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Book a Free ConsultationWoodford County High School is a selective girls' grammar school in Woodford Green, within the London Borough of Redbridge, admitting 180 girls to Year 7 each September through the shared Redbridge 11+ test. Ofsted rated the school Good overall following its November 2022 inspection, with Quality of Education graded Outstanding. For September 2027 entry, no candidate is ranked below a minimum standardised score of 104, whatever her home address.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppUpdated for September 2027 entry - the Redbridge 11+ test and admissions figures
For September 2027 entry, Woodford County High School admits 180 girls to Year 7 through the Redbridge 11+ test, set by GL Assessment as two papers — English and Verbal Reasoning, and Mathematics and Non-Verbal Reasoning — with registration open from 1 May to 5pm on 15 June 2026 and the test itself on Friday 18 September 2026.
Redbridge's determined admissions arrangements for 2027-2028 set a minimum standardised threshold score of 104, below which no candidate is ranked or waitlisted, and reserve 45 of the 180 places (25%) for pupil-premium-eligible candidates.
The school's Ofsted rating (Good overall, Quality of Education and Sixth Form provision both Outstanding) dates from its inspection on 22 November 2022, published 8 February 2023.
Woodford is a fully selective state grammar school: there are no fees, and every place is offered on the results of the Redbridge 11+ test rather than on ability to pay. Ofsted rated the school Good overall following its inspection on 22 November 2022, with Quality of Education and Sixth Form provision each graded Outstanding in the same report, published 8 February 2023. The Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register lists a capacity of 1,260 pupils against a current roll of 1,237, of whom 137 (15.2%) are eligible for free school meals.
The school expanded from four forms of entry to six in September 2016, enlarging each Year 7 cohort admitted under the oversubscription rules described below. For families across the London Borough of Redbridge and the neighbouring areas that fall inside its Common Catchment Area, a place at Woodford represents entry to one of a small number of academically selective state schools available without a private-school fee.
Entry to Woodford is decided by the Redbridge 11+ test, administered by Redbridge Council (the local authority) and sat on the school's own site each September. The same test and registration process is shared with Ilford County High School, the borough's boys' grammar. The test itself is set by GL Assessment, described by the council as “the UK's leading provider of these entrance exams.” For September 2027 entry the test was held on Friday 18 September 2026.
The Redbridge 11+ consists of two papers: English and Verbal Reasoning, and Mathematics and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Redbridge's own description of the test does not name a creative-writing task in either paper, unlike some other regional grammar-school consortia that mark a separate writing section. Our guide to how 11+ English format varies by test provider sets out the differences school by school, so families prepare for the paper Woodford actually sets rather than a different consortium's format.
Registration for the Redbridge 11+ opens well before the test itself. For September 2027 entry, the school's open evening for prospective applicants was held on 30 April 2026, and online registration through the Redbridge website opened on 1 May 2026 and closed at 5pm on 15 June 2026. No late registrations are accepted, and Redbridge states that no adjustments to testing arrangements will be considered after 15 June 2026.
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppWoodford County High's Published Admission Number for Year 7 is 180 girls for September 2027 entry, set out in Redbridge's determined admissions arrangements for 2027-2028. No candidate is ranked at all, inside the catchment area or outside it, unless she first reaches the minimum standardised score of 104. Redbridge's own arrangements are explicit: “There will be a 'minimum threshold score' of 104 for all applicants. No one scoring lower than 104 will be added to the ranked list or waiting list.”
Once a candidate clears 104, Redbridge ranks every applicant in a single order, applied identically at both of the borough's grammar schools. Priority, as Woodford's Year 7 application page sets it out, runs: looked-after and previously looked-after children first; then up to 45 places (25% of the 180) reserved for candidates who live within the Common Catchment Area and are entitled to the pupil premium, ranked by score; then other candidates living within the Common Catchment Area, ranked purely by standardised score; and only then, if places remain, candidates living outside the Common Catchment Area, also ranked by score. Where two candidates in the same category tie on score, Redbridge's tie-break is the shortest safe walking distance from home to the school's main entrance, measured by Geographic Information System.
