Chesham Grammar School 11+ Preparation | Leading Tuition

Chesham Grammar School is a co-educational selective grammar school in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, founded in 1947 and now educating over 1,300 pupils from Year 7 through to Year 13. Following its March 2025 inspection, the school retained an Outstanding rating in every category — its second consecutive Outstanding judgement, having also achieved the top grade in 2014. Entry at Year 7 is decided through the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test (STT), sat by children in the autumn of Year 6 for entry the following September. With 180 places available each year and a qualifying score of 121 required simply to be considered, families need a clear understanding of the test format, the school's specific admissions criteria, and a realistic preparation timeline well before the September test date.

What Are the Key Facts and Dates for Chesham Grammar 11+ Entry?

The table below sets out the essential facts about Chesham Grammar School and the key dates for the current admissions cycle, based on information published by Buckinghamshire Council and the school itself.

Because today's date falls after the 2 June 2026 registration deadline, families whose children are already registered for the 10 September 2026 sitting should focus entirely on preparation between now and test day — there is just over a month remaining. Families with younger children who have not yet reached this stage should note the following cycle's approximate timing above and register as soon as the window opens in 2027. Full, up-to-date detail is published on the school's own admissions page.

What Does the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test Involve?

The STT is produced by GL Assessment and used identically across all thirteen schools in The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools (TBGS) consortium, of which Chesham Grammar is a member. A single test sitting can therefore support applications to multiple Bucks grammar schools, though each school's own oversubscription criteria then determine who is actually offered a place. The test consists of two papers, each around 60 minutes long, sat with a break between them. Most children at state-funded Buckinghamshire primary schools also sit a shorter, unscored practice test roughly two days beforehand, purely to familiarise them with the format and timing before the real thing.

Children attending state-funded Buckinghamshire primary schools sit the STT at their own school during the normal school day, which many families find helps reduce anxiety compared with sitting an unfamiliar test venue. Children from independent schools, out-of-county schools, or those who are home-educated sit the test at a designated Buckinghamshire grammar school or other central venue, and capacity at these external centres can be limited — another reason early registration matters for out-of-area families.

How Competitive Is Chesham Grammar School Entry?

With 180 Year 7 places, Chesham Grammar has one of the larger intakes among Buckinghamshire's grammar schools, but it remains consistently oversubscribed. Meeting the 121 qualifying score makes a child eligible for a Bucks grammar place in principle, but it does not guarantee entry to Chesham Grammar specifically. Once the qualifying score is met, the school works through its published oversubscription criteria in strict order to decide who actually receives an offer.

Because distance is the final tie-breaker rather than the first, families should not assume that living close to the school guarantees a place if all seven bands above are exhausted first by higher-priority applicants. Families from outside the catchment area, in particular, should not rely on Chesham Grammar as a sole choice and should consider applying to more than one Bucks grammar school on the same STT registration, since a single sitting is valid across the whole TBGS consortium.

Understanding the Qualifying Score and the Pupil Premium Places Most Guides Miss

The qualifying score of 121 is set at county level by Buckinghamshire Council, not by Chesham Grammar itself, and applies uniformly to all thirteen TBGS schools. It represents the standardised score — adjusted for a child's exact age at the point of testing — below which a child is not automatically eligible for a grammar place anywhere in the county. Families whose child narrowly misses 121 can apply for a Selection Review, where the panel considers the full evidence, or in some circumstances pursue an appeal, but neither route is guaranteed to succeed.

What is far less widely reported is a specific widening-access clause buried in Chesham Grammar's own admissions policy: up to 6 places above the published 180 PAN are reserved for children who live in the catchment area, are eligible for Pupil Premium, and score between 110 and 120 on the STT — a band that sits below the standard 121 qualifying score. In other words, for a small number of catchment families receiving Pupil Premium, missing the county-wide qualifying score by up to 11 points does not automatically rule out a place at Chesham Grammar, provided the additional band criteria are met. This detail rarely appears on general 11+ preparation guides, which tend to treat 121 as an absolute cut-off. Families who believe this provision may apply to them should check the current year's admissions policy directly with the school, since banding and place numbers are reviewed annually.

