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

Entry to Dr Challoner's High School at 11+ turns on reaching the qualifying score of 121 in the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test and then, where applications exceed the 180 places in Year 7, being placed ahead of other qualified girls under the school's published oversubscription criteria. The test is produced and marked by GL Assessment and administered countywide by Buckinghamshire Council; children at the county's state-funded primary schools sit it automatically, whilst families elsewhere register separately.

A qualifying score alone does not guarantee a place, since the school is often oversubscribed and allocates places by criteria covering looked-after children, catchment residency, pupil premium eligibility, staff daughters, siblings and distance from the school gate. The sections below set out how the test works, how to register, what the oversubscription rules mean in practice, and how families typically prepare.

How Year 7 entry works

Dr Challoner's High School admits 180 girls into Year 7 each September, with entry decided solely through the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test; the school sets no entrance exam of its own. It is a state grammar school, run as an academy, so there are no fees attached to this stage of entry. Places are also available later through the school's Late Transfer procedure into Years 8 and 9, and externally into the Sixth Form, though Year 7 is the main entry point most families plan around.

How the Secondary Transfer Test is structured

The test consists of two papers sat on the same day in the autumn of Year 6, each lasting around 60 minutes, with a break in between. Between them the papers assess verbal, non-verbal and mathematical skills, and GL Assessment produces and marks them on behalf of the county's grammar schools. Two days beforehand, children sit a shorter practice test so they know what to expect on the day itself.

Each child's scores across the three skill areas are standardised for age, then combined into a single Secondary Transfer Test Score. A standardised score of 121 or more is needed to qualify automatically for a place at any Buckinghamshire grammar school; there is no separate interview or school report involved in the process.

Registering for the test and applying for a place

Children attending a Buckinghamshire state-funded primary school are entered for the test automatically; parents who do not want their child to sit it must actively withdraw them. Families at independent schools, out-of-county primary schools or schools in Milton Keynes need to register separately with Buckinghamshire Council, the test administrator for all the county's grammar schools, within the registration window it publishes each year.

Whatever the test result, every family must still name the school as a preference on the Common Application Form submitted to their home local authority by the autumn deadline. Families claiming catchment-area priority also need to complete the school's own Supplementary Information Form, confirming residency, by a separate deadline set later in the autumn.

Catchment area and oversubscription criteria

The school does define a catchment area: to count towards the catchment-based criteria, a family must have lived at the same normal home address continuously from a fixed date in the spring before the child's admission. Where qualified applications exceed the 180 Year 7 places, the school works through its published order of priority.

Any places remaining after these criteria are applied go by straight-line distance between the family's normal home address and the school's main entrance on Cokes Lane, with a random ballot supervised independently used to settle exact ties.

• Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school
• Looked-after, previously looked-after and internationally adopted children
• Pupil premium-eligible girls living in the catchment area
• A banded allocation for catchment pupil premium or looked-after girls scoring just below the main qualifying score
• Daughters of staff employed at the school for two years or more, or recruited to a demonstrable skill-shortage post
• Girls living in the catchment area generally
• Sisters of girls already on the school roll
• Girls with medical or social needs that only the school can meet

Pupil premium and looked-after children places

Within the 180 Year 7 places, the school reserves up to 12 places for catchment-area girls who receive pupil premium funding or have looked-after, post-looked-after or internationally adopted status, and who score at least 115 in the test. If those 12 places are not filled, up to six of them open to the same group scoring between 110 and 114, a score that would not otherwise qualify them for a place. Families applying under this route need to submit evidence, such as a signed letter from the child's primary school confirming pupil premium eligibility, alongside their application.

What happens if a child narrowly misses the qualifying score

Parents of a child who scores below 121 can apply for a Selection Review if they believe particular circumstances affected the child's performance in the test. A panel of serving primary and secondary headteachers, supported by a clerk, considers each written application and may take advice from an educational psychologist before deciding; a child judged qualified through this route becomes eligible for any Buckinghamshire grammar school, and the review takes place before places are allocated.

Once places have been allocated, parents refused a place because the school is full can lodge an appeal with an Independent Appeal Panel. That hearing does not normally re-examine a child's capacity to have reached the qualifying score, since that question is dealt with through the Selection Review beforehand.

How to prepare for the Secondary Transfer Test

Because the test covers three separate skill areas in a single sitting, most preparation focuses on building steady accuracy and pace across verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and maths, with little need to extend beyond the primary curriculum. Working through timed practice in short, regular sessions tends to suit the format better than one long sitting, given each paper runs to around an hour.

The practice test two days before the main sitting is designed to settle nerves and confirm the mechanics of the day, such as how answers are marked on a separate answer sheet, so it is worth talking through what to expect; treating it as another test to revise for is unnecessary. Keeping the run-up calm and familiar usually matters as much as content practice in the final weeks.

Entry beyond Year 7: Late Transfer and Sixth Form

Girls can apply to join Years 8 or 9 through the school's Late Transfer procedure, sitting school-set tests in English and maths; passing places a child on a waiting list, with a place depending on a vacancy arising. Priority for taking the Late Transfer test itself goes to girls living in the catchment area, looked-after children and staff daughters, with other applicants tested only if fewer than ten qualifying candidates come forward.

The Sixth Form also takes external applicants alongside the school's own Year 11 students, subject to minimum GCSE point requirements across a student's best eight subjects, including set minimums in English and maths.

Related guides

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

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

Families preparing for the Dr Challoner's High 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.