Getting into Westcliff High School for Girls
The CSSE 11+, the written exam the ten Essex consortium schools set for themselves: 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 19 June 2026. The consortium calls that deadline absolute and does not accept late registrations. Otherwise: 2 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 Westcliff 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, in one look
Westcliff High for Girls sits the CSSE (Essex) 11+.
The CSSE (Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex) is a group of ten Essex grammar schools that write their own 11+ rather than buying it from a national provider. It’s a written exam, not multiple-choice: an English paper of 60 minutes (with 10 minutes’ reading time first) and a Maths paper of 60 minutes, with working shown and marks available for method. Of the major 11+ formats it’s the closest to a real school exam, and it rewards clear written answers in a way multiple-choice tests can’t.
CSSE is written rather than multiple-choice, and method earns marks, so handwriting a full answer is part of what is being tested. Online practice cannot rehearse that part, and we would rather say so: use past-style written papers for the writing itself. What our practice does cover is the underlying English and Maths the papers draw on, adaptively and at the right level, plus mocks in this school’s format so the shape of the exam is familiar.
The score, honestly
The 303 you will see quoted is the consortium floor: no CSSE school offers a place below it. WHSG does not publish a target above that; it sets a pass mark each year that keeps the standard comparable to the one applied between 1990 and 1994. The published shape of the intake tells you more: 154 of the 192 places are reserved for girls living in SS0 to SS9, leaving 38 for everyone else, so an out-of-area girl needs to be considerably higher up the rank order.
Enter your postcode and we’ll tell you whether you’re in the priority area, and what that means for the score.
Checks your district against the catchment postcodes published in the school’s admission arrangements (SS0 to SS9). The council measures the exact address, so confirm a borderline one with the school.
How places are decided
192 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Looked-after and previously looked-after girls who pass; then girls resident in SS0 to SS9 who pass, up to a quota of 154 (15 of those for preferential consideration); then girls outside SS0 to SS9 who pass, 4 of the remaining places for preferential consideration. Within every group, higher marks first. Ties: preferential consideration, then straight-line distance, then a supervised random allocation.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
What the official 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.
The published qualifying score is 303. That is the mark a child has to reach to be considered at all. It is not the mark that gets a place.
- For 2026 entry, the last place on the out of area route went to a child scoring 332, 29 marks above the qualifying score. Source
One year, not a promise about the next. The bar moves with how many children apply and how they score.
Over one year we have figures for, 8 families appealed and 0 won, about 0%.
- 2022 entry: 8 heard, 0 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.
One sitting, 10 schools
The same CSSE papers also cover these schools, which is worth knowing before you rank your preferences on the council form:
Common questions
No, and that is the thing to plan around. Both papers are written, so your child works answers out on the page and can pick up marks for method in Maths. Of the main 11+ formats it is the closest to a real school exam.
No. One sitting covers all ten consortium schools. You choose which of them to apply to later, by naming them in your genuine order of preference on your council application form, which closes on 31 October in the year of the test.
The consortium publishes one number: no CSSE school makes an offer to a child scoring under a total standardised score of 303. Each school then fills its places in rank order, so the mark that actually decided the last place is different every year and is only known after offers go out on 1 March. CSSE publishes a sheet of historical scores on results day to help you judge.
By email after close of business on 12 October for 2027 entry, allowing about 24 hours for delivery. Results always land before the 31 October council deadline, so you list your preferences already knowing the score.
There is a second date, the Tuesday after the main sitting (29 September for 2027 entry), for children whose religion does not allow a Saturday test or who are ill with medical evidence, and for other exceptional circumstances agreed with the CSSE office. It is not offered to fit around other authorities’ tests.
For 2027 entry, registration opened on 12 May 2026 and closed on 19 June 2026, and the consortium calls that deadline absolute. Missing it means no test that year, so register early and send any supporting paperwork afterwards.
Two weeks out is exactly when a timed mock helps.
PlusProgress mocks return a standardised score, the same currency the CSSE reports back, so you can see where she stands long before results day.