Getting into Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet
The Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet 11+, set by GL Assessment: 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 noon on Wednesday 8th July 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 Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet 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
Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet sits the GL Assessment 11+.
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.
Two multiple choice papers in one session, one English and one Maths, standardised for age and added together. For September 2027 entry the published standard is a combined 225, and the 180 places then go to the highest ranked scores, so 225 is a floor, not a place.
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: No catchment area, no priority area and no distance limit. Places go to the highest combined test scores, and where two boys score the same mark, distance to the main school gate settles the rank order.
5 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.All places are allocated on academic ability alone: “All places will be allocated on the basis of academic ability, established by selection tests to be held in the autumn prior to the year of admission.” Candidates sit two tests, the scores are standardised for age and combined, and those reaching the combined score set by the Governors are eligible to be considered. The criteria themselves do not print the number; they point to the Admissions Guide for Parents (pp8-18), where it is given as a combined score of 225 or higher.
- 2.Where 180 or more eligible applicants apply, the 180 places go to the applicants ranked highest by combined test score: “If 180 applicants or more have achieved the standard required by the Governors, places will be offered to the 180 applicants placed highest in the list obtained by ranking applicants in the order of their combined scores in the selection tests.”
- 3.First tie-break, where two or more applicants score the same mark: straight-line distance from the Ordnance Survey address point for the child’s home to the main School gate, closest ranked highest.
- 4.Second tie-break, if applicants are still tied for the final place: a random ballot supervised by a person independent of the School.
- 5.Waiting list: eligible applicants not offered a place are listed in rank order of combined test score, re-ranked whenever anyone is added, and maintained until 31st December 2027. If fewer than 180 applicants reach the standard, the remaining places stay unfilled and are “available for allocation at a later date to applicants who do meet the required standard” rather than being offered to lower scorers. Note: the Criteria for Admission section (printed pages 2-6 of the September 2027 document) sets out no separate priority groups at all, there is no catchment, sibling, staff or faith category, and no separately stated looked-after-children category; ranking is by test score alone.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
What the appeal figures show
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.
Over 5 years we have figures for, 91 families appealed and 8 won, about 9%.
- 2018 entry: 19 heard, 2 upheld
- 2017 entry: 14 heard, 2 upheld
- 2016 entry: 25 heard, 2 upheld
- 2015 entry: 14 heard, 0 upheld
- 2014 entry: 19 heard, 2 upheld
An appeal is a hearing where you explain to an independent panel why your child should have a place. How appeals work, and the figures for every school
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.
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.