Disclaimer. The 11+ rules in Buckinghamshire change in detail most years and the Buckinghamshire Council pages are the authoritative reference. This post is accurate to the best of our knowledge for the 2026–27 admissions cycle but should be cross-checked against the council’s published guidance before any decision.
Buckinghamshire runs one of the few remaining fully-selective grammar-school systems in England. Children who reach a published threshold on the Secondary Transfer Test (STT) are eligible for a place at one of 13 grammar schools across the county. Those who don’t go to one of the comprehensive (“upper”) schools, which are highly regarded in their own right but follow a different curriculum.
Because the system is fully selective rather than super-selective, the test is sat by almost the entire Year 6 cohort living in Bucks (children at state-funded Bucks primary schools are entered automatically), not by a self-selected high-attainment subset. That changes how the test is set, what a typical pass mark looks like, and what sensible practice looks like.
This post explains the format, the timeline, the schools, and the bits parents most often get wrong.
The Secondary Transfer Test, in brief
The STT is provided and marked by GL Assessment (the same publisher as CAT4). It consists of two multiple-choice papers, each about 45 minutes long (60 minutes including the introduction and examples), taken in early September of Year 6.
One paper tests verbal skills: comprehension, technical English and verbal reasoning. The other tests mathematics and non-verbal skills, including spatial reasoning. Verbal skills carry the most weight: under the council’s marking rules they make up 50% of the final score, with maths and non-verbal skills at 25% each.
The marks are standardised, taking into account each child’s age in years and months on the day of the test, and combined using that weighting into a single Secondary Transfer Test Score. The qualifying score for grammar school is 121 or above. A score above 121 does not give a child higher priority for a place. Below 121, parents can ask for a Selection Review (more on that below).
The familiarisation booklet and practice test
Two things help every child meet the format before it counts. The first is the council’s familiarisation booklet, which describes each part of the test, shows how to record answers on the separate answer sheet, and includes sample questions. Children at state-funded Buckinghamshire primary schools and Partner schools get a hard copy; everyone else can download it from the council’s website.
The second is the practice test, sat in early September of Year 6, shortly before the real STT. In 2026 the practice test was on 8 September and the STT on 10 September. The practice test has two papers of about 40 minutes each. It is not marked or sent home, so no score from it is used for admissions.
In practice, this means the absolute minimum useful preparation for a Bucks child is to work through the booklet, so they know what each question type looks like, how the answer sheet works, and what the timings feel like, before the practice test. That’s it. Everything beyond that is optional.
The schools
There are 13 Bucks grammar schools. They split roughly into geographical clusters:
- Aylesbury area Aylesbury Grammar (boys), Aylesbury High (girls), Sir Henry Floyd (mixed).
- High Wycombe area Royal Grammar School High Wycombe (boys), Wycombe High (girls), John Hampden (boys).
- Beaconsfield / Chesham Beaconsfield High (girls), Chesham Grammar (mixed), Dr Challoner’s Grammar (boys, Amersham), Dr Challoner’s High (girls, Little Chalfont).
- Buckingham / north The Royal Latin (mixed, Buckingham).
- Marlow and Burnham Sir William Borlase’s Grammar (mixed, Marlow) and Burnham Grammar (Burnham).
Each of the 13 grammar schools is its own admission authority and sets its own oversubscription criteria for children who qualify. Where you live can matter: for most grammar schools, the council gives 1 September of Year 6 as the cut-off date for the home address used in the main allocation of places, and some schools set an earlier date. There is no separate school-level test in addition to the STT, so if you’re considering moving house to be nearer a school, read its admission policy first: the address rules are the lever, not the practice.
Children who live outside the county can also register for the STT, and each school’s own criteria then apply. If you live just over the border in Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, or south Northamptonshire, sitting the STT is a real option, though oversubscription means it’s never a guarantee.
The timeline
Roughly:
- May to early June of Year 5 register your child for the STT through the council’s website if they are not at a state-funded Buckinghamshire primary school (1 May to 2 June in 2026). Children at state-funded Bucks primary schools are entered automatically.
- Before September work through the familiarisation booklet.
- Early September, Year 6 the practice test, then the STT itself (8 and 10 September in 2026). Children at Bucks state primary schools and Partner schools sit them at school; others sit them at a grammar school or another test venue.
- Mid-October results released to parents (9 October in 2026).
- End of October secondary school preferences submitted to Bucks Council via the standard local-authority application.
- March (Year 6) secondary school offers issued on National Offer Day.
Children who miss the 121 threshold can be considered through a Selection Review. Parents request it using the council’s form and explain in writing why their child should have a grammar place; the primary headteacher completes a summary sheet, and a panel decides. In the 2026 cycle, full cases were due by 30 October. The council notes that most successful reviews have historically been for children scoring between 110 and 120, and that children with lower scores are rarely successful. This route exists for genuinely able children who had a bad test day; it is not a back door.
What sensible practice looks like
For a child who is broadly above-average and finds reasoning fun:
- The familiarisation booklet and practice test are, on their own, sufficient exposure to the format. Many parents spend a year preparing and for this profile of child the extra gain from a long programme over a little familiarisation is likely to be small.
- A small amount of low-pressure non-verbal reasoning practice is worthwhile, because the format is the least familiar from school. But verbal skills make up half of the score, so wide reading and talking about new words matter at least as much.
- Untimed mixed practice across all four reasoning areas, ten minutes a day, beats timed practice in any quantity. (See Why timed practice can harm an anxious child.)
- A single dress-rehearsal-style timed mock in late August, to take the novelty out of the timing, is fine.
For a child who is borderline:
- The same advice, plus a focus on the question types they consistently get wrong rather than blanket “more questions”. A child who gets every analogy right and every figure-matrix wrong should not be doing extra analogies.
- A conversation with their primary teacher in spring of Year 5 about whether the head would support a selection review if needed.
- Honest discussion at home. Bucks has good upper schools, and a child who narrowly misses the grammar threshold is not a child who will fail academically. The sky doesn’t fall.
For a child who is well below:
- Only a minority of the children who sit the STT reach the qualifying score. A child whose recent CAT4 SAS is consistently in the 80s or low 90s is unlikely to qualify on the STT even with intensive preparation, and intensive preparation against a likely failure is bad for the child’s wellbeing and self-image.
- The right move is a calm conversation with the school about the upper-school offer, and a deliberate choice not to put the child through six months of practice they don’t need.
Common mistakes
- Tutoring from Year 3. No published evidence supports this against tutoring in Year 5 with the same total hours. The stress is real; the gain isn’t.
- Mock-test packs from non-GL providers. They aren’t bad as practice, but they don’t predict the STT score well. The closer your child is to the format used by the actual publisher, the better the dress rehearsal.
- Treating the STT as the same as a CAT4. The questions overlap heavily, but the STT has a different paper structure, time pressure, and answer-sheet style. Familiarity with the format is part of the work.
- Letting the child believe their value depends on the result. This is the largest mistake and the easiest to avoid. See How to talk to your child about a CAT4 or 11+ result.
Useful next reads
- 11+ in 2026–27: a parent’s guide by region — the all-regions overview.
- Why timed practice can harm an anxious child — relevant to the STT specifically because of the September timing.
- 11+ practice on Puzzitron — non-verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning, with a familiarisation-style mock available.