London Grammar School Tests Explained
9 min read
Why London has no single '11+' test like Kent — every school or small consortium sets its own — plus the shared Pan-London application process, typical test dates, and how the super-selectives, the Sutton and Bexley consortiums, and the Tiffin schools actually differ.
If you’ve read our Kent Test guide, the first thing to unlearn for London is the idea of one test. Kent has a single test shared by every grammar school in the county. London doesn’t — each school, or each small group of schools working together, sets its own. Here’s how that actually works.
Why there’s no ‘London Test’
Greater London’s roughly 19 grammar schools are spread across several boroughs, and each one is its own admissions authority (or belongs to a small consortium that shares one). There’s no London-wide equivalent of Kent County Council setting a single test for every grammar school in the area. In practice this means the format, the timing, and the exact registration process genuinely differ from school to school — reading one school’s admissions policy tells you very little about a different school’s, even a few miles away.
Super-selectives, consortiums and the Tiffin schools
Most London grammar schools fall into one of three patterns:
| Pattern | What it means | Example schools |
|---|---|---|
| Own test, no consortium | The school sets and marks its own test independently, often in two stages (a first-round test for everyone, then a school-set written second round for the highest scorers). | The Henrietta Barnett School, Queen Elizabeth's School (Barnet), St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School |
| Shared consortium test | Several schools in one borough agree a single first-stage test, run once for all of them — a child sits it once and the score can be used for any consortium school named as a preference. | The Sutton consortium (5 schools, sharing the Selective Eligibility Test); the four Bexley grammar schools, sharing the council-run Bexley Selection Test |
| Same test provider, separate schools | Two legally separate single-sex schools (one boys', one girls') use the same external test-setter and a similar format, but run their own separate admissions and their own catchment rules. | Tiffin School and The Tiffin Girls' School, Kingston upon Thames |
The consortium model is the closest London gets to Kent’s one-test-many-schools approach — but even within a consortium, each school still sets its own catchment area and oversubscription criteria on top of the shared test score, so a shared test doesn’t mean shared admissions rules.
For real, per-school admissions detail — catchment areas, oversubscription order, exact places available — see our individual Greater London grammar school guides.
How applying actually works
Two separate processes run in parallel, and missing either one costs you a place:
| Step | What it is |
|---|---|
| The Common Application Form (CAF) | Submitted once to your home local authority, naming up to 6 preferred schools in rank order — this is the Pan-London coordinated scheme, and it works regardless of which borough actually runs your preferred school. |
| Each school's own test registration | A separate form, on a separate deadline set by that specific school (or consortium), that you must complete to actually sit its entrance test. Naming a school on your CAF does not register your child for its test. |
This is the single most common mistake families make— treating the CAF as the whole application. If your child doesn’t sit a school’s test because you missed its own registration deadline, that school cannot offer a place no matter how you ranked it on the CAF.
The typical timeline
Exact dates vary by school and by year, but most London grammar school entrance tests share a broad shape:
| Stage | Roughly when |
|---|---|
| School-specific test registration opens | Spring/early summer of Year 5 into Year 6 |
| First-round / single-stage tests sat | September of Year 6 |
| Second-round tests (where a school uses one) | Late September to early October |
| Common Application Form (CAF) deadline | 31 October |
| National Offer Day | 1 March |
Always confirm the current cycle’s exact dates directly with each school— unlike Kent’s single published KCC timetable, there’s no one authority publishing a unified London-wide schedule, so this is genuinely something you have to check per school.
Common questions
Do we register once, like the Kent Test, or separately for each school?
Separately — this is the biggest practical difference from Kent. Each school (or consortium) runs its own registration for its own test, on its own deadline, in addition to the single Common Application Form (CAF) you submit to your home borough. Missing a school's own registration window means missing that school entirely, even if you named it on your CAF.
Can we apply to a school outside our home borough?
Yes — the Pan-London coordinated admissions scheme lets you name any state school in England on your home borough's CAF, regardless of which borough runs it. You'll still need to register separately for that school's own entrance test if it sets one, and some schools' oversubscription criteria give priority to their own borough's residents even when out-of-borough children are welcome to apply.
Is one school's test harder than another's, or are they all similar?
They vary genuinely, not just in name. Some are single-stage multiple-choice papers; others (the super-selectives, Tiffin, St Olave's) use a two-stage format where only the top scorers from stage one are invited back for school-set written papers that decide the final rank order. Always check the specific school's own published test format rather than assuming it matches a neighbouring school.
Why do some 'boys' or 'girls' schools have sixth forms open to everyone?
A number of London grammar schools are single-sex for Years 7-11 but co-educational at sixth form — this is a deliberate, published policy at each school, not an error or inconsistency. It doesn't change Year 7 entry requirements, which stay single-sex where the main school is.