Southend Grammar Schools: The CSSE 11+ and How Entry Works

Southend-on-Sea and the neighbouring town of Westcliff-on-Sea are served by four state grammar schools, each admitting its Year 7 intake solely on the strength of a test set by the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex, known to parents as the CSSE.Southend High School for BoysandSouthend High School for Girlssit within Southend-on-Sea itself, while Westcliff High School for Boys andWestcliff High School for Girlsoccupy neighbouring sites on Kenilworth Gardens in Westcliff-on-Sea.

Because the CSSE test is separate from the ordinary school application, parents of a Year 6 child effectively run two processes in parallel: registering for the test itself, and naming preferred schools on the home local authority's Common Application Form. Understanding how the two fit together, and how each school then ranks the children who have passed, matters as much as the test result itself.

The four grammar schools

Selective entry in Southend rests on four schools, each single-sex and each using the same CSSE test for entry, though every school then applies its own oversubscription criteria to decide who is actually offered a place.

Each school sets its own published admission number for Year 7 in its admission arrangements.

• Southend High School for Boys, in Southend-on-Sea, a boys' grammar school.
• Southend High School for Girls, in Southend-on-Sea, a girls' grammar school.
• Westcliff High School for Boys Academy, in Westcliff-on-Sea, a boys' grammar school.
• Westcliff High School for Girls, in Westcliff-on-Sea, a girls' grammar school.

Who runs the test, and what it covers

The CSSE, formed as a voluntary association of Essex's selective schools, administers the 11+ examination on behalf of its member schools across Essex and Southend, sparing a family whose child sits the test once the need to sit separate papers for each preferred school. Its office deals only with the administration of the test itself; it has no part in school applications, admissions decisions or appeals, all of which remain with the home local authority and the individual schools.

The test itself is set by the consortium; it is not a GL Assessment or CEM paper bought in from outside. It comprises two separate papers only, one in English and one in mathematics, each lasting sixty minutes, with the English paper allowing a further ten minutes of additional reading time beforehand. The two papers are weighted equally at fifty per cent each, and the raw scores are standardised for age so that a child's exact date of birth within the Year 6 cohort does not disadvantage them; the content is drawn from the Key Stage 2 curriculum, and the English paper does not include Applied Reasoning questions.

• English paper: sixty minutes, plus ten minutes' additional reading time beforehand.
• Mathematics paper: sixty minutes.
• Each paper weighted fifty per cent; scores standardised for age.

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Registering for the test and the wider timetable

Registration for the CSSE test is made online, or by post, during Year 5, with dates published on the CSSE website by Easter, and is completed by submitting a Supplementary Information Form; the CSSE recommends registering as early as possible, since a nominated test centre cannot be changed once it has reached capacity and been confirmed. There is a firm deadline for registration, usually toward the end of June, and no late entry is possible once it has passed.

The test is sat on a single Saturday in September, with an alternative Tuesday date reserved only for children whose religious observance prevents a Saturday sitting or who are ill on the day, subject to evidence. Results are emailed to every candidate roughly a month later, in October. Registering for the test is not, on its own, an application to any school: parents must separately name their preferred schools, including any CSSE grammar schools, as preferences on their home local authority's Common Application Form, returned by the home council's closing date, normally 31 October and later when that date falls at a weekend. Offers are then issued together by all local authorities on national offer day, which falls on 1 March.

• Registration: during Year 5, online or by post; the CSSE publishes the dates by Easter.
• Registration deadline: usually late June.
• Test day: a Saturday in September, with a Tuesday alternative for religious observance or illness.
• Results emailed: roughly a month after the test, in October.
• Local authority Common Application Form deadline: set by the home council, normally 31 October and later when that date falls at a weekend.
• National offer day: 1 March.

