Buckinghamshire 11+ Results 2026: What Your Score Means

The Buckinghamshire 11+ results for 2026 entry were released on Friday 9 October, and most families received them by email after 4pm. If you are reading this with a score in front of you, there are really only two questions: what does it mean, and what has to happen before the end of the month?

The short answer is that a score of 121 or above means your child has qualified for a Buckinghamshire grammar school, and a score below 121 does not close every door. Two dates matter now. A Selection Review request for a child who scored below 121 must be in by 30 October, and every secondary school application, whether or not your child qualified, is due by 31 October. This guide works through the score, your options and the order to do things in, using the rules Buckinghamshire Council has published.

Buckinghamshire 11+ results 2026: the key dates

Date	What happens
1 May to 2 June 2026	Registration window (children at state-funded Buckinghamshire primary schools are entered automatically)
10 September 2026	Secondary Transfer Test, after a practice test on 8 September
9 October 2026	Results released by email, after 4pm
30 October 2026	Deadline for a Selection Review case, if the score arrived on 9 October
31 October 2026	National deadline for secondary school applications
12 February 2027	Selection Review outcomes sent
1 March 2027	National Offer Day

These dates come from the council's key dates table and its Selection Review guidance, and were last checked on 22 October 2026.

What your child's score actually is

The number in the email is the Secondary Transfer Test Score, usually shortened to STTS. It is not a percentage, and it is not a count of correct answers. GL Assessment marks the papers, and the marks are then standardised, which means they are converted onto a common scale that allows for each child's age in years and months on the day of the test. A child who is younger on test day is not penalised for it. Each standardised score falls between 60 and 170.

The papers are not weighted equally. Verbal skills count for half of the total, and maths and non-verbal reasoning count for a quarter each, according to the council's guide to marking the test. Put simply, verbal reasoning carries as much weight as the other two sections put together. A child who is very strong at maths but less secure on verbal will usually find the total moves less than they expected, and the reverse is true as well.

Is 121 the pass mark?

Strictly speaking there is no pass or fail, but 121 is the qualifying standard. A child who scores 121 or above is described as qualified for Buckinghamshire grammar schools, and the council expects about 37% of children to reach that level. Below 121, a child is described as not qualified.

Two things catch parents out. First, qualifying is not the same as being offered a place. Each grammar school applies its own admission rules to the qualified children who apply, and those rules decide who is offered a place. Second, a higher score does not help. The council states that a score above 121 does not improve a child's priority, because grammar schools do not use the score as an admission rule. A child on 121 and a child on 150 are treated the same way when places are allocated, so the useful reading of your child's result is whether it clears the line, not how far above it sits. To judge your chances, read each school's admission policy.

What to do next, depending on the result

Find the situation that matches your child and start there.

If your child scored 121 or above

Your child is in the pool, and now the choice is about schools, not scores. Read the admission policy of each grammar school you are considering, because catchment, distance, siblings and other priorities differ from school to school. Check whether any school asks for an extra form. Then apply by 31 October, as set out in the section on applications below. Qualifying does not guarantee a grammar place, so a sensible application also names at least one other school you would be genuinely happy with.

If your child scored just below 121

This is where the Selection Review matters. The council says most successful reviews have involved scores between 110 and 120, and that children with lower scores are rarely successful. If your child's score sits in that range, a review deserves serious thought, and the deadline is 30 October. Start by talking to your child's headteacher, because the school's view is central to the case. The review is explained in more detail below.

If your child scored well below 121

It is better to be honest about this one: a Selection Review is unlikely to succeed at much lower scores, and putting a great deal of energy into one may not be the best use of the week. Look at two other things instead. If your child is eligible for Pupil Premium funding, the council says every grammar school admits at least six unqualified children who are eligible, and each school's admission policy sets out the detail. And look carefully at the upper schools you would be pleased with, so your application reflects a real choice.

The Selection Review, explained

A Selection Review is not a resit and it does not re-mark the test. It asks a panel to decide whether your child should be treated as qualified despite a score below 121. If the review succeeds, your child is considered in the same way as a child who scored 121 or more, which means they can be considered for a place, subject to each school's admission rules.

How to request one

Complete the online Selection Review Request form. You will need your child's Student ID, which is in the results email, and the headteacher's email address.
Submit the full case and evidence through the second online form linked in the confirmation email. A review is not processed without this step.
Speak to the headteacher, who completes a Headteacher's Selection Review Summary Sheet. You receive a copy, and it goes to the panel unless you opt out.

The deadline is 30 October for a score received on 9 October. If your child's result arrived later than that, you can submit within three weeks of being told the score. Late requests outside that are accepted only with exceptional reasons backed by independent evidence.

What evidence counts

The academic evidence the council accepts is the Summary Sheet, school reports and a letter from the class teacher. It does not consider examples of school work or extra-curricular activities, so there is no point sending exercise books or certificates. If something went wrong around the test, exceptional reasons include a medical letter, an employer's letter about a long parental absence (including forces families), evidence of a significant issue near the test date, or a very recent house or school move.