What Is Chesham Grammar School Like as a School?

Chesham Grammar's March 2025 Ofsted inspection confirmed Outstanding judgements across every category — the school's second consecutive Outstanding rating, having also been rated Outstanding in 2014. Inspectors described pupils as flourishing "academically and personally" within an "exceptionally happy and welcoming" school, praised "strong and positive relationships" and "excellent" behaviour, and highlighted the sixth form as providing "remarkable role models" who act as "custodians of the school's values."

The school's most recent exam results support that judgement. In the 2025 GCSE results, 23% of all grades awarded were the top grade 9, and over two-thirds of results were at grade 7 or above. At A-level in 2025, nearly 60% of entries achieved A*/A grades and 85% achieved A*–B. Headteacher Annmarie McNaney described the 2025 GCSE cohort's results as "a reflection of their commitment and resilience," noting that this group had started secondary school during the pandemic with disrupted Year 6 preparation.

Pastoral life at Chesham Grammar is organised around a four-house system — Austen, Darwin, Franklin and Shakespeare — which runs inter-house competitions and events across the school year. The school is part of the Red Kite Schools Trust, a multi-academy trust, and offers a broad co-curricular programme alongside its academic offer. See also our guides to Dr Challoner's Grammar School and Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools for other TBGS consortium options, and our general 11+ Tuition page for an overview of how we support families across all selective schools.

Chesham itself sits in the Chiltern Hills, at the end of the Metropolitan line, and draws applicants from a wide catchment stretching across the Chess Valley and surrounding villages as well as the town centre. Many families weighing up Chesham Grammar alongside neighbouring options such as Dr Challoner's Grammar School or Dr Challoner's High School in Amersham factor in commute time as well as academic fit, since a place is only useful if the daily journey is realistic for a Year 7 pupil. Because the STT is shared across the whole TBGS consortium, a family does not need to choose a single "first-preference" school before sitting the test — the same score can be used to apply to several Bucks grammar schools through the normal secondary school application process, with catchment and distance then determining which offers actually materialise.

How Should We Prepare for the Chesham Grammar 11+?

Effective preparation for the Buckinghamshire STT is built over months, not weeks, because the test measures developed reasoning ability across English, maths and non-verbal reasoning rather than recall of a fixed syllabus. The following timeline reflects the approach Leading Tuition recommends for families targeting Chesham Grammar and the wider Bucks grammar schools.

Year 4 (optional early start): At this stage, focus on building enjoyment and fluency rather than exam-style drilling. Strengthen core maths through games and problem-solving, encourage wide reading across fiction and non-fiction to build vocabulary, and introduce light, low-pressure non-verbal reasoning puzzles. No timed tests are needed yet.

Year 5, September onward: This is the ideal entry point for most families. Begin systematic weekly work across English/verbal reasoning and maths/non-verbal reasoning using age-appropriate STT-style question banks. Verbal reasoning in particular benefits from sustained, consistent exposure over a long period rather than short bursts.

Year 5, January onward: Increase session frequency and begin timed section practice to identify specific weak areas. By this point families should have a clear sense of whether their child finds Paper 1 (English/verbal reasoning) or Paper 2 (maths/non-verbal reasoning) more challenging, and preparation should be weighted accordingly.

Year 6, from September: Run full timed mock papers under exam conditions at least monthly. Confirm registration well before the June deadline — for the 2026 cycle this fell on 2 June, and future cycles are likely to follow a similar late-spring window. In the final weeks before the test, focus on consolidating strengths and shoring up known weak areas rather than attempting broad new revision, and ensure your child has practised the unscored school-based practice sitting so the real test format feels familiar.

Frequently Asked Questions About Chesham Grammar School 11+ Entry