11 Plus Results Day 2026: What to Expect and What to Do Next

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11+ results day is not one fixed date on a national calendar — it is a rolling set of dates through October, each set independently by a county council, consortium, or group of schools. Kent, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Essex, Redbridge and the Birmingham King Edward VI schools all issue results within roughly a four-week window in October 2026, but the exact date, the method of notification, and what the result actually tells you all differ from area to area. This guide sets out, region by region, when results are expected, how you will actually be told, what the notification does and does not mean, and exactly what to do if nothing has arrived by the time everyone else's has.

When Do 11+ Results Come Out in 2026?

Every selective area sets its own test date and its own results date, and there is no requirement for these to align nationally. The table below sets out the confirmed or expected 2026 dates for the major systems, based on each authority's own published guidance at the time of writing. Where a county has not yet published an exact 2026 date, that is noted rather than guessed.

Two things stand out from this table. First, the state grammar school systems — Kent, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Redbridge, Essex, Birmingham — nearly all release results in a tight band between roughly 9 and 15 October, with the underlying reason being that most county Common Application Form or Secondary Transfer Form deadlines fall on or near 31 October, and families need their result in hand before they finalise their preference list. Second, the London independent consortium schools run to an entirely different calendar, because their process includes interviews after the written test — their "results day" concept doesn't really exist in the same way, since final decisions land in January or February rather than October. If you are navigating that specific process, our dedicated guide to London Consortium schools and how their offers are decided covers the shared-paper system and interview stage in full.

How Will Families Be Notified?

The method of notification is not standardised, and this catches out a surprising number of families who assume a phone call or a definite in-person conversation will happen. In practice, almost no authority notifies by phone.

Email is now the default in most areas. Kent will email results to the address registered on your Kent Test application; if no valid email was given, or if the email bounces, Kent falls back to first-class post. Buckinghamshire and Redbridge both notify the majority of families by email as standard. This makes it essential to check that the email address on your original registration is current, and to check your spam or promotions folder on the expected day — a single misdirected filter is one of the most common reasons a result appears "missing" when it has, in fact, already arrived.

Some areas still rely on post. Essex's CSSE has traditionally issued results by first-class letter rather than email, meaning postal delays around the results date can genuinely push arrival back a day or two. If you have moved house since registering, or if your child's registration used a childminder or grandparent's address, confirm this is still correct well before October.

A growing number of areas use an online portal instead of a push notification. Birmingham's King Edward VI consortium schools make results available to parents online in October, rather than emailing or posting a letter — which means you need to actively log in and check, rather than wait for something to land in your inbox. Sutton's Selective Eligibility Test (SET) results are typically communicated through the registered school and the SET portal rather than a personal letter, since a Stage 1 pass simply triggers eligibility for Stage 2 testing at the Sutton grammar schools rather than a final outcome.

Because the method differs so much by area, the single most useful thing you can do in September is confirm, in writing, exactly how and when your specific county or consortium says it will notify you — most publish this on their admissions webpage — rather than assume it will match what a friend in a different county experienced.

What Does the Result Actually Say?

This is where results day most often surprises first-time parents. What arrives on the day is rarely a simple "pass" or "fail." Most state grammar school systems issue a standardised score, sometimes broken down by subject, rather than a verdict.

Kent Test results show three standardised scores — one each for English, maths and reasoning — plus a total aggregate, with each individual score ranging from 69 to 141. For 2025 entry, the qualifying threshold required a total score of 332 or higher, with no single subject score below 108; the 2026 threshold is confirmed by Kent County Council once all children have been tested, in October. Buckinghamshire's system is simpler on paper — a single age-standardised score, with 121 as the qualifying mark for consideration for a grammar place — but it is still a score, not a placement.

Essex's CSSE similarly issues a standardised score rather than a binary result; a covering letter explains what the number means in the context of that year's applicants, but it does not name a specific school. The same is true in Warwickshire and Birmingham. In every one of these systems, the result you receive in October tells you whether your child has reached the standard the participating grammar schools require — it does not, by itself, tell you which school (if any) your child will actually attend.

What Results Day Doesn't Tell You: The National Offer Day Distinction

This is the single most important — and most widely misunderstood — fact about 11+ results day. In almost every state grammar school area, the October result is separate from the actual offer of a school place, and the two arrive months apart.

The October result tells you your child's standardised score, and whether that score meets the threshold the local grammar schools use as one factor in their admissions criteria. The actual decision about which secondary school your child is offered a place at is made by your home local authority, through the ordinary Common Application Form process, taking into account your ranked preferences, distance, sibling links and the test outcome together. That decision is communicated to every family in England on the same day: National Offer Day, which falls on Monday 1 March 2027 for children starting secondary school in September 2027. Tiffin School in Kingston — one of the highest-profile superselective state grammar schools and a two-stage test itself — makes this distinction explicit in its own admissions guidance: families are told their Stage One outcome in mid-October, but told squarely that reaching Stage Two "does not mean" a place at the school, with the actual offer confirmed only on National Offer Day the following March.