Who decides, and when you hear

The panel is made up of two grammar school headteachers and one primary headteacher. They are trained, they do not hear cases for children they know or schools they have an interest in, and they are not told which secondary schools you have applied to. They are given the final score and the verbal, maths and non-verbal section scores. Most reviews are heard between November and January, and every outcome is sent on 12 February 2027.

If the review is unsuccessful, your child remains unqualified. You can then lodge an Admission Appeal for the grammar schools on your application once you have the application outcome. At the start, the appeal panel considers only whether the review was fair, consistent and objective, and the council notes that it has historically found nearly all reviews meet that standard. So treat the review as the main chance, not as a warm-up for an appeal.

Applying by 31 October

Apply through your home local authority. If you live in Buckinghamshire, that means the council's secondary school application. If you live elsewhere, include the Buckinghamshire grammar schools you want in your own council's application and do not submit a separate form to Buckinghamshire Council. The council's guidance on applying is clear on both points.

If your child did not qualify and you may request a Selection Review or an appeal, include your preferred grammar schools anyway. The council also recommends naming at least one upper school in case the review or appeal does not succeed, so the application does not hinge on a single outcome.

One point to check: for most grammar schools, the home address cut-off was 1 September 2026, and a few use earlier dates. If you move after the cut-off, your previous address is used until a later allocation round, so moving house now will not change this year's result. Keep the confirmation of your application, and mark 1 March 2027 in your diary as National Offer Day.

Talking to your child about the result

The paperwork is the easy part. Here is what tends to help at home.

Choose a calm moment and tell your child yourself, in your own words, before the news comes from a friend or a group chat. Start with what they did (the revision, the practice papers, the morning of the test itself) and then give the result. Avoid comparing it with a classmate's. If the result is disappointing, let them be disappointed for a while before you move on to plans, and explain what happens next in concrete steps so the situation does not feel open-ended.

It is also worth saying plainly that a test result is one morning's performance on three types of puzzle. It says very little about how clever, kind or capable they are. Year 6 continues, with plenty ahead, including the KS2 SATs in May 2027. If your child seems very low or anxious for more than a few days, talk to their class teacher. Our guides on managing exam anxiety and avoiding 11+ burnout may help.

Look at the section scores as well as the total

It is easy to fixate on the single number, but the review panel is given the three section scores for a reason. A total of 118 built on a strong verbal score and a weaker maths score points to a different next step than the same total made of three even scores. If your results email shows the section scores, note them. If it does not, ask your child's school what it can tell you.

The breakdown matters for what comes next. For Year 7, it shows which skills to strengthen before secondary school. For a younger child, it shows where preparation is likely to make the most difference, and because verbal skills count for half of the total, that is often the place to begin.

If you have a younger child

Families with a child in Year 4 or 5 often start thinking about next year's test while this year's results are still fresh. The registration window for this year's test ran from 1 May to 2 June, and the test itself took place in school for children at state-funded Buckinghamshire primaries. The council publishes dates for each new cycle, so check its timeline in the spring rather than assuming the same days.

A calm, early start tends to work better than a late push. Working through question types gradually, with a focus on verbal reasoning, usually feels easier for a child than a rush in the last term. Our guides to 11+ verbal reasoning and English preparation and online 11+ tuition are good starting points, and you can find out how our 11+ tutors work with children in a free trial lesson.

Frequently asked questions

When were the Buckinghamshire 11+ results released in 2026? Results were released on Friday 9 October 2026. Most parents were told by email after 4pm.

What is the Buckinghamshire 11+ pass mark? A Secondary Transfer Test Score of 121 or above means a child is qualified for a Buckinghamshire grammar school. The council expects about 37% of children to reach it.

Does 121 guarantee a grammar school place? No. Qualifying means your child can be considered. Each grammar school applies its own admission rules to decide who is offered a place.

Does a higher score give a better chance of a place? No. The council states that a score above 121 does not improve a child's priority, because grammar schools do not use the score as an admission rule.

What can I do if my child scored below 121? You can request a Selection Review by 30 October. Children eligible for Pupil Premium funding may also be considered for the reserved places that every grammar school admits, and an Admission Appeal is possible after the application outcome.

What is the deadline for secondary school applications? The national deadline is 31 October 2026. Apply through your home local authority. National Offer Day is 1 March 2027.

Can children from outside Buckinghamshire apply to its grammar schools? Yes. Include the Buckinghamshire grammar schools in your home authority's application, and do not send a separate form to Buckinghamshire Council.

What should I do if the results email has not arrived? Check the inbox and spam folder of the email address you registered with. If it is not there, contact Buckinghamshire Council's school admissions team without delay, because the dates above do not move.

The rules, dates and figures in this guide are taken from Buckinghamshire Council's published pages and were last checked on 22 October 2026. Confirm the details on the council's Secondary Transfer Test results page before you act, as the council can change them.

If you would like help preparing a younger child, or support for the move from Year 6 to Year 7, you can book a free trial lesson with one of our tutors.

Buckinghamshire 11+ Results 2026: What Your Child's Score Means and What to Do Next