11+ London Boroughs Grammar Schools Guide

London has 19 state grammar schools, and they sit in just seven of its 32 boroughs: Sutton (5), Bexley (4), Barnet (3), Bromley (2), Kingston upon Thames (2), Redbridge (2) and Enfield (1), according to the Department for Education's register of schools. Their admission numbers for September 2027 entry add up to 3,338 Year 7 places, by our arithmetic. There is no London-wide 11+, and eight of the 19 set no reasoning paper at all.

Leading Tuition prepares children for each of these tests, and for the grammar schools London families travel to in Kent, Buckinghamshire and Slough. Our students have achieved a 95%+ offer rate across selective school entry, and we are rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews. Book a free consultation to plan around your child's target schools.

Which London Boroughs and Areas Have Grammar Schools?

Twenty-five of London's 32 boroughs have no state grammar school. The Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register lists 19 open state-funded secondary schools in London with a selective admissions policy, and every one of them is in Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Enfield, Kingston upon Thames, Redbridge or Sutton. The table sets out each school with its Year 7 admission number for September 2027 entry.

The total is our arithmetic on those admission numbers: 3,338 Year 7 grammar school places in London for September 2027. Sutton has the most, 906 across five schools; Enfield has the fewest, the 192 places at The Latymer School. One further school uses a grammar school test without being a grammar school: Greenshaw High School in Sutton, which the register records as non-selective, fills 60 ability places from the Sutton test.

The borough tells you less than the school does. Six of the seven boroughs have separate boys' and girls' grammar schools, while Enfield's Latymer is mixed; entry to Bexley's four and Redbridge's two runs through a test organised by the council, and in Barnet, Bromley, Kingston and Enfield each school runs its own. For a family in one of the 25 boroughs without a grammar school, the choice is which of these schools, and which of their admission rules, can realistically include their address. If you are not sure which schools fit yours, talk to our 11+ tutors.

Grammar schools just outside London

Many London families also look beyond the boundary. The same register lists 32 grammar schools in Kent, 13 in Buckinghamshire, six in Medway and four in Slough, and none in Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire's selection is partial instead: Dame Alice Owen's School, which the register records as non-selective, admits up to 65 of its 200 Year 7 children by academic ability. The guides below cover each borough and county in more detail.

How Do 11+ Exam Formats Differ Across London Boroughs?

The 19 schools use 11 separate test arrangements. Three groups share a test: the five Sutton grammar schools use the Selective Eligibility Test (SET), Bexley's four grammar schools use one Bexley Selection Test, and Ilford County High and Woodford County High sit the same Redbridge test. The other eight schools each set their own. The sharper divide is not who sets the test but what it contains.

Eight of the 19 schools set no verbal or non-verbal reasoning at any stage: Queen Elizabeth's, the five Sutton grammar schools and the two Tiffin schools. The Sutton schools put it in plain terms: their tests "do not include verbal reasoning or non-verbal reasoning". For a child whose shortlist is only these eight, reasoning practice is time taken away from English and maths. Newstead Wood is the opposite case. Its selection test is two papers, verbal and then non-verbal reasoning, and the school states that it does not test any other subjects.

The other ten schools mix the two. Henrietta Barnett, St Olave's, St Michael's and Latymer, the four Bexley schools and the two Redbridge schools all combine reasoning with English, maths or both, in different proportions: Henrietta Barnett puts reasoning in its first round only, while Latymer ranks everyone on maths and verbal reasoning before any English paper is marked.

Two practical differences matter as much as content. The first is the second stage. At Sutton, the two Tiffin schools and St Olave's, the children who get through a multiple-choice first stage then sit written English and maths papers; Tiffin's English paper asks for some longer written answers, and The Tiffin Girls' School gives no marks for calculations or workings out. The second is past papers. Henrietta Barnett releases no past papers or resources for its Round Two, and The Tiffin Girls' School does not publish its past papers, so preparation for those stages rests on skills rather than on rehearsing a known paper.

Outside London the county tests follow the same split. The Kent Test is an English and maths paper and a reasoning paper with verbal and non-verbal sections, plus a writing exercise that is not marked but may be used by a headteacher panel. The Slough Consortium's two GL Assessment papers mix verbal and non-verbal reasoning, English and maths.

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How Competitive Is Grammar School Entry Across London Boroughs?

The most useful measure of competition is each school's own count of the children who applied or sat its test, against the places it had. Five schools and the Bexley and Redbridge councils publish such a figure (Bromley Council's booklet gives a different count, below), and our arithmetic divides one by the other. The counts are not identical measures - some are test-takers, some are applications - so the table says what each figure is.