The practical implication is that the October letter or email is a piece of information to act on, not a conclusion to react to. If your child's score meets the local threshold, the next job is to make sure your Common Application Form correctly lists every grammar school you want considered, ranked in genuine order of preference, before your county's deadline — commonly 31 October. If the score narrowly misses the threshold, there is still a Common Application Form to complete, still a possibility of a waiting-list place, and still time before the March decision to think through independent school options in parallel. We cover exactly how to navigate a score that falls just short in our detailed guide, What Happens If Your Child Misses the 11+ by a Few Marks.

What If You Don't Hear Anything on the Expected Day?

Every year, some families do not receive their result on the published date, and the reason is almost always mundane rather than alarming. Before assuming the worst, work through a short checklist.

First, check your spam, junk and promotions folders — a misfiled automated email from a council mail server is the single most common cause of an apparently missing result. Second, confirm the email address and postal address held on your original registration are still correct; families who registered a year or more in advance sometimes forget an address has since changed. Third, if you registered through your child's current primary school rather than directly with the local authority, ask the school office directly — Kent County Council specifically advises parents to contact their child's primary school the day after the official release date, since schools are often able to confirm a result even where a parent's individual copy has gone astray.

If none of that resolves it, contact the admissions team at the relevant county council or consortium directly — not the individual grammar school, which typically does not hold the master record of every applicant's score. Genuine processing delays do happen, particularly for families who tested at an external or out-of-county venue, but they are the exception rather than the rule, and a same-day or next-day phone call or email to the council almost always resolves it.

Immediate Next Steps After Your Result

What you do in the days immediately after results day matters more than the result itself, in practical terms, because deadlines start moving immediately regardless of how the news landed.

If the result qualifies your child for grammar school consideration, check and, if necessary, amend your Common Application Form so that every grammar school you would genuinely accept a place at is listed and ranked in true order of preference — ranking strategically rather than honestly is one of the most common and avoidable mistakes families make at this stage, since most local authorities' allocation systems are designed around genuine first-preference ranking. If your child's score sits close to, but below, the qualifying mark, look into your specific school's waiting list process and appeals timeline now, even though a formal appeal typically cannot be lodged until after the March offer — being prepared in advance means you are not starting from scratch under time pressure. Our guide on what happens if your child misses the 11+ by a few marks sets out the appeals and waiting-list mechanics in detail.

Whatever the outcome, how you talk to your child about it in the first hour or two matters enormously for their confidence going into Year 7, regardless of which school they eventually attend. We have written a dedicated guide, How to Talk to Your Child About 11+ Results, covering exactly that conversation — what to say, what to avoid, and how to manage siblings who received different outcomes.

How Independent Consortium Schools Handle Results Differently

Everything above describes the state grammar school systems — Kent, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Essex, Redbridge, Birmingham, Sutton and Lincolnshire — where a single written test in September leads to a results notification in October. London's independent "superselective" schools, several of which share a common entrance paper through informal consortium arrangements, run to a noticeably different timetable, and it is worth understanding the difference so you know what to expect if your child is sitting for one of these schools alongside a state grammar test.

These schools typically hold their written assessment in the same September-to-October window as the state grammar tests, but a written score alone rarely produces a final decision. Shortlisted candidates are then invited to interview, usually in November or December, and only after interviews are complete do schools send their final letters — offer, waiting list, or unsuccessful — commonly in January or February, considerably later than the state grammar October result. Each school in a consortium marks its own paper and reaches its own decision independently, even where several schools use the identical test paper on the identical day. For the specific schools involved, the registration windows, and how offers are actually decided school by school, see our guide to the 11+ London Consortium schools.

A Results Day Checklist for Parents

A short, practical checklist for the days immediately around your county or consortium's published results date:

• Confirm your exact results date and notification method in advance by checking your county or consortium's own admissions page — do not rely on what happened in a different area last year.
• Double-check the email address and postal address on your original registration are still current, ideally a few weeks before results are due.
• On the day, check spam and junk folders before assuming nothing has arrived.
• If nothing has arrived by the following morning, contact your child's primary school first, then the local authority admissions team directly.
• Understand what the number or letter you receive actually means for your specific area — a standardised score, an eligibility band, or (for London independents) an actual offer.
• Note your county's Common Application Form or Secondary Transfer Form deadline (commonly 31 October) and make sure your preferences are correctly ranked before it passes.
• Remember that, for most state grammar systems, the real decision on a specific school place lands on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027 — not on results day itself.
• Plan the conversation with your child before the result arrives, so you are not improvising in the moment either way.

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