Getting into Chelmsford County High School for Girls
The Chelmsford County High for Girls 11+, set by FSCE: what it involves and what to do next, for entry in September 2027.
Every fact on this page is checked against the school’s published admissions information, and nothing is guessed. · View sources · Report an error
The test was sat on Thursday 3rd September 2026. Results are due mid-October 2026, by email.
What to do and when
Sitting the year after (2028 entry)? These are 2027-entry dates, and yours are not published yet: there is nothing you need to do this far out. Sign up for reminders and tick the 2028-entry box, and we’ll email only when your cycle’s dates are out and it is actually time to act.
5 dates as a calendar file, for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. Share the link with anyone who needs them.
Life’s busy, so we’ll email you a nudge before each Chelmsford County High for Girls deadline above. Nothing else: no newsletter, no marketing, and the reminders stop for good after National Offer Day (1 Mar 2027) unless you sign up again for another school.
The test
Chelmsford County High for Girls sits the FSCE 11+.
FSCE (Future Stories Community Enterprise) is a not-for-profit test provider set up by Reading School, and a growing number of grammar schools now use it. Its papers stay close to the Key Stage 2 curriculum: English and Maths, not abstract reasoning puzzles. That makes it a fairer test, because what counts is what children have actually learned at school. FSCE publishes no past papers, so there is nothing to drill from, but you can still prepare properly. Steady work on KS2 English and Maths is what pays off, and that is exactly the ground PlusProgress practice covers.
FSCE publishes no past papers, which unsettles parents used to drilling them, but it also means there is nothing to drill and steady curriculum work is the whole strategy. The papers stay close to Key Stage 2 English and Maths, which is exactly the ground PlusProgress practice covers, adapting difficulty as your child improves rather than repeating what they can already do.
The test has three parts: English, Maths and Creativity. English and Maths are marked and standardised first, and only girls who reach the standard have their Creativity paper judged. She must reach an eligible score in each element, not just on aggregate, and may sit the test once.
How places are decided
180 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: A priority area rather than a catchment: everything within 12.5 miles of the school in a straight line. 144 of the 180 places go to girls living inside it who have been there since 31 October in Year 6, and the last 36 go on score alone wherever a girl lives.
4 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.the applicant is a Looked After Child or Previously Looked After Child who has achieved a score up to 5 marks below an eligible score, irrespective of where they permanently live;
- 2.the applicant has an Education Health Care Plan and has achieved an eligible score;
- 3.of the next 144 places, (a) up to 30 places go to applicants in receipt of Pupil or Service Premium who have achieved a score up to 5 marks below an eligible score and who live at a permanent home address within the 12.5-mile priority area, conditional on having lived there since 31st October in Year 6, and (b) the remaining places of that 144 go to applicants who have achieved an eligible score and live within the 12.5-mile priority area on the same residence condition;
- 4.all remaining places, up to 36, are allocated in descending score order from the Ranked List irrespective of where the applicant permanently lives, until all 180 places are filled. A tie for the last place on identical standardised aggregate scores is settled in favour of the applicant living closest to the school by electronic straight-line measurement, then by lots drawn by an independent person.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
How many children actually sit
Schools and councils publish some of this and not all of it. The numbers below came from Freedom of Information requests, which anyone can make, and each one links to the reply it came from.
1,225 children sat for Chelmsford County High for Girls for 2025 entry, for 180 places, about 6.8:1. Source
How pupils here do at GCSE
This is based on how pupils at this school go on to perform in their GCSEs, five years after the 11+. Attainment 8 is their average result across eight subjects. Read it as a description of outcomes rather than of teaching: a selective school admits children who were already scoring well at ten, so a high position here reflects who the school takes in as much as what it does with them.
Scores from Compare school and college performance data in England, Department for Education, 2024/25, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The Department publishes the scores and does not publish a ranking: the position above is ours, calculated over state-funded schools with a published score. See the full table.
A format-matched mock shows where she genuinely stands.