Hertfordshire 11 Plus From Overseas: 2027 and 2028 Entry

Dame Alice Owen’s School is a Hertfordshire secondary school that admits children to its entrance tests only if their permanent home address is in one of its Local Priority Areas, or they are educated in the London Borough of Islington, on both the test-registration date and the application date. For September 2027 entry, registration closed on 10 June 2026 and applications close on 31 October 2026.

The seven-school South West Herts Consortium runs a separate test and closed its 2027-entry registration on 5 June 2026: “No late registrations will be accepted.” Leading Tuition prepares children whose families live outside the UK for both sets of tests. Tuition can be one to one, and families outside the UK can take the whole programme online. Every rule below is quoted from the body that wrote it and was read on 4 October 2026.

Which entry year is your child in, and which dates have already passed?

Owen’s says “Registration takes place when children are in Year 5 and is open between May and June” and “The first test takes place in early September when children are starting Year 6.” A child who registered between April and June 2026 started Year 6 in September 2026 and belongs to September 2027 entry; a child now in Year 5 belongs to September 2028 entry. School years abroad do not always match England’s: check the child’s English year in our guide to which year group a child belongs in.

September 2027 entry: dates as published and their status on 4 October 2026

September 2028 entry: ask each school for its dates

Owen’s key-dates page, read on 4 October 2026, is headed “Secondary Transfer Entry September 2027” and the Consortium’s calendar is headed “Key Testing Dates 2026 for Secondary Transfer 2027”, so the dates above cannot simply be carried forward a year. The pattern is stated in general terms: Owen’s registers in Year 5, and the Queens’ School 2027 policy says to register “when the student is in Year 5.” Write to the Owen’s Admissions Office and to the Consortium’s test team at info@swhertsschools.org.uk and ask for the 2028-entry registration window, test dates and date-of-birth range. For 2027 entry the Consortium gives “Your child must have a date of birth between 1st September 2015 and 31st August 2016 to be eligible for the test.”

What is left once a test date has passed: late applications, continuing interest and in-year places

For a child now in Year 6 abroad, the question is what remains after those dates. The Consortium says “If the deadline has passed, it will not be possible to register your child regardless of your circumstances.” Owen’s says “Late applications cannot be accepted after the closing deadline, in line with our Admissions Arrangements.” The Consortium continues: “Whilst this means that your child cannot take the tests, it does not preclude you from applying for a place at any of the Consortium schools, since your school application will still be assessed under the applicable alternative criteria.”

The School Admissions Code 2021 says in paragraph 2.9 that “Admission authorities must not refuse to admit a child solely because: … e) they have missed entrance tests for selective places.” The 2027 texts of three schools then say which of their criteria a child without a test result cannot be considered under. Each is that school’s statement alone.

Two schools also say what a late application meets. Rickmansworth: “Late applications for Secondary Transfer shall be assessed under all criteria except where the application has been received too late for assessment by test (Academic or Music), the dates of which are published on the South West Herts Consortium website.” Owen’s: “Late applications – applications received by the School after the date of application will only be considered after all on time applications have been processed.” Owen’s keeps a continuing-interest list: “Year 6 children who have been unsuccessful in being offered a place, and who have given DAOS a higher preference than the school they have been allocated, will automatically continue to be considered until the end of the summer term – parents/carers do not need to take any other action”. For in-year places its page, read on 4 October 2026, says “Please be aware the school is heavily oversubscribed and we do not currently have any vacancies.” A child who arrives from abroad after Year 7 has started is covered in our guides to relocating to the UK mid-cycle and joining a grammar school after Year 7.

What does Owen’s require of the address, and on which two dates?

