Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School 11+ Tuition 2026

About Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School

Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School (CSGS) is a co-educational selective grammar school on Hurst Road in Sidcup, in the London Borough of Bexley, educating pupils from Year 7 through to Year 13. CSGS is one of four grammar schools in the Bexley consortium — alongside Beths Grammar School (boys), Bexley Grammar School (mixed) and Townley Grammar School (girls) — all four of which use a single shared entrance assessment, the Bexley Selection Test. CSGS itself admits both boys and girls, and for September 2027 entry the school intends to admit 192 pupils to Year 7.

What sets CSGS and the wider Bexley consortium apart from many other grammar school systems in London and the South East is the absence of a fixed catchment area. A family living in Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham, Dartford or well beyond Bexley's own boundary can register their child for the Bexley Selection Test on exactly the same terms as a family living streets from the school gates on Hurst Road. Once a child is assessed as academically selective, geography only becomes decisive at the oversubscription stage — and even then, it is straight-line distance rather than any drawn boundary that determines the outcome. This structure rewards strong test performance nationally, while still channelling the majority of places towards families who live closest to the school.

Because passing the selective standard is only the first hurdle, families researching CSGS need to understand both halves of the admissions process: the academic assessment itself, and the distance-based allocation that follows it. This page sets out the current 11+ admissions process for CSGS, the format of the Bexley Selection Test, the school's published oversubscription criteria, the key dates for the current cycle, and how Leading Tuition's specialist 11+ preparation supports families through it. For a longer, background-focused explainer, see our detailed Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School 11+ guide.

How Does the Bexley Selection Test Work?

From the 2026 test cycle onwards, the Bexley Selection Test used by CSGS and the other three consortium schools is provided by Quest Assessments, which replaced the previous provider, GL Assessment. Families should be careful here: Quest Assessments is a different company from the online, adaptive “Quest” test used by some independent schools, and the Bexley version is a traditional, paper-based, supervised examination — not a computer-based adaptive test. Preparation materials aimed at independent school Quest candidates, or at GL Assessment consortia elsewhere in the country, do not accurately reflect what a CSGS candidate will face.

The Bexley Selection Test is sat as two separate papers, each around 50 minutes long with additional time allowed for instructions, and a short break between the two. According to CSGS's own published admissions information, the papers assess verbal reasoning and comprehension, non-verbal reasoning, and mathematical reasoning across the two sittings. Questions are predominantly multiple-choice and are marked on machine-readable answer sheets, so children need practice transferring answers accurately as well as working through the underlying reasoning. Mathematics content is pitched to what a child would be expected to know by the end of Year 5, in line with the Key Stage 2 curriculum, rather than testing material ahead of the school syllabus.

Scores are age-standardised, so a child born in the summer is not disadvantaged relative to a child born in the autumn of the same school year. Bexley's headteachers, working with the local authority, set the selective threshold each year once all scripts have been marked — it is not published in advance, and it is not the same numerical mark from one year to the next. In recent cycles, roughly 35% of the several thousand children who sit the test have been assessed as selective. Full, current guidance and registration information is published by the London Borough of Bexley, and CSGS publishes its own admissions detail, including its distance chart, on the school's Year 7 admissions page.

No Catchment Area: What Distance-Based Admissions Mean for Your Family

CSGS does not operate a designated catchment area, priority zone, or feeder-school arrangement of the kind used by some grammar schools elsewhere in the country. Any child in England who registers for the Bexley Selection Test, sits it, and is assessed as selective may list CSGS as a preference on their Common Application Form (CAF), regardless of where they live. This makes CSGS structurally more open on paper than many grammar schools — but it also means that once a place is oversubscribed, which it reliably is every year, straight-line distance from home to the school entrance on Hurst Road becomes the practical decider for the large majority of remaining places.

CSGS publishes an annual distance chart, based on measurements taken on National Secondary School Offer Day in March, showing how far the furthest successful applicant lived from the school in that admissions round. This distance moves from year to year depending on how many selective applicants list CSGS and where they live, so a distance that was successful two years ago is not a reliable guide for the current cycle. Families who live several miles from Sidcup should treat CSGS as one option among several Bexley grammar schools on their CAF, rather than relying on it as a certainty even with a strong test score. Families closer to Sidcup, Chislehurst, Foots Cray and the surrounding postcodes are structurally advantaged in the distance calculation, though they still need their child to clear the selective threshold in the first place.

It is worth noting that a very high test score does not, by itself, secure a CSGS place if a family lives a long way from the school and the distance cut-off for that year falls short of their home address. Equally, a child who is comfortably above the selective threshold but not top of the cohort can still receive an offer if they live close enough. This is a different dynamic from schools that rank purely by score, and it should shape how families think about both test preparation and CAF preference ordering.

