Grammar School Exam Dates by Region: 2027 Entry

Nine selective regions run nine different tests, and for September 2027 entry eight of them sit between 8 September and 19 September 2026. Buckinghamshire's transfer test is on 10 September, Kent's on the same day, Birmingham's on 12 September, Trafford's on 14 September, Sutton's on 15 September, Queen Elizabeth's Barnet on 16 and 17 September, Redbridge on 18 September and Essex on 19 September.

Who Actually Runs Your Region's Test?

This is the question to answer first, and almost no guide leads with it. The organising body determines what the paper contains, when it closes, and how many schools a single registration covers. Get it wrong and a family prepares for the wrong exam and registers with the wrong organisation.

Two rows in that table are the ones that catch people. The Sutton test contains no verbal or non-verbal reasoning at all — Sutton Grammar School states directly that it is two multiple-choice papers, Maths and English — so a Sutton candidate drilled on reasoning has prepared for a paper nobody will set them. And Barnet is not a consortium: Queen Elizabeth's and Henrietta Barnett run separate processes, with separate registrations and separate papers, so a family applying to both is doing everything twice.

When Is Each Region's Test for September 2027 Entry?

Every date below is published by the body that runs the test. Where results dates are published, they are given; where they are not, the table says so rather than guessing.

Read down the date column and the problem is obvious. Eight regional sittings fall inside eleven days. A family applying across regions — and plenty do, particularly across Kent and south London, or Buckinghamshire and Berkshire — is not choosing between dates, it is stacking them. Two of those tests fall on the same day: Buckinghamshire and Kent both sit on 10 September 2026, which makes them mutually exclusive for a child eligible for both.

The registration column is the part that has already closed. Every window in the table shut between 15 June and 31 July 2026. For September 2027 entry the regional door is now shut; what remains open are individual schools with their own timetables, and our 11+ exam dates timetable tracks which of those are still accepting registrations.

Which Region's Test Is About to Change?

Trafford, and the change is larger than a date move. The Trafford Grammar School Consortium has appointed Future Stories Community Enterprise as its new admissions test provider for entry from 2028, and two things follow from it.

The first is content. Beginning with the entrance test sat in September 2027, the paper changes from verbal, non-verbal and mathematical reasoning to a test drawing on the Key Stage 2 curriculum. A Trafford family currently buying reasoning practice for a child who will sit in 2027 or later is buying preparation for a paper that will not exist.

The second is timing, and it is more disruptive still. For entry to Year 7 from 2029 onwards, the consortium has decided to move the test date from September of Year 6 to the summer term of Year 5. That pulls the whole preparation window forward by about a year for children currently in Year 2 and below.

Neither change affects the sitting on 14 September 2026 for 2027 entry, which runs on the existing format. But a family with two children of different ages in Trafford is now looking at two different exams.

How Long Does Each Region's Test Actually Take?

The date tells you which morning to keep free. It does not tell you how long the child will be sitting, and the regions differ enough for that to matter when a family is comparing them.

Kent runs the longest programme. Kent County Council publishes its first paper, covering English and maths, as one hour in total, with each section made up of a 5 minute practice followed by a 25 minute test. There is also a writing exercise of 40 minutes, including 10 minutes of planning, which is not marked as part of the score.

Sutton is shorter on the day but repeated. Sutton Grammar School states that the two Selective Eligibility Test papers take between 40 and 50 minutes each, with a rest break between them, and that the second-stage papers sat two or three weeks later run to around 45 minutes to 1 hour each. Those second-stage papers are written rather than multiple choice, so the format changes as well as the length.

Queen Elizabeth's School Barnet sits both of its multiple-choice papers in a single session, which is how the school runs its whole cohort across two days for 180 places. Buckinghamshire, uniquely among these regions, gives children a practice test in school two days before the real one.

Does Distance Still Matter, or Only the Score?

It depends entirely on the region, and this is the second thing families get wrong after the provider.

In the shire counties, distance usually governs. Altrincham Grammar School for Girls defines its catchment as an eight-mile radius from the main entrance of the school, and in Buckinghamshire a qualifying score of at least 121 makes a child eligible for any of the 13 grammar schools, after which each school's own oversubscription criteria decide the outcome.

In Kent, the threshold does the work: a total of 332 or more with no single score below 108, on a scale running from 69 to 141 with a maximum total of 423. Clearing it is what makes a child eligible for a grammar assessment, and an uneven profile can clear the total and still fail on the per-section floor.

In parts of London, neither applies. Queen Elizabeth's School Barnet has no catchment at all and admits solely on entrance test score. Our guide to London's super-selectives sets out how eight of those schools differ from one another, and our 11+ pass mark guide covers which authorities publish a figure at all.

What If You Have Missed Your Region's Window?

It is worth being straightforward about this, because the honest answer is unwelcome and the sites that soften it are not doing anyone a favour. Every regional registration in the table above has closed, and the consortia say plainly that late registrations are not accepted. There is no clearing round for the 11+, no appeals route for a missed registration and no discretion for an administrative oversight.

Three things are still worth doing. The first is to check the individual schools rather than the consortium: schools outside a regional consortium set their own timetables, and a handful run later than the September block. The second is to write to the school's admissions office rather than the local authority, briefly and without argument, stating the position and asking whether any late registration is possible. The answer is usually no, but it costs a paragraph and the question is occasionally answered differently for a child who has just moved into the area.

The third is to look at the year below. A family that has missed this cycle for a Year 6 child has, for a younger sibling, an unusually clear run: the registration windows for the next cycle open between April and June, the dates are published in advance, and the preparation can be built over eighteen months rather than eight weeks. That is a better position than most families applying this September are in.

If the child is in Year 6 and the window has gone, the remaining route is the ordinary secondary transfer process and, where a school has one, the waiting list after National Offer Day. Waiting lists at selective schools do move, sometimes substantially, and a place declined in March can be offered in April or later.

What Happens After the Test?

Two dates are national and neither depends on region. The Common Application Form is due at your home local authority by 31 October 2026, and offers are made on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027.

The awkwardness is the order. Buckinghamshire results arrive on 9 October, Kent's on 15 October and Warwickshire's on 16 October, which leaves between two and three weeks to redraw a preference list before the form closes. But several schools do not report before 31 October at all, and the Sutton second stages are still being sat into early October with no published results date. The form has to be completed on the assumption that a child might qualify, not on the knowledge that they have — and naming a school you have not yet heard from is the normal, correct thing to do.

Reviewed August 2026: the organising body, test date, registration window and published results date for each region checked against that authority's, consortium's or school's own site. Regions are included only where a 2027-entry date is published at source; where a results date is not published, the table says so rather than estimating one.

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