Owen’s Local Priority Areas page states the rule in one paragraph: “Only children living within our Local Priority Areas are eligible to take our tests and be considered under our Entrance Exam/Music Aptitude criteria. Therefore children from outside of these areas cannot sit our tests. A child’s permanent home address must be within one of these areas at BOTH the date of test registration AND the date of application in order to be considered under our test criteria.” The determined arrangements for 2027-28 add the Islington alternative and repeat the two dates: “Places will be allocated under oversubscription criteria 4 & 5 only to children who have their permanent home address within one of the Local Priority Areas for the School (see below for a list of these areas) or are educated within the London Borough of Islington at the date of test registration and at the date of application”. The registration date for 2027 entry was 10 June 2026, and the application date is “31st October 2026.” That document “relates to the academic year 2027- 2028 and is correct for that year as at February 2026”, so ask the school for the 2028-entry arrangements before relying on the wording.

The school’s FAQ answers the question a family outside the areas asks first: “If your child’s permanent address is not within our Local Priority Areas he/she would not be eligible for consideration for a place under our music or academic criteria so would therefore not be eligible to sit our tests.” It also says such a family can apply: “Yes you can still apply via your home Local Authority. Your application will be considered under any other applicable criteria (i.e. locality (criteria 2 and 7) which refers to home-school distance).” The next sentence is the school’s own assessment: “However, as our application numbers are so high, based on historical allocation details, it is extremely unlikely an application from outside of our Local Priority Area would be successful under our locality criteria.” That sentence is about Owen’s locality criteria, not its entrance tests.

The wording turns on a “permanent home address”. For a family abroad on the registration date, ask the Owen’s Admissions Office in writing whether the child can register for the 2028-entry tests, what evidence of an agreed return it accepts for the address on the registration date and again on 31 October, and which address it holds if the family arrives between the two dates. The test format, places and Islington guarantee are on our Dame Alice Owen’s School page, and this page does not repeat them.

Where, when and how often can a child sit the Owen’s and Consortium tests?

A child abroad must be present on fixed dates. For 2027 entry the two sets of tests compare as follows.

Owen’s adds a rule for families whose travel clashes with a test: “PLEASE NOTE – WE ARE UNABLE TO ACCOMMODATE CHILDREN WHOSE HOLIDAY COMMITMENTS CLASH WITH OUR TESTS OR FOR ANY OTHER REASONS THAN THOSE STATED ABOVE”. The Consortium’s advice on travel is “It’s advisable to ensure that you can travel to any Consortium school, as the location is not guaranteed to be the closest to your child’s primary school.” The Consortium also advises: “Ensure your child is eligible for the Consortium Schools before registering. If ineligible, you may be testing unnecessarily and the application may be discarded by the school.” The Queens’ School 2027 policy, for example, says “These tests only apply to those children whose permanent residence is located within postcodes WD3-7, WD17-19, WD23-25, AL2 (south of M25), HA6, HA5 3**, HA5 4**, HA3 6**, HA7 3**, HA7 4**”. The Watford schools’ places, scores and test format are on our Watford Grammar Schools page, and the area overview is on our Hertfordshire 11+ page.

What do the county and five Consortium schools say to an application from abroad?

Applications to the Consortium schools go through a home council’s Common Application Form. The Consortium’s FAQ says “You must complete the Common Application Form (CAF) for the Local Authority in which you live. (The borough council to which you pay your council tax.) The national deadline for applications for secondary transfer is the 31st October.”

Hertfordshire County Council

For service and Crown servant families the county’s page says: “We will accept applications from within the UK and abroad from families of UK service personnel or other crown servants. When you apply, include an official letter from either: Ministry of Defence (MOD) Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The letter must give your relocation date and a unit postal or quartering address in Hertfordshire.” The page goes on: “We'll also consider accepting applications from families who can show they intend to return and permanently live in Hertfordshire before the start of the new academic year (September). If you're overseas and applying for a school in Hertfordshire, include evidence to show when the child will be a permanent resident in Hertfordshire. Until we have sufficient evidence, your overseas address will be used for allocation purposes.” It adds: “If you own a property in Hertfordshire but you live elsewhere (for example, you're working abroad), we won't use your Hertfordshire address until we have proof that the child lives there permanently.” The same section of the county’s page ends: “Children must either: hold full British citizen passports (not British Dependent Territories or British Overseas passports) have a UK passport describing them as a British citizen or British subject with the right of abode.” That is Hertfordshire County Council’s own published wording, and it follows the county’s paragraph on European Economic Area and Swiss citizens.

