Area guide · entry in September 2027

The 11+ in Bexley

Bexley runs its own selection test, separate from the Kent and Medway tests, and one test covers all four Bexley grammar schools. Being deemed selective only gets you into the queue: apart from the 180 highest scorers, places are decided mainly by how close you live.

On this page

The calendar
The four Bexley grammar schools
Who can sit the test
What is in the papers
Scores and the selective standard
Applying, and how places are decided
Things that catch families out

Bexley at a glance

Results Emailed from 4pm on Friday 2 October 2026. Email the School Admissions Team on Monday 5 October if nothing has arrived.
Apply by 31 October 2026 Online by 11.59pm. Name the grammar schools on your home council's application — the test result is not an application.
How places are decided The top 180 scorers get high priority; after that, most places go by distance from home. Offers on 1 March 2027.
Selective is not a place About 30% are deemed selective. In 2025, 2,070 of 5,866 children were. Always name an all-ability school too.

What the test covers

Two multiple-choice papers set by Quest Assessments: verbal ability (vocabulary, comprehension and verbal reasoning), numerical reasoning, and non-verbal reasoning. Verbal ability counts for half the total.

The calendar

Every date for entry in September 2027, from the published arrangements. Dates that have passed are in grey.

Date	What happens
1 March 2026	Selection test registration opened
Midnight on 31 March 2026	Selection test registration closed Late registrations are not accepted under any circumstances, and there is no appeal. Requests for special arrangements went to your child's school by the last day of the spring term.
30 April 2026	Headteachers' supplementary forms for special arrangements due
From Monday 3 August 2026	Test centre details emailed Families who had not received them were asked to email by Friday 7 August 2026.
1 September 2026	Secondary school applications opened
Between Wednesday 2 and Thursday 10 September 2026	Bexley Selection Test, at primary schools acting as test centres
Monday 7 to Thursday 10 September 2026	Bexley Selection Test, at the four grammar school test centres For all children not tested in their own primary school.
From 4pm on Friday 2 October 2026	Results emailed Sent to the email address used to register. If nothing has arrived, email the School Admissions Team on Monday 5 October 2026.
11.59pm on 31 October 2026	Secondary school application deadline Apply through the council where you live. Changes to an online application are only possible up to this deadline.
9 December 2026	Last date to tell Bexley about a change of address With documentary evidence. After this, your previous address is used until after offer day.
Evening of Monday 1 March 2027	Offers made
17 March 2027	Deadline to accept or decline an offer that is not your first preference An offer of your first preference is accepted automatically.
4pm on 13 April 2027	Deadline for lodging appeals

The four Bexley grammar schools

A single test is used for all four. All are academies and set their own admission arrangements, published on their websites.

Beths Grammar School: Boys, mixed sixth form. 192 Year 7 places for September 2027; 1,035 preferences for 2026. Furthest distance offered in 2026: 6.665 miles.
Bexley Grammar School: Mixed. 210 places; 1,403 preferences for 2026. Furthest distance offered in 2026: 1.847 miles.
Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School: Mixed. 192 places; 1,439 preferences for 2026. Furthest distance offered in 2026: 3.086 miles.
Townley Grammar School: Girls. 224 places; 920 preferences for 2026. Furthest distance offered in 2026: 7.076 miles.

Who can sit the test

Children born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016 could take the 2026 test. It is open to children wherever they live. Children at Bexley primary schools are not registered automatically: every family had to register online between 1 and 31 March 2026, and that window has closed.

Children sat the test either in their own primary school, if it acts as a test centre for Bexley, or at one of the four grammar schools.

A Year 6 child can only take the test once. A child who sits it outside their normal age group and is not deemed selective cannot retake it until Year 7.
If you move into Bexley during Year 6 and did not register from your old address by 31 March 2026, your child can be tested for the first time at secondary school. Testing in Years 7, 8 and 9 is for children at an all-ability secondary school.
A child who is ill on the day should not be sent, and the headteacher should be told at once, with medical evidence. A child who sits the test while unwell cannot have allowances made afterwards, and late arrivals are not allowed in.

What is in the papers

The test is set by Quest Assessments. There are two separate booklets, both timed and multiple choice, taken in the same session. Each paper lasts about 50 minutes plus instructions, and the whole session runs from two and a half to three hours including a short break.

Verbal ability: Vocabulary, comprehension and verbal reasoning.
Numerical reasoning: Solving mathematical problems, with content no further than children are expected to learn by the end of Year 5.
Non-verbal reasoning: Recognising patterns, understanding relationships between objects, and making logical deductions.
On the day: All working out is done in the test booklet; no rough paper is given. The invigilator tells children when to move on to each section.

Scores and the selective standard

The papers are marked externally and age-standardised. Your child's total weighted score is made up of 50% verbal ability, 25% numerical reasoning and 25% non-verbal reasoning. The average total is 200, and about two-thirds of children score between 170 and 230.

Every child is ranked by total score, and the council decides the selective score each year with the four grammar schools. The council does not publish the selective score on its test pages, and it does not hold raw scores.

The selective standard is highly competitive: about 30% of children reach it. In 2025, 5,866 children sat the test and 2,070 were deemed selective.
More children are deemed selective than there are places, because some will take up places at other schools they prefer.
If grammar places are left after the first allocation, they go next to children one mark below the selective score, then two marks below.
A child's primary headteacher can ask for a review of the score through the Headteacher Review process, which runs after results and after the application deadline. The Independent Review Panel changes decisions only in exceptional circumstances, and there is no appeal beyond it.

The part most families need

Applying, and how places are decided

To be considered, your child must be deemed selective and you must list one or more Bexley grammar schools on your application. Apply through your home council by 11.59pm on 31 October 2026, even if you live outside Bexley. Bexley residents can name up to six schools.

The 180 highest scorers in the test are placed in one of the highest priority groups for the grammar school they prefer. For everyone else who is selective, places depend on each school's oversubscription criteria, and home-to-school distance is the deciding factor in most cases.

Bexley's own advice is that a child who is deemed selective should also name an all-ability school, in case they live too far from the grammar schools they list. If none of your preferences can be offered, a Bexley resident is given the nearest school with a vacancy.

If your child was not deemed selective but you think there are grounds for a review, still name a grammar school on your application and speak to the headteacher.
Beths Grammar School's arrangements for 2027 add a last criterion: a boy not selective in the Bexley test may be considered if he was selective in the Kent (Dartford) test and is within 5 marks of the Bexley pass. Boys selective in the Bexley test come first.
Some grammar schools ask for a supplementary form, for example for pupil premium places or, at Beths, for siblings. A supplementary form is not an application.

Things that catch families out

The Bexley test counts only for the four Bexley grammar schools. A Kent or Medway result is not a substitute for it (Beths Grammar School's narrow Kent criterion apart), and Bexley will not move its dates to fit other areas' tests.
Test results are shared with Bexley primary headteachers, but not with schools outside Bexley. Tell your child's school yourself.
Preferences cannot be changed after 31 October 2026 until after offer day.
An offer of your first preference is accepted automatically. Any other offer has to be accepted or declined online by 17 March 2027, and a declined place goes to another child.
Bexley has not published dates for the next round of the test yet.

Sources

11 official pages, checked 4 October 2026

Admissions rules are set again every year, so check the council's own pages before you rely on a date, and tell us if you find something out of date.

London Borough of Bexley

Beths Grammar School

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