On these figures Henrietta Barnett draws about 30 applications for each place and Ilford County High about five and a half test-takers, a gap of more than five to one between the most and least contested schools in the table. Henrietta Barnett's own number is worth setting against what some guides say: its 2027-28 admissions policy records 3,121 applications for 104 places in 2025, far more than a dozen or so per place.

Two cautions apply. First, the same school can produce very different counts. Bromley Council's own admissions booklet records 473 applications received for St Olave's in its 2026 admissions round, and 639 for Newstead Wood, which offered 190 places; the school's own 1,595 is a separate count, of applications made to the school for 2027 entry. The per-place figure depends on which count you use. Second, a qualifying score is not a place. Redbridge ranks no one scoring below 104, and for 2026 entry 398 Ilford and 422 Woodford candidates reached that score; each school's admission number for 2027 entry is 180.

The two Tiffin schools also show how steep the first cut is. For 2026 entry, 665 of the 1,866 boys tested at Tiffin School's Stage One sat Stage Two, about 36%, and at The Tiffin Girls' School 474 of 1,468 girls did, about 32%. The table covers only counts we could read at source as text; Queen Elizabeth's, St Michael's, the Sutton schools and Latymer are not in it. Latymer does publish a useful threshold: only applicants ranked in the top 700 on verbal reasoning and maths have their English papers marked, for 192 places.

When Do 11+ Registrations Open Across London Boroughs?

For September 2027 entry, every registration below has closed. Registration windows opened in the spring and early summer of Year 5, from 1 March 2026 for the Bexley test to 8 June 2026 for St Olave's, and of the eleven schools or tests with a published closing date, eight closed between 31 March and 8 July 2026. The table gives each school's own dates; for the round now in progress it also shows what is still to come.

Two dates apply to every family. The council application, the Common Application Form naming grammar schools alongside any others, must be submitted by 31 October 2026, and offers follow on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027. Several second stages fall after the council deadline - Stage Two at both Tiffin schools and St Olave's Stage 2 are all in November - so families name those schools before they know the final result. The Tiffin Girls' School tells parents to use the Stage One outcome when deciding whether to name it.

Missing a registration usually means missing that school's Year 7 test altogether. Several schools say in terms that the test is taken once: Bexley says Year 6 pupils can only take its test once, Henrietta Barnett says candidates can take its test once only, and the Sutton schools say children can only sit the Selective Eligibility Test once. The dates for September 2028 entry are not all published yet, but this round shows how early to plan: Latymer opened its 2027-entry registration at 12pm on 17 March 2026, when children were in the spring of Year 5. Our timetable of 11+ exam dates tracks the national picture.

How Should Your Child Prepare for the 11+ in a London Borough?

Start from the target schools' own tests, not from the borough. A child sitting Queen Elizabeth's, the Sutton SET and the Tiffin tests needs English and maths only; a child sitting Newstead Wood needs reasoning only. A family applying to both kinds is preparing for two different exams, and should plan the time that way.

For the English-and-maths tests, the published content base is the primary curriculum, but the question formats can be unfamiliar. Tiffin School assumes the Year 5 National Curriculum in English and maths, plus some unfamiliar question formats, and the Sutton schools say their tests are broadly based on the Key Stage 2 curriculum. The work is speed and accuracy on multiple-choice papers first, then written answers for the second stages at Sutton and Tiffin, including some longer English answers.

For the reasoning tests, familiarity with the question types is most of the work. Redbridge's council page points families to GL Assessment's practice papers, and Queen Elizabeth's links to GL Assessment sample materials for its English and maths papers, with the caveat that they may not reflect the exact format. Bexley's test comes from Quest Assessments, so practice should match that provider's style rather than assume a GL paper.

Timing follows from the calendar above. Most first-stage tests fall in September of Year 6 and several registrations close in the spring or early summer of Year 5, so we usually plan preparation over 12 to 18 months, starting in Year 4 or early Year 5. Our tutors build the programme around your child's actual shortlist and track each paper type separately. Visit our 11+ school guides hub to explore individual school pages, or see our 11+ tuition service for how we work.

Reviewed September 2026: every school count, test format, admission number, applicant figure and date checked against the DfE's Get Information About Schools register, each school's own admissions pages and policies, and Bexley, Bromley, Kent and Redbridge councils.

Frequently Asked Questions About 11+ London Borough Entry