Woodford's own description of its catchment area states that it “includes the entire London Borough of Redbridge (LBR) as well as part of neighbouring areas.” The school's own admissions page explains what that has meant in practice: “Places are only awarded out of the catchment area if there are not enough students within the common catchment area who have applied for places. In practice, no places are ever awarded out of the catchment area.” A full three-year breakdown of Redbridge's own published applicant numbers by catchment status is set out in Leading Tuition's Woodford County High School catchment area guide for 2027 entry.
Girls who go on to receive offers tend to share a similar preparation profile:
For girls applying to Woodford for September 2027 entry, the timetable runs as follows. Redbridge held an open evening for prospective applicants on 30 April 2026. Online registration for the test opened on 1 May 2026 and closed at 5pm on 15 June 2026, for girls who were then in Year 5. The test itself was held on Friday 18 September 2026, and results are emailed to families in the middle of October 2026.
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Open evening | 30 April 2026 |
| Registration opens | 1 May 2026 |
| Registration closes | 5pm, 15 June 2026 |
| Test date | Friday 18 September 2026 |
| Results emailed | Middle of October 2026 |
| Common Application Form deadline | 31 October 2026 |
| National Offer Day | On or about 1 March 2027 |
Source: Redbridge Council (Woodford County High School Year 7 admissions page, Redbridge 11+ page and determined admissions arrangements for 2027-2028), retrieved 25 September 2026.
Applications naming Woodford as a preference must still be made on the Common Application Form. Redbridge's co-ordinated scheme defines the home authority as “The LA in which the applicant/parent/carer is resident” and refers to “their home LA's Common Application Form”; for a family living abroad, Note 11 of the determined arrangements, quoted below, places the application “within the co-ordinated process”. Redbridge's determined arrangements are explicit that applications for transfer in September 2027 “must be submitted by 31 October 2026 at the latest,” with the address given expected to be the one the child “normally lives on 31 October 2026 and is expected to live in September 2027 and beyond.” National Offer Day for September 2027 secondary places falls “on or about 1 March 2027,” per the same document, and Redbridge's offer-day page separately confirms offers for “Secondary school and Year 7 (September 2027)” go out “on the evening of Monday 1 March 2027.”
Registration, testing and admissions for Woodford County High School all run through Redbridge Council, so a family abroad is working to Redbridge's rules. Woodford's Join Us page says the school “is a Community School and therefore all matters relating to admissions in Year 7 – 11 are handled by the Redbridge Admissions Office”. Its Year 7 application procedure adds: “Registration is online through the Redbridge website.” The sitting is on Woodford's own site, in the school's words: “Entry to Woodford is via a selection test, administered by the LA. Each September about 1000 girls take the 11+ on the school site.”
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Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppFive statements in Woodford's and Redbridge's published wording bear on where the child lives, and they fall at four different moments. The dates below are the ones Redbridge published for September 2027 entry.
| When | What the published wording says |
|---|---|
| Registering for the test, 1 May to 5pm on 15 June 2026, for girls then in Year 5 | Woodford's admissions page: “You will be required to provide proof of address and proof of date of birth.” Redbridge's 11 plus page: “Your child needs to live in the blue lined area on the map.” |
| Common Application Form, closing date 31 October 2026 | Note 4: “The address given in any application must be the one where the child normally lives, on the closing date for your application, and is expected to live in September 2027 and beyond.” |
| Before the school year or term begins | Note 11: “When an application is made from an address in another country, the Admission Authority will ask for evidence before the school year or term begins, to confirm that the child now lives in the area.” |
| First day of term | Note 11, same paragraph: “If the child does not attend school on the first day of term, the Admission Authority can remove the offer and allocate the place to a child on the waiting list, after the parent has been contacted to ascertain the situation.” |
Source: Woodford County High School Year 7 application procedure; Redbridge Council 11 plus page; Redbridge admission arrangements for 2027-28 (PDF, 17 pages), Notes 4 and 11 and paragraphs 1.4 and 2.9. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
Redbridge's 2027-28 arrangements, which apply from September 2027, set the order. Paragraph 2.2 reads: “If parents live outside the Common Catchment Area, consideration for a place at one of these schools will be given after all the requests from those within the Common Catchment Area have been met.” Paragraph 2.3 reads: “Advice shall be provided to applicants to explain that only children who live in the Common Catchment Area have been admitted to the grammar schools in the last 10 years.” In the order of paragraph 2.13, looked-after children come first, then the pupil-premium group (“Places will be offered to 45 (25%) children who are entitled to the pupil premium”), then other children living in the Common Catchment Area, and last children living outside it. The last three groups are each ranked by total standardised score. Woodford's Year 7 application page words the pupil-premium group differently: “Up to 45 places (i.e 25% of the places available) will be offered to children living in the common catchment area who are entitled to the pupil premium”. Woodford's own wording on out-of-area places is quoted in the competition section above.
