The 11 plus in Essex: the CSSE test and grammar schools

Essex grammar schools: places and how they are given

One CSSE examination counts for the first ten schools below. Most give places in order of score, with a set number kept for children living nearby. Three are partly selective: only some of their places go by the test.

Places are each school's published admission number for September 2027, from its own admission arrangements. Looked-after children and children with an EHCP naming the school come first everywhere; the details of each school's priority places are in its arrangements.

Scores that won a place in recent years

Three schools publish the lowest score that was offered a place on offer day. They show how different the schools are: close to 303 for local girls at Westcliff High School for Girls, over 350 at KEGS.

Lowest scores offered on offer day, as each school publishes them. KEGS's figures are for boys without pupil premium or looked-after priority. Some places are offered later as families decline: CCHSG's lowest eventual offer for 2025 was 318 to 319. The other schools do not publish cut-offs on their own sites; CSSE's guidance sheet covers them.

What is in the papers

Candidates sit two papers on the day, one in English and one in mathematics. Both are based on Key Stage 2 of the national curriculum, which makes this a curriculum test rather than a reasoning test.

English

Sixty minutes, with ten minutes of additional reading time. KEGS describes it as comprehension, grammar and vocabulary questions, and two pieces of creative writing.

Mathematics

Sixty minutes, on the Key Stage 2 maths curriculum.

Marks

KEGS gives 60 marks for each paper.

Scoring

The final scores for the individual papers are mathematically standardised and weighted, with a statistical age adjustment where one is required.

Change worth knowing

From September 2024, which was the 2025 entry round, the English paper no longer contains Applied Reasoning questions.

Registering is not applying

The CSSE registration form registers your child to sit the examination. It is not an application to any school. You can only apply by naming the schools as preferences on your home council's common application form, which opens on 12 September and closes on 31 October.

The order of your preferences matters. Essex County Council offers the highest preference that can be met. If your child scores well enough for a grammar school but you named another school above it, and that school can offer a place, you will be offered the higher one. Essex asks families to use all six preferences.

• Your child's name, date of birth and address on the CSSE form must match your council application exactly, or the result cannot be matched to the application.
• You nominate one CSSE school as a test centre. That choice does not affect which schools can consider your child.
• Children from outside Essex can sit the test: KEGS, CRGS and Colchester County High School for Girls all say so in their arrangements. Out-of-area places are fewer, and usually need a higher score.
• If you move house, Essex accepts evidence of the new address until 20 November 2026 for the first round of offers.
• Several CSSE schools reserve places for children on free school meals, entitled to Pupil Premium, or who are or have been in social care. This must be declared on the CSSE registration form.

No re-marks, and no special consideration in the marking

CSSE does not give special consideration to a pupil's circumstances when papers are marked, and scores are not adjusted afterwards. The consortium schools also have a joint policy of not re-marking test papers.

Circumstances are heard instead by an independent appeal panel at the schools you have chosen, after offer day on 1 March 2027.

• That is why the 26 June deadline for special adjustments matters so much: adjustments are arranged before the test, because nothing is adjusted after it.
• Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan who want a grammar school place must sit the test like everyone else: register with the CSSE and include the grammar schools on the application. If the score is high enough, Essex names the school in the plan.

Chelmsford County High School for Girls: a separate test

CCHS is the one Essex grammar school outside the CSSE. It uses the FSCE test (Future Stories Community Enterprise), which covers subjects across the Key Stage 2 curriculum up to the Year 5 programme of study, plus a creativity task. The school says it has multiple-choice and written questions, and girls must reach an eligible score in each part.

• For September 2027 entry, registration ran from 13 April to 3 June 2026, the test was on Thursday 3 September 2026, and results come by email in mid-October.
• There are no practice papers, only a familiarisation guide, and the test can be taken once.
• A girl who wants both CCHS and a CSSE school has to register for, and sit, both tests.

Getting there

The CSSE runs its own buses to all of its schools, with a termly ticket; families offered a place are sent an information pack. Essex provides free transport to a selective school for children from low-income families who live two miles or more away.

Questions parents ask