Essex 11 Plus

For Entry in 2021

The Schools Admissions Code, that came into effect in 2012, stated that by law, schools must take all reasonable steps to inform parents of the outcome of tests before the closing deadline for the Common Application form (CAF) on October 31st.

Essex and Southend grammar school admissions are managed by the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE), Telephone: 01245 348257. The office is open 9am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday, term time only.

The schools have one common selection test except from Chelmsford County High School for Girls, who have opted to administer their own tests from 2013. All selective places are awarded on the basis of a pupil’s ability, as defined by their test score.
Also The King John School, which is partially selective school, administers its own admission’s test.

Beyond that, places are allocated according to the criteria of the individual schools, all of which vary. All the links below take you to the Admissions Policies of the schools in the Consortium.

If you wish your child to take the 11+ test, you need to complete not only the CAF but also a Supplementary Information Form in order to register for the selective test. The form can be completed on-line on the CSSE website or can be obtained from the CSSE or any school that offers selective places. For Chelmsford County High; the form can be downloaded from the school’s website.

N.B. If you are applying for both a selective and non-selective place at the same school it counts as a single preference on the CAF (Common Application Form), not two preferences.

Chelmsford County High School for Girls

Chelmsford County High School is part of a group of Grammar schools who will be using a common admissions test on the same date. The other schools in this group are Woodford County High School for Girls, Ilford County High School for Boys, the Slough Consortium of Grammar schools, Reading School and Kendrick. There are other schools in the wider geographical area that will use the same test. Applicants to these schools may only take the test once. The raw marks will be shared with the schools. If a child is found to have taken the test twice, the raw scores for the first attempt will be used.

Applicants who wish to attend a test for another school on the same day will not be permitted to sit the test at CCHS on an alternative date. This will not be classed as an exceptional circumstance.

Admissions Information for September 2021 entry

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Appropriate Practice Materials For Chelmsford County High

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The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE)

In 2014, the CSSE announced that there will be changes in their testing arrangements. The papers are more in line with KS2 Level 5 in English and Maths. There will be not be a Verbal Reasoning paper on its own; but the English paper will incorporate an element of verbal reasoning.

There will be two papers, English and Maths, each 1 hour long and worth 60 marks.
The English paper will comprise:
- Comprehension, grammar and vocabulary questions
- Two pieces of creative writing
- Applied reasoning (literacy/verbal)

The Maths paper will comprise:
- Questions consistent with KS2 National Curriculum
- Applied reasoning (maths/non-verbal reasoning)

Details can be found on the CSSE website here

Admissions Information for September 2021 entry

Appropriate Practice Materials For Essex Consortium

Maths Practice Materials see here
English Practice Materials see here

More information and advice can also be found in the Essex section of the 11+ Forum

Historical Pass Marks as at entry 2017 see Here

Further information is also given below.

School information

Note that King Edward VI and the Royal Grammar School, are both co-educational in the 6th form.
*Enquiry Visit – a re-visit to discuss your application.

The King John School, Benfleet

The King John School is a partially selective mixed school, but not part of the CSSE. The school has 320 places in Year 7. Children who live in catchment for the school, or who have brothers or sisters already attending the school, do not need to take the entrance test and are given priority. Up to 15% are selected by general ability. In the event of two or more children with tie scores, priority is given to the child living closest to the school.

Admissions Information for September 2021 entry

Appropriate Practice Materials For King John School

Verbal Reasoning Practice Materials see here

Southend Schools

The 11+ test for Southend schools are administered by CSSE (The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex), see details above for the 11+ test.

See also Southend Borough Council website for details.

There are four fully selective grammar schools in Southend – the Southend and Westcliff High Schools for Girls and Boys. In addition there are two partially selective schools – Cecil Jones College and Shoeburyness High School, and two “bilateral” schools where a grammar stream runs alongside non-selective streams – St. Bernard’s High School and St. Thomas More High School.

All Southend schools are co-educational in the 6th form.

The Southend and Westcliff Grammar Schools are having to make changes to their admission arrangements because it is no longer a legal requirement to give priority to children attending Southend Primary Schools. These new arrangements will affect children applying for admission in September 2013 and subsequent years.

*Enquiry visit – a re-visit to dicuss your application

Essex 11+ – Further Information

With grateful thanks to our 11+ Forum member “Moved” for her contribution to this page.

The Essex 11+ test is taken in one of the local high schools. You can choose which school – it does not have to be your first choice, within the limit of girls at Girls Schools and boys at Boys Schools.

Nervous children may be better at St. Bernard’s and St. Thomas More as fewer children take the exam there.

Only Colchester Royal Grammar School has a 13+ entry system.

Format of the exam

The Headteachers of the schools believe that children should have a sound understanding of the National Curriculum Maths and English stage 2 level 4/5.
Be familiar with reading and comprehension , with a reading age greater than 11.
Understand the principles of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

English

The English papers are written by one of the teachers from the Essex High Schools. The previous two years’ English papers can be purchased from the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex -CSSE but older papers are not available. Suitable practice material for the English paper can be hard to obtain and many local tutors write their own papers in the appropriate format.

The paper usually has about 30 marks allocated to comprehension skills. These are often subtle and quite difficult. The format is tick box style, with some written answers: for example,

• Wording Matching “Find the word in the text that means …” (10+ marks)
• Punctuating a piece of direct speech (6-8 marks)

The English paper is a comprehension, usually from a 19th century text. There are 50 marks. Past texts used for comprehension have been as follows:

• 1997 The Road to Wigan Pier – George Orwell (old style paper) (pub. date 1937)
• 1999 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain (pub. date 1876)
• 2000 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (pub. date 1847)
• 2001 Kipps – H. G. Wells (pub. date 1905)
• 2002 Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy (pub. date 1874)
• 2003 Tobermory – H. H. Munro (pub. date 1909?)
• 2004 Silas Marner – George Eliot (pub. date 1861)
• 2005 The Snow Geese – William Fiennes (pub. date 2002)
• 2006 The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot (pub. date 1860)
• 2007 Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy (pub. date 1891)
• 2008 The Destructors – Graham Greene (pub. date 1954)
• 2009 Longitude – Dava Sobel (pub. date 1995)
• 2010 Bleak House – Charles Dickens (pub. date 1852-1853)
• 2010x Hard Times – Charles Dickens (pub. date 1854)
• 2011 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernières (pub. date 1994)
• 2011x Atonement – Ian McEwen (pub. date 2001)

Maths

The Maths papers are written by one of the teachers from the Essex High Schools. The previous two years’ Maths papers can be purchased from the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex-CSSE but older papers are not available.

Maths needs the development of problem solving skills – Primary Maths Challenge style questions are helpful. The maths paper is tough, harder than the GL Assessment papers. It begins with arithmetic on the first page, there are questions involving area, bar charts, angles, percentages, ratio, BIDMAS, algebra, etc. Often the questions are not straightforward and the final question has been of the standard expected for the junior maths challenge (aimed at bright year 8 children).

_{Page updated on 4th Feb 2020}