For a family still abroad at those four moments, Note 11 of the same arrangements says: “If an application is made from another country, the Admission Authority will consider the application as adequate proof of an intention to move/return to the area and include it within the co-ordinated process.” It lists four kinds of evidence that parents intend to return: a mortgage or rental agreement for a property in the area, deeds for a property in the area, a letter from an employer showing a transfer date to the area, and registration with a local GP. It then adds: “If a parent is unable to provide evidence of a return to the area before the new school year for applications in the normal admissions round or by the start of the next term for in-year applications, the parent’s place a [sic] of residence at the point the application is made will be used for allocating priority based on the distance criterion.” Notes 4 and 11 sit under the heading “Notes and definitions applying to the admission arrangements for all community schools”, and Woodford describes itself as a Community School. For the two grammar schools, paragraph 2.14 uses walking distance as the tie-break between candidates with the same score.
How Note 11 applies to a girl whose family is abroad on 31 October is a question for the Admissions Office. Woodford's Join Us page gives the office's secondary transfer number as 0208 708 3139. Ask for the answer in writing and keep it. Book a free consultation and our expert 11+ tutors will build the preparation around the dates in the table above.
Redbridge sends the invitation, the photo ID form, the invite letter and the results by email. Its 11 plus page says: “The 11 plus invitation email was sent on Friday 14 August 2026. Please check the email account you used to register your child, including your junk or spam folder if you cannot find it in your inbox.” At the start of September it emails “an 11 plus photo ID form and an invite letter” carrying the “time and location of the test”, and “You must bring the completed 11 plus photo ID form to the test. Without it, your child cannot take the test.” Redbridge's test date for September 2027 entry was Friday 18 September 2026.
Paragraph 2.6 covers girls who “register on-time but are unable to take the tests on the published date”: late testing “will be arranged only on the provision of a doctor’s certificate or proof of why the child could not sit on the original dates provided i.e. religious observance”. On registration, paragraph 2.5 says “No late registrations will be accepted”, and paragraph 2.8 says “In respect of applicants who do not register for testing within the publicised registration deadline but then submit on-time preferences naming a selective school, no testing arrangements will be made.” The arrangements describe the registration deadline in general terms as “usually between 1 May to 15 June, or thereabouts”, and registering is not applying: “Completion of the Registration Form alone is not accepted as an application.” A family that cannot be at Woodford on the test date should put that to the Admissions Office before the registration window opens.
For a girl who arrives after the Year 7 round, the 2027-28 arrangements, which apply from September 2027, cover the grammar schools in paragraph 3.6: “children are not considered for entry into Years 10 or 11 at either grammar school. If there is a vacancy in Years 7, 8 and 9, a waiting list will be maintained of applicants who have attained the minimum threshold score.” Paragraph 2.12 of the same arrangements puts that score at 104. Section 3 of them, headed “Secondary School Admission in Years 7-11 (In Year)”, adds in paragraph 3.4: “Waiting lists will cease as at 31 July annually and applicants will need to re-apply during the month of August for continued consideration.” For a move during the 2026-27 school year, the 2026-27 arrangements apply, and their paragraph 3.6 carries a further sentence: “If there is a vacancy in Years 7, 8 and 9, late applicants will be tested.” Woodford's own introduction for Year 5 and 6 parents says: “All girls below Year 11 are admitted through the Local Authority’s selection procedure.” Our guide to joining a grammar school after Year 7 covers the wider in-year route.
