Buckinghamshire 11+ Results 2026: What Your Score Means

If you're reading this before Friday, you've probably checked your inbox more times today than you'd like to admit. Fair enough. Come back after 4pm. If you're reading it after, this is the plain-English version of what the number means and what you've got to get done in the next three weeks. We've been through the Council's guidance and every school's 2027 admissions policy so you don't have to.

When are Buckinghamshire 11+ results released in 2026?

Friday 9 October, after 4pm, by email. Not at lunchtime, not first thing. If you're refreshing at 2pm you'll just wind yourself up.

How will I get the result?

Depends where your child goes to school. State primary in Bucks, and the Council has your email? It comes straight to you. No email on file, and it goes to the school instead, who'll pass it on.

Prep school, Partner school or a school outside the county? It goes to whatever email you used when you registered. If you're not sure which camp you're in, the Council keeps the list of Partner schools.

One thing: don't delete that email. Your child's Student ID is in there, and you'll need it if you end up going for a Selection Review.

Why hasn't my child's result arrived?

If your child was ill on test day and sat it later, the clock's different. It all hinges on when the papers got back to the Council:

• ✓by 18 September: results on 9 October
• ✓19 September to 16 October: results by 31 October
• ✓after 16 October: as soon as they can, which might be after the application deadline

Sat the main test and still nothing by Saturday? Check junk. Then check which email address you registered with. Still nothing, ring or email the Council's Admissions Team. And if you're also sweating over Kent, Essex or Redbridge, those dates are in our wider 11+ results day guide.

Bucks 11+ pass mark: how to read your STTS score

The Secondary Transfer Test results email has four numbers on it: an overall score (the STTS) and one each for verbal, maths and non-verbal. Ignore the three section scores for now. The overall one is what decides things, and there's a line under it telling you straight out whether your child has qualified.

121 or more? Your child has qualified for all 13 grammar schools. Brilliant. It's not a place, though, and we'll get to why in a minute.

Under 121? Not automatically qualified. But not necessarily over, either. There's the Selection Review, and some schools hold back a handful of places for Pupil Premium children who fell a few marks short. Both are in the Selection Review section.

Bucks 11+ scores at a glance

How is the score worked out?

Lots of parents ask what it's out of. Annoyingly, it isn't really out of anything. Each section gets adjusted for your child's age, right down to the month, which is why an August birthday isn't stuck competing with kids nearly a year older. Section scores land somewhere between 60 and 170, then get blended, with verbal counting twice as much as the other two:

You'll never see the raw marks, by the way. And for a bit of context, the Council expects about 37% of children who sit it to get 121 or more.

Does passing the Bucks 11+ guarantee a grammar school place?

No. This is the bit that catches families out every single year. 121 gets your child into the running. It doesn't get them a seat. That comes down to which schools you put down and how each one chooses between qualified children.

Look at last year. The figures published by The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools show roughly 3,990 children qualified for September 2026 entry. About 2,380 grammar places went out on Offer Day. Some of those families went private or moved away, sure. You can still see the gap.

Every grammar has its own pecking order. Looked-after children usually come first. After that it's some mix of Pupil Premium, siblings and catchment (a few schools have a smaller priority area inside the catchment), with distance at the end. No two schools do it in quite the same order, which is why reading the actual policy matters.

Does a higher 11+ score improve my chances?

Nope. Bucks grammars don't use the score to decide places. Once a child is over the line, 121 and 145 get treated identically. So if someone at the school gate is casually mentioning their son's 142, it makes no difference to your child's chances. None.

How much does catchment matter?

Massively. Two children on the same score can have totally different chances at the same school, purely because of the road they live on. It's tempting to ask "what score do I need for Wycombe High?" but in Bucks that's the wrong question. What you actually want to know is how that school ranks qualified children. The answer's in its admissions policy, usually a dull-looking PDF on the school website. Read it anyway.

What to do after your Buckinghamshire 11+ results

Step 1: Look at the score

121 or over, move on to step 2. Under? Read the Selection Review section first. Its deadline is the day before applications close, and it's very easy to lose a week without noticing.

Step 2: Work out which schools you'd genuinely accept

Be honest with yourself here. A grammar that's 40 minutes and two buses away can look great in October and feel very different on a wet Tuesday in February. Think about the journey, friends, the feel of the place. Not just the label.

Step 3: Read the 2027 admissions policies

Yes, the boring bit. Your child qualifies for all 13, but the odds won't be the same at each one. Check the catchment rules and whether the school wants an extra form or an email from you. We've flagged those in the school table.

Step 4: Put them in the order you actually want

Bucks uses what's called an equal preference scheme. In plain English: you can list up to six schools, each one looks at your child under its own rules, and putting a school first gives you no leg-up there. If more than one could offer a place, you get whichever is highest on your list. So don't try to game the order.

Step 5: Apply by 31 October

Through your own council, which isn't Buckinghamshire if you live over the border. Don't leave it to the last night.

Scored below 121? How the Bucks Selection Review works

First things first. This is how your child did on two papers, one morning in September. That's all it is. It says nothing about how bright they are or where they'll end up. Take the weekend, get a takeaway, and decide on Monday.

How does a Selection Review work?

