Dr Challoner's Grammar School 11+ Admissions: A Parent's Guide

Entry to Dr Challoner's Grammar School at 11+ depends on reaching the qualifying score of 121 in the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test, sat in the autumn of Year 6, and then being allocated one of 180 Year 7 places once the school applies its oversubscription criteria to everyone who qualifies. The test, set by GL Assessment, is taken by every child seeking a place at any of Buckinghamshire's 13 grammar schools, so a boy sits it once even if Challoner's is only one of several preferences on the family's application.

Reaching the qualifying score does not by itself guarantee a place: families living in the school's defined catchment area, those with a sibling already on roll, a Pupil Premium entitlement or a parent on the staff carry additional priority once the school is oversubscribed. The sections below set out the assessment format, the registration and application timetable, the oversubscription rules, and how families outside the catchment area or applying after Year 7 can approach the process.

How entry to the school works

Challoner's admits 180 boys into Year 7 each year, all via the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test, and a further 45 places open at Year 12 to external applicants of either sex who meet the sixth form's academic entry requirements. There is no other route into Year 7: every applicant, whether living inside or outside the catchment area, sits the same test and is judged against the same qualifying score. Occasional vacancies arise during Years 7 to 10 and are filled through the school's own Late Transfer Procedure, which operates separately from the countywide test.

• Year 7: 180 places, all via the Secondary Transfer Test
• Year 12 (Sixth Form): 45 external places, open to boys and girls meeting the academic entry requirement
• Years 8 to 10, and Year 7 from January: occasional vacancies filled through the school's own late transfer testing

How the 11+ assessment works

The Secondary Transfer Test, produced by GL Assessment, consists of two papers of about 60 minutes each, sat with a break between them and preceded by a shorter practice test so children know the format in advance. The papers assess verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills; each element is age-standardised for the child's age within the school year, and the three scores are then added together into a single Secondary Transfer Test Score, so date of birth does not affect the outcome.

A child needs a standardised score of 121 or more to qualify automatically for a place at any Buckinghamshire grammar school, Dr Challoner's Grammar School included. Boys who fall short can apply for a Selection Review, carried out by a panel of serving secondary and primary headteachers with a clerk, who may seek advice from an educational psychologist before deciding whether a child should be deemed qualified; this happens before places are allocated, and a Selection Review pass qualifies a boy for any of the county's 13 grammar schools.

Registration and the admissions process, step by step

Children attending a Buckinghamshire state-funded primary school are entered for the Secondary Transfer Test automatically unless a parent withdraws them; everyone else, including those at independent or out-of-county schools, must register separately with the Testing Administrator, Buckinghamshire Council, in a window that opens in spring and closes some weeks later, months ahead of the test itself. The rest of the process then runs in a fixed order.

• Register for the test if your child is not at a Buckinghamshire state-funded primary school, in the spring window
• Sit the short practice test, then the Secondary Transfer Test itself, both in the autumn of Year 6
• Receive the standardised Secondary Transfer Test Score by letter or email a few weeks later
• Name preferred schools on the common application form to your home local authority; the national closing date falls in the autumn and is published on the council's admissions pages
• If applying on catchment-related grounds, complete the school's own Supplementary Information Form by its autumn-term deadline, published on the school's website
• Places are allocated on National Offer Day; boys refused a place because the school is full may ask for an Independent Appeal Panel hearing

Catchment area and oversubscription criteria

The school's catchment area is set out on a map published on its website, and families can check a specific address using Buckinghamshire Council's own school-place tool; a child normally needs to have lived at the home address continuously since the spring before the September of admission. When more qualified boys apply than there are places, the school works through its oversubscription rules in order.

Where distance does not separate two applicants, the school uses an independently supervised random allocation procedure to decide the outcome, following the county's published Random Allocation Procedure. Boys with significant medical or social needs that only the school can meet are given priority within whichever criterion applies to them, provided this is supported by evidence from an independent professional and submitted alongside the application.