Oversubscription Criteria at CSGS

When more selective applicants list CSGS than there are places available — which happens every year — the school works through its published oversubscription criteria in strict order:

• Criterion 1 – Looked-after children: children in local authority care, and previously looked-after children who were subsequently adopted or made subject to a child arrangements order, are prioritised first provided they are assessed as selective.
• Criterion 2 – Pupil Premium: a small number of places are reserved for children eligible for Pupil Premium (via a supplementary form) who are assessed as selective and live within a set distance of the school, allocated in order of proximity.
• Criterion 3 – Staff children: children of staff employed by CSGS on a permanent basis for two years or more at the time of application are given next priority, subject to being assessed as selective.
• Criterion 4 – Siblings: children with a sibling already attending CSGS at the time applications close are prioritised under this criterion.
• Criterion 5 – Distance: all remaining selective applicants are ranked by straight-line distance between home address and the school entrance on Hurst Road, with places allocated to the nearest children until capacity is reached.
• Criterion 6 – Tie-break: where two applicants have identical distances, the test score is used to separate them; if scores are also equal, random allocation applies.

The exact wording and the Pupil Premium distance threshold are set out in full in CSGS's published admissions policy for the relevant entry year, which families should read directly on the school's website before finalising their CAF preferences. CSGS records around 24 admissions appeals a year on average, and none have been upheld since 2020 — a useful indicator of how consistently the published criteria are applied in practice, and a reason to treat the distance and selective-standard requirements as firm rather than negotiable.

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How CSGS Compares to the Other Bexley Grammar Schools

CSGS shares its entrance test with three other Bexley grammar schools, and understanding how the four compare helps families make sensible CAF preference decisions. Beths Grammar School, in Bexley village, is boys-only and offers around 180 Year 7 places. Bexley Grammar School, in Welling, is mixed and offers around 210 places. Townley Grammar School, in Bexleyheath, is girls-only and offers around 218 places. CSGS, in Sidcup, is mixed and offers 192 places. Because all four schools use the single Bexley Selection Test, a child only needs to sit the test once to be considered for any combination of the four on their CAF — there is no need to register separately for each school.

Because oversubscription at every one of the four schools is decided substantially by distance, families who live roughly equidistant between two schools — for example, between Sidcup and Welling, or between Chislehurst and Bexleyheath — should think carefully about preference order rather than assuming their nearest school by name is automatically their nearest school by straight-line distance. Our specialist tutors are familiar with the Bexley consortium's admissions patterns and can help you think through preference strategy alongside academic preparation. See also our broader Bromley 11+ guide for families considering both the Bexley and Bromley grammar school systems, many of whom live within reach of both.

How Leading Tuition Prepares Children for the CSGS 11+

Leading Tuition's specialist 11+ tuition programme works with families across Sidcup, Chislehurst, Bexley, Bromley, Orpington and the wider South East London area to prepare children for the Bexley Selection Test used by CSGS and its three sister grammar schools. Because CSGS's admissions blend an academic threshold with distance-based allocation, our approach covers both the test itself and honest guidance on realistic expectations around distance.

We begin every programme with a diagnostic assessment spanning verbal reasoning and comprehension, mathematical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. This identifies precisely where a child currently sits relative to the selective standard CSGS and the Bexley consortium require, and it shapes a personalised plan for the months ahead. Verbal reasoning preparation builds vocabulary systematically, works through comprehension technique, and introduces the specific question formats used in the Quest Assessments papers. Mathematical reasoning preparation extends beyond routine Year 5 curriculum content into the multi-step, timed problem-solving that selective tests demand, with an emphasis on speed and accuracy under exam conditions. Non-verbal reasoning work builds spatial reasoning and pattern-recognition fluency through structured, repeated practice — an area many families underestimate but which responds well to focused tuition.

As the September test date approaches, our tutors introduce full, timed mock papers that mirror the Bexley Selection Test's two-paper, roughly 50-minutes-per-paper structure, so children build the stamina and pacing needed for exam day itself. Because the test uses machine-readable answer sheets, we also make sure children have practised transferring answers accurately under time pressure — a small but avoidable source of lost marks. Progress is reviewed after every session, with short diagnostic tasks used to catch and correct any drift before it compounds.

Alongside academic preparation, we advise families on the practical admissions process: registering correctly within the 1–31 March window, understanding how CSGS's distance-based oversubscription criteria are likely to apply to their address, and thinking through CAF preference order across the four Bexley consortium schools where that is relevant. Families beginning preparation early — ideally by January of Year 5, giving well over a year before the September Year 6 test — tend to arrive at the test date with stronger technique and greater composure than those who start later. Whatever stage your child is at, our tutors can build a programme that fits the time available and targets the specific skills the Bexley Selection Test rewards.

Key Dates for CSGS 11+ Entry

• Registration window: 1–31 March, Year 5 (no late registrations accepted under any circumstances)
• Bexley Selection Test: September, Year 6 — anticipated 2–10 September 2026 for the current cycle, mainly 7–10 September at grammar school venues
• Results issued: Mid-October
• CAF deadline: 31 October (submitted to your home local authority)
• National Offer Day: 1 March

Note: Dates are confirmed annually by the London Borough of Bexley and by CSGS directly — always check bexley.gov.uk and the CSGS admissions page for the confirmed dates applicable to your child's entry year.

Frequently Asked Questions