Getting into Dr Challoner's Grammar School
The Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test, the one 11+ the council runs for all 13 Bucks grammar schools: 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
Registration for the September 2026 test closed on 2 June 2026. 1 weeks to test day.
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 Dr Challoner's Grammar 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, in one look
Dr Challoner's Grammar sits the Buckinghamshire STT, set by GL Assessment.
GL Assessment sets the 11+ for most grammar schools in England, including this one. Papers are multiple-choice, and scores are age-standardised: children born at different points in the school year are marked against slightly different scales, so a summer-born child isn’t disadvantaged. Because GL is the most widely used format, familiarisation materials and practice papers in the same style are easy to come by.
Because GL is multiple-choice and age-standardised, the two things that move a score are accuracy under time pressure and covering every question type rather than the comfortable ones. PlusProgress practice is adaptive across English, Maths, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning, so it keeps finding the types your child is weakest on instead of rewarding what they already do well, and mock papers follow the format this school sets. Progress is reported as a standardised age score, the same scale the school will use.
Within the 180 places, up to 12 go to catchment boys on Pupil Premium, or looked after, who scored at least 115. If those 12 are not filled, up to six of them go to boys in the same groups scoring 110 to 114.
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: Yes, and the residence date is not the usual one: catchment boys must have lived there continuously from 1 April 2026 for September 2027 entry, not 1 September.
8 ranked criteria decide the order. Within every one of these numbered criteria, boys with exceptional medical or social needs which can only be met at the school, supported by evidence from an independent professional person, are given priority first; the remaining tie-break is straight-line distance from the family's normal home address to the main entrance on Chesham Road, then supervised random allocation.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.Boys who are looked after children or previously looked after children.
- 2.Boys living in the catchment area of the school who are in receipt of Pupil Premium at the time of application.
- 3.Siblings of students in Years 7 to 12 living in the catchment area of the school (the older sibling must be on roll both when allocations are made and at the time of proposed admission).
- 4.Within the existing 180 admission number, up to 12 places to boys resident in the catchment area who are in receipt of Pupil Premium, or who are looked after or previously looked after children, at the time of application, and who have achieved a standardised score of at least 115 in the admissions tests; if not all 12 places are filled, up to six of those 12 are made available to boys in the same categories scoring between 110 and 114.
- 5.Qualified sons of staff, where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time the application is made, and/or is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
- 6.Boys living in the catchment area of the school, in order of straight-line distance from the school.
- 7.Siblings of students in Years 7 to 12 living outside the catchment area, in order of straight-line distance.
- 8.Any further places offered in order of straight-line distance from the school.
For September 2026 entry the furthest place went to a child living 10 miles away, under the distance criterion. Every place above that was filled by the criteria higher up the list.
A guide to how far the school reached in one year, not a promise about 2027: it moves with the size and spread of each year’s applicants. Where this comes from
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
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.
One sitting, 13 schools
The same test also covers these schools: We have pages for these so far:
Common questions
Usually not. Children at Buckinghamshire primary schools are entered automatically unless a parent withdraws them. Everyone else, including children at independent schools in the county and at primaries outside it, has to apply to Buckinghamshire Council for testing by its published deadline (2 June 2026 for 2027 entry).
121. Unusually, every Bucks grammar school uses the same qualifying score, so it is a genuine county-wide bar rather than a per-school one. Reaching it makes your child eligible to be considered; it does not hold a place, because the schools then apply their own catchment and priority rules.
There is a Selection Review. A child who does not reach 121 can be put forward, usually by their primary school, and a panel considers wider evidence of academic ability. Being deemed qualified that way counts the same as scoring 121. Several schools also ring-fence places for disadvantaged children scoring a little below the bar, 115 to 120 at the schools whose policies we read, so it is worth reading the individual school's policy.
Two papers sat on the same day, each about an hour including the introduction and practice examples. Between them they cover Verbal skills and comprehension, Maths, and Non-Verbal or Spatial Reasoning, all multiple choice and standardised for age.
A great deal. Most Bucks grammar schools rank catchment children ahead of everyone else once qualified, and the catchments are published as maps rather than postcode lists, so check your address against the school's own map or the council's postcode checker. Residence usually has to be established by 1 September of the year before entry and held continuously.
On your home council's application form by 31 October 2026 for 2027 entry. Sitting the test does not apply for a place, and several schools also want a supplementary form by the same date if you are applying under a Pupil Premium or looked-after criterion.
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.
PlusProgress mocks return a standardised score, the same currency the Secondary Transfer Test reports, so you can see where he stands against that 121 well before September.