11+ Scores and the Common Application Form - What To Do Now.

The 11+ Results are out. For some that will all but mean a place for your child at your chosen grammar school.  For others the future is less certain. 

In some areas the places are allocated by rank order so even if your child scores very highly you cannot be sure of their place as this depends on the performance of others. 

Similarly in areas where a minimum qualifying score is required and places are thereafter allocated based on oversubscription criteria you again face an anxious wait to see if you sufficiently closely meet the criteria to be offered a place. 

For many however your child may not have performed as well as expected, and in some cases reached lower than the minimum score. You will not receive an offer of a grammar school place on National Allocation Day (Monday 2nd March 2026) but all is not lost.  You can appeal to an Independent Panel not connected to the school or council and they will consider three key questions - 

• Would to admit another child prejudice efficient education or lead to an inefficient use of educational resources 

• What makes the school you are appealing to uniquely right for your child 

• Whether they are of the required standard, taking into account why this might not have been demonstrated in the selective test 

But what does all this mean for your Common Application Form (CAF) - which you simply MUST submit by Friday 31st October?

To be able to APPEAL for a grammar school place in the spring you MUST place the school on your CAF; it does not matter where as you won’t get an offer regardless of where you put the grammar school but it does allow you to appeal in the Spring.   

Appeals are time consuming and stressful; only include grammar schools you are definitely going to appeal for and instead use your other choices to make more sensible, realistic preferences for good community schools. We often hear of families putting all the grammar schools on the CAF because ‘you never know, we might get lucky’ - you won’t so don’t waste your choices! 

Only APPLY for grammar schools you are going to be committed to APPEAL for.