Rickmansworth’s arrangements, in a sentence about the county, say that the county “will not allocate a school place to a child until they are resident in the UK.” The county’s own wording, quoted above, includes both its intent-to-return sentence and the passport text. This page sets out the county, Rickmansworth and DfE as each wrote them and does not adjudicate between them. Ask the county, through its contact page, which applications from an overseas address it applies the intent-to-return wording to, whether its “Children must either” text applies to them, and from which address an application would be processed.

Families describe the work in their own words on Trustpilot, where Leading Tuition is rated Excellent, 4.8 out of 5 from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026.

The Department for Education

DfE’s advice to local authorities and admission authorities says “local authorities should consider the application as adequate proof of an intention to move or return to the area” for an application made from another country. On priority, it says: “If a parent is unable to provide evidence of a return to the area (before the new school year for applications made during the normal admissions round or for late applications, or by the start of the next term for in-year applications), admission authorities could apply a catchment area policy or distance tie-break, if they have such admission criteria, using the parents’ place of residence at the point the application is made. If this is in another country, it might give the child a lower priority for admission if the admission authority operates a catchment area or if the child is tied for the final place available with other applicants.”

The schools’ own 2027 texts

Queens’, Parmiter’s and Rickmansworth each carry a sentence in their own arrangements on a home owned in Hertfordshire (Rickmansworth: in the UK) while the family works abroad; the county’s sentence on the same point is quoted above. Whether an address abroad counts as being “outside the admission area” in the Watford wording is a question for each Watford school in writing. Our guide for forces families applying from overseas covers service families.

Passports and immigration checks, side by side

The county, Queens’ (footnote quoted in the table above), Rickmansworth and DfE speak to the same ground. Each is set out as its own body wrote it.

This page does not choose between the county and DfE. Ask the county in writing which applications its “Children must either” text applies to, and ask Queens’ and Rickmansworth which documents they ask a family abroad to send with an application, and when.

How long must a family have lived at an address before the school counts it?

The schools do not use one clock. Each definition is quoted with the scope its own policy gives it.

For its locality criteria 2 and 7, Owen’s address guidance says “Applicants may be asked to provide evidence that the home address submitted is the permanent residence of their child, as defined in the Admissions Arrangements. Such evidence may include, but is not restricted to:” It then lists items including “Evidence of when actual residency took place (for example: a removal company booking, mail redirection service, and/or opening utility bills)”. That guidance concerns the locality criteria, not eligibility to sit the tests. Check the school’s own definition before signing a tenancy or completing a purchase, and keep dated records of the actual move.

Does a child’s immigration status change any of this?

DfE places the check on parents: “It is the responsibility of the parents of foreign national children to check that their children have a right under their UK entry conditions to study at a school before applying for a place.” Its guidance also says that unaccompanied children on a Child Student or Student visa “cannot lawfully, under their UK entry conditions, study at a state-funded school.” Our guides on whether foreign nationals can attend grammar schools and on applying for Year 7 from abroad cover what DfE says about visas.

How a child abroad prepares for tests held at Hertfordshire schools in early September

Both sets of tests sit at fixed points in the school year: registration in Year 5, then a first test in the first weeks of Year 6. Leading Tuition plans each child’s preparation backwards from the dates on this page, so that the work fits the registration window, the family’s travel and the test venue the schools allocate. Tuition can be one to one, and families outside the UK can take the whole programme online. Preparation cannot move a registration date, an address date or an allocation round, which is why those come first. The hub for families abroad links the other areas.

Questions families abroad ask about Dame Alice Owen’s and the South West Herts schools