Priority areas and how places are allocated

Each of the four schools gives priority to children living within an agreed catchment, described in their own admission arrangements as covering the SS postcode sectors, broadly SS0 through to SS9. Passing the test qualifies a child for consideration; it does not by itself secure a place, since these schools are routinely oversubscribed by children who have reached the pass mark.

Within that structure, each school reserves the large majority of its places for children living inside its priority area who have met the qualifying standard, with a smaller number available to children living outside it, who in practice tend to need a higher standardised score to be offered a place. A small proportion of places in each group is set aside for children who are looked after, previously looked after, or eligible for free school meals or the pupil premium. Where places in a category are oversubscribed, they go in order of the mark achieved, with distance from the school used to separate children who are otherwise tied.

• Priority area: broadly the SS0 to SS9 postcode sectors.
• Most places go to priority area children who meet the pass mark; the remainder to children from outside it.
• A small number of places in each group is reserved for looked after, previously looked after, and free school meal or pupil premium children.
• Within a category, places go in order of mark achieved; ties are broken by distance from the school.

After the CSSE results: scores, applications and appeals

The results email gives the raw mark for each paper and the overall standardised score, and no CSSE school makes an offer below a total of 303. Above that floor, each Southend school ranks qualifying children by score within its priority categories, so the score that secures a place differs by school and has been markedly higher for children living outside the SS0 to SS9 priority area.

The result is not an application. Families name the grammar schools on the home local authority's application by the home council's closing date, and the authority makes one offer, at the highest preference the child qualifies for, so naming a grammar school first does not count against schools listed lower down. Southend's council advises that naming both boys' or both girls' grammar schools improves the chance of an offer once a child reaches the pass mark.

The CSSE schools do not re-mark papers. After offers on 1 March, a family can put the child's circumstances to an independent appeal panel at any school named on the application, and appeal details arrive with the offer letter. Waiting lists are ranked by each school's oversubscription criteria, and a child who did not sit or pass the test is not placed on a grammar school's list.

Preparing for the CSSE test

The CSSE sets its own papers instead of buying in a standard verbal or non-verbal reasoning test, so preparation for Southend's grammar schools looks a little different from areas that use GL Assessment or CEM: there is no reasoning paper to practise, and the useful preparation is squarely English and mathematics at the level a well-taught Year 6 pupil should reach by the end of the Key Stage 2 curriculum. The CSSE publishes free familiarisation papers in both subjects on its own website; these show a child the format and timing of the actual test and are not intended as a full practice course.

For a child in Year 4 or Year 5, the guide towhen to start 11+ preparationworks back from the test date year by year.

The consortium does not encourage early entry to the test except in unusual circumstances, and expects a child to have reached Year 6 age before sitting it. Preparation that builds genuine fluency in extended writing and reasoned mathematical problem-solving, practised under the specific timings of the CSSE papers, tends to serve a child better than material written for a different test format entirely.

The CSSE papers and how they are scored

The CSSE sets one English paper of sixty minutes, with ten minutes' additional reading time, and one mathematics paper of sixty minutes, each standardised and weighted at 50% towards a single total score. No CSSE school makes an offer below a total standardised score of 303, and that floor applies across all ten member schools: Colchester County High School for Girls, Colchester Royal Grammar School, King Edward VI Grammar School, Shoeburyness High School, the four Southend and Westcliff grammar schools, St Bernard's High School and St Thomas More High School.

Above the floor, the lowest score offered varies by school and by priority area. Westcliff High School for Boys took the highest scores, with a last offer of 352 from outside its priority area, whilst Southend High School for Girls and Westcliff High School for Girls both reached 303 inside theirs. The CSSE notes that these figures fluctuate, so a score slightly below them may still be worth an application.

The wider picture of selective entry across the county, including the Colchester and Chelmsford schools that share the CSSE test, is set out in our guide toEssex grammar schools.

Because Colchester Royal Grammar School is also a CSSE member,Colchester Royal Grammar School admissionsfollow the same test and score rules, though the school has no priority area.

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