Redbridge's rules for the whole borough, including Ilford County High School, are in our Redbridge 11+ rules for families abroad, and our 11+ from overseas hub covers other areas. Our grammar school guide for expat families returning to the UK sets out the wider picture.
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For most children, serious preparation should begin in Year 4 or early Year 5 at the latest. This does not mean drilling past papers from the age of eight — it means building the foundations the Redbridge 11+ will test. In the early stages, the focus should be on reading widely and regularly, strengthening mental arithmetic, and expanding vocabulary. These are not things that can be rushed in the final few months.
Our 11+ specialists work with Woodford County High applicants on the Redbridge 11+ papers the school actually uses, building the verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, maths, and English skills needed for this highly competitive Redbridge grammar school. Our students have achieved a 95%+ offer rate across selective school entry, and we're rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot. Book a free consultation to discuss a preparation plan for the Woodford County High 11+.
From around January of Year 5, preparation can become more structured. This is the point to introduce timed verbal reasoning and comprehension exercises, begin building accuracy and speed on non-verbal reasoning question types, and systematically cover the mathematics topics the Redbridge 11+ draws on. Algebra, ratio, and multi-step problem-solving are areas where many children need more time than they expect.
From September of Year 5 through to the exam in September of Year 6, the focus should shift to timed practice, past papers, and targeted work on any remaining weak areas. It is important that children practise both papers under strict timed conditions regularly — the Redbridge 11+ rewards speed and accuracy across verbal and non-verbal reasoning as much as subject knowledge, and working too slowly costs marks regardless of how good the underlying answer would have been. Mock exam conditions, including sitting a full paper in one sitting, should be introduced well before the real exam date.
Leading Tuition provides specialist one-to-one tutoring for children preparing for the Redbridge 11+ and entry to Woodford County High School. Our tutors work with the actual test format Woodford uses — English and Verbal Reasoning, and Mathematics and Non-Verbal Reasoning — rather than a generic 11+ course built around a different consortium's exam. Each child's programme is built around her current strengths, the areas where she needs to develop, and the time available before the September test date.
For English, we work on comprehension technique and the vocabulary and grammar range the Redbridge paper draws on, alongside targeted verbal reasoning practice across the question types GL Assessment uses. For Mathematics, we ensure full KS2 curriculum coverage and build the non-verbal reasoning technique — pattern recognition, sequences, spatial reasoning — that sits alongside it on the second paper. Throughout, we help girls build the exam confidence and time management they need on the day itself.
Families based in the Woodford area looking for wider subject support alongside 11+ preparation can also see our Woodford tutors page. For official entry requirements and registration details, see the Woodford County High School admissions page. Book a free consultation to talk through a preparation plan ahead of the Redbridge 11+.
Leading Tuition is rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 59 reviews, read on 3 October 2026, and 91% of our students achieve their desired grades.
Applying from abroad? Our guide to the Redbridge 11+ for families living overseas covers registration, the test and how Redbridge treats an overseas address for Woodford County High and Ilford County High.
Reviewed September 2026: admissions figures, 11+ test format and dates for September 2027 entry checked against Redbridge Council's determined admissions arrangements, Woodford's own site, Ofsted and DfE's Get Information About Schools.
Most children who gain places at Woodford County High School have been preparing in some structured form for 12 to 18 months before the September test. Starting in Year 4 or early Year 5 allows time to build genuine verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and maths skills rather than simply drilling past papers close to the exam. Beginning later is not impossible, but it requires a more intensive programme and leaves less room for gaps to be addressed properly before the test date in September of Year 6.
Yes. Redbridge's determined admissions arrangements set a published “minimum threshold score” of 104 for the Redbridge 11+. No candidate scoring below 104 is added to the ranked list or the waiting list for either of the borough's grammar schools, regardless of where she lives. Clearing 104 does not guarantee an offer on its own — once a candidate reaches the threshold, she is ranked against every other applicant by standardised score, in the priority order described on this page.
The Redbridge 11+ is sat once per year, in September of Year 6, and there is no opportunity to resit within the same admissions cycle. Late testing is only arranged for a registered candidate who cannot sit on the published date, