it, and why nobody can promise you a mark

Grammar schools are selective by design, and the entry bar is genuinely high. Kent states that its tests aim to identify children in the top 25% of the ability range. Individual schools admit fixed numbers each year, and popular schools in dense areas receive several applications for every place.

Be wary of anyone quoting you a target score. Sutton Grammar School puts it about as clearly as an admissions authority can: "It is not possible to state a pass mark in advance of the test. The pass mark will be decided by the participating schools after the test has been marked. Each School may determine its own pass mark." That describes Sutton’s approach, not every route. Some authorities publish a fixed qualifying score in advance. Qualification and the score of the last child offered a place are different measures. In many areas scores are age-adjusted, so two children with identical raw marks can receive different results.

The answer to "can any child go to a grammar school?" depends on the school's test and admissions criteria. Some tests have geographic or other entry rules; a qualifying result still may not secure a place. Familiarisation can help a child understand the paper's format, but no tutor, app or publisher can guarantee a score or offer.

Your next step

Work through it in this order. Confirm your region has selective schools. Confirm the test your area uses and the subjects it covers. Put both deadlines in your calendar now: the test registration and your home council's actual school-application deadline. Then choose practice material that matches the paper your child will sit.

If several schools are realistic choices, use our grammar school applications and offers tool to compare published historical preferences and offers. Those figures show what happened in earlier admission rounds, not your child's chance of an offer this year. Check the current oversubscription rules and your home council's application guidance before ordering your preferences.

Use an exam plan to organise practice, papers and mocks. Check your chosen school's official subjects and format separately when choosing materials. When you are ready to move from theory to timed practice, our free 11+ practice papers are a reasonable place to start.

Current-cycle dates and links reviewed: 24 October 2026. Registration windows, test dates and consortium arrangements change every admissions cycle. Check the official council, school or consortium source before acting on a date here. If a date disagrees with the official source, use the official source and tell us so we can correct this guide.