You write to a panel explaining why your child belongs at grammar school even though they missed 121. If the panel agrees, your child counts as qualified for all 13 schools, exactly as if they'd scored 121. It's two grammar school heads and a primary head, and they aren't told which schools you've applied to.

• ✓Deadline: the whole case in by 30 October 2026 (if your result came on 9 October).
• ✓Where to start: the Council's website. Have the Student ID and your headteacher's email to hand.
• ✓When you'll hear: panels run November to January, and everyone gets their answer on 12 February 2027.

What evidence helps?

The panel wants two things, and it wants both. Proof your child is working at grammar level, which means the headteacher's Selection Review Summary Sheet, school reports and a letter from the class teacher. And a reason the test went wrong on the day: a GP or hospital letter about illness (your child's or someone close to them), a bereavement around then, a parent away for a long stretch, a house or school move just before.

What not to send: exercise books. The panel isn't allowed to look at school work. Grade 5 piano and the county swimming medal don't count either, sadly. Short and to the point beats a lever-arch file.

Something plenty of parents don't realise. The headteacher has already rated your child, before results came out, on how suited they are to grammar school and on their attitude to learning. It goes to the panel automatically. Ask what they put. If it's lukewarm, that tells you something.

Now the odds. The Council says most successful reviews are for scores between 110 and 120, and lower than that rarely works. In the TBGS figures for September 2026 entry, about 295 of 938 reviews came through. Roughly three in ten, and most of those were at 119 or 120. Our honest take? At 119 or 120 with a supportive head, it's usually worth a go. Much lower, think hard about whether the evidence is really there.

Is a Selection Review the same as an appeal?

Result → Selection Review if needed → application → National Offer Day → appeal if needed

So you can't appeal yet. Nothing's been refused. And skipping the review to go straight to appeal isn't some clever shortcut. In the main 2025 round, 38 appeals were heard for children who hadn't qualified and hadn't had a review. Not one got in.

What if the Selection Review fails?

You can still appeal after 1 March for any grammar you listed. But the appeal panel's first question is simply whether the review was "fair, consistent and objective", and according to the Council it almost always was. In 2025, 4 out of 131 appeals after a failed review worked. Four. So put your energy into getting the application right now, not into a plan B for March.

Can my child get a grammar place without 121?

Sometimes, yes. Every Bucks grammar keeps some places for Pupil Premium children who missed 121, as long as they hit that school's own minimum and (usually) live in catchment. The minimum is different at each one. The Royal Grammar School has up to six places for 115 to 120. Borlase's has up to 20 for 110 to 120. Dr Challoner's High has up to 12 from 115, then up to six for 110 to 114 if any are left over.

If that's you, send proof of eligibility and the score to each school by 31 October. You can do this and a Selection Review at the same time. One doesn't cancel out the other.

Buckinghamshire grammar schools: all 13 compared

One result, all 13 schools. There isn't a separate "Aylesbury Grammar result" on its way. What changes from school to school is who gets priority and whether they want anything extra from you. Here's the lot.

Places are for September 2027 unless we've shown a year, from each school's policy or the Council's school directory. All 13 have some Pupil Premium places; the detail is in each policy.

Can I apply if I live outside Buckinghamshire?

Yes, through your own council by 31 October. Whether it's realistic depends almost entirely on the school. Burnham Grammar, Chesham Grammar and Sir Henry Floyd have taken a fair few children from outside the county. Beaconsfield High and both Dr Challoner's schools are a different story: nearly all local. John Hampden and Wycombe High sit somewhere in between, because their catchments spill over the border.

And if you're counting on an appeal later, don't. The Council says out-of-county grammar appeals very rarely succeed, even for qualified children.

Which upper schools should I put down?

"Upper school" is just the Bucks name for a non-selective secondary. Put at least one down whatever happens. The Council's "Find my child a school place" tool will tell you which ones you're in catchment for.

• ✓Aylesbury area: Aylesbury Vale Academy, The Grange, Mandeville, John Colet, Princes Risborough, Waddesdon CE
• ✓High Wycombe: Cressex Community, The Highcrest Academy, St Michael's Catholic, Sir William Ramsay, Holmer Green Senior
• ✓Amersham and Chesham: Amersham School, Chiltern Hills Academy, Chalfonts Community College, The Misbourne
• ✓South Bucks and Marlow: The Beaconsfield School, Pioneer Secondary, Khalsa Secondary, Great Marlow, Bourne End Academy
• ✓North Bucks: The Buckingham School, Sir Thomas Fremantle, The Cottesloe School

Buckinghamshire school application checklist: before 31 October

Oh, and don't move house hoping it'll count this year. For most grammars, the address for the main round was locked in on 1 September 2026.

After the 11+: Year 6 and KS2 SATs 2027

The 11+ is done. Year 6 very much isn't. The test only looked at verbal, maths and non-verbal reasoning, and there's a whole year of reading, grammar, writing, maths and science still to go.

SATs are 10 to 13 May 2027: grammar, punctuation and spelling on the Monday, reading on the Tuesday, maths across Wednesday and Thursday. Writing and science aren't tested, but teachers still give a formal judgement on both. Good result or not, October is a decent time to spot the gaps while there's still plenty of time. If you want a hand, we do KS2 SATs support.

Buckinghamshire 11+ results 2026: FAQs