Getting into Woodford County High School for Girls
The Redbridge 11+, run by the council for its two selective 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 15 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 Woodford 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, in one look
Woodford County High for Girls sits the Redbridge 11+ Selection Test, 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.
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, a Common Catchment Area shared with Ilford County High School for Boys, drawn on the council map rather than by postcode. Girls living outside it are considered only after in-area requests are met, and Redbridge says only in-area girls have been admitted in the last 10 years.
Applicants must first reach the minimum threshold score of 104 in the Redbridge 11+; below that they are not ranked or waitlisted at all.
4 ranked criteria decide the order. Tiebreak within an identical score is the shortest safe walking distance from home to the school's main entrance measured by GIS, and then random allocation via the Synergy Admissions and Transfers System if distances are identical.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.A looked after child, or a child who was previously looked after and immediately afterwards became subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order, including children who appear to the authority to have been in state care outside England and left it through being adopted.
- 2.45 places (25% of the 180) to children entitled to the pupil premium, including Ever6, checked as at the date the application was made, ranked by total standardised score in order of merit.
- 3.Other children living in the Common Catchment Area, ranked by total standardised score in order of merit.
- 4.Children living outside the Common Catchment Area, ranked by total standardised score in order of merit.
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 one year we have figures for, 11 families appealed and 0 won, about 0%.
- 2018 entry: 11 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
One sitting, 2 schools
The same test also covers these schools:
Common questions
It is a floor, not a target. Both schools state that no child scoring below 104 is added to the ranked list or the waiting list. Above it, places go in order of the total standardised score, so clearing 104 puts your child in the queue rather than in a place.
One paper covers English and Verbal Reasoning, the other Maths and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Ranking uses the total standardised score across both, so a weak paper is not offset by a strong one as neatly as parents sometimes assume.
For 2027 entry, registration opened on 1 May 2026 and closed at 5pm on Monday 15 June 2026, with the test on Friday 18 September 2026 and results emailed in mid-October. Any request for access arrangements had to be in by 15 June: the council states that no adjustments will be considered after that date.
Yes, and it is genuinely useful. Parents are told their child's position in the rank order before the 31 October preference deadline, though the council is careful to say that this is not a guarantee of an offer.
No. You still have to name the school on your home council's application form by 31 October 2026.
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.