• Looked after and previously looked after children
• Catchment-area boys in receipt of Pupil Premium
• Siblings of current pupils in Years 7 to 12 living in the catchment area
• Up to 12 catchment-area places reserved for Pupil Premium or looked-after boys with a standardised score of at least 115
• Sons of staff employed at the school for two or more years, or recruited to a hard-to-fill post
• Catchment-area boys, ranked by straight-line distance from the school
• Siblings living outside the catchment area, ranked by distance
• All other qualified boys, ranked by straight-line distance from the school

Joining after Year 7: late transfer admissions

Boys can apply to join Years 8, 9 or 10, or Year 7 from January onwards, through the school's own Late Transfer Procedure; this is separate from the countywide Secondary Transfer Test. Eligibility is assessed through curriculum-based tests in English and mathematics, and a candidate must reach the minimum standard set in each paper; the school does not expect coaching or revision beyond normal schoolwork and does not issue sample papers. Applicants living outside the catchment area are only tested if ten or fewer catchment-area applicants have applied for the same year group.

For September entry, boys are invited to an Annual Testing Round held each February, with registration closing in early January; boys who move into the catchment area between rounds may request immediate testing for Years 7 to 9. A qualifying result stays valid for twelve months, and a boy not allocated a place is added to a waiting list managed under the same order of priority as the annual round.

How Sixth Form entry works

External applicants of either sex apply for one of 45 Year 12 places using a Data Collection Form published on the school's website, submitted in the autumn before entry. The minimum academic requirement, the same for internal and external candidates, is 48 points from a student's best eight taught GCSEs (or equivalent), including at least grade 5 in English and mathematics, alongside whatever further requirement applies to the specific courses chosen; course-level entry requirements are published each autumn in the Sixth Form prospectus.

Where academically qualified external applications outnumber places, priority runs from looked after children, through in-catchment Pupil Premium students and qualified children of staff, to 25 places reserved for applicants living in the sixth form catchment area, being the former Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe districts plus Chorleywood, ranked by predicted GCSE score, with any remaining places offered in the same rank order regardless of catchment.

How to prepare for the assessment

Since the Secondary Transfer Test covers verbal, non-verbal and mathematical reasoning across two timed papers, practical preparation usually means building familiarity with all three question types under exam conditions, without concentrating on a single strand. Working through timed practice papers helps a child pace themselves across a roughly 60-minute session and get comfortable with the multiple-choice format and the short practice test that precedes the real thing.

Because the qualifying score is age-standardised across the school year, a child's month of birth does not need to factor into how a family paces preparation; the more useful focus is steady, calm familiarity with all three question types over several months, avoiding last-minute cramming. Families whose children are not at a Buckinghamshire state primary school should also build the test registration window into their planning early, since it falls some months before the test itself.

Related guides

• Buckinghamshire grammar schools guide
• Grammar schools in England: the full directory

Preparing for the Dr Challoner's Grammar School 11+ with Taylor Tuition

Families preparing for the Dr Challoner's Grammar School 11+ usually come to us a year or so before the assessment, though shorter runs work where the foundations are already sound. Having prepared pupils for entry to leading independent and grammar schools, with placements including Westminster, St Paul's, Wycombe Abbey and Eton, our tutors build each programme around the format the school actually uses, whether a written paper, an online pre-test, an interview or a combination of them.

More than half of our tutors hold Qualified Teacher Status and around three in five hold a master's degree or doctorate, and the pool includes former heads of department, exam-board examiners and teachers from independent and boarding schools, so the preparation is led by people who know how selective schools assess. Every tutor who works with children holds an enhanced DBS check.

Families work with us online from anywhere in the UK or abroad, and in person in central London. Fees start from £50 per 50-minute session and depend on tutor level and subject, with no registration fee and a free initial consultation to talk through your child's current level and the timeline to the 11+. Families receive progress reports after sessions and have a dedicated point of contact, and we reply to enquiries within one working day with tutor recommendations.

Read more about our 11+ entrance exam tutors, or send an enquiry and we will come back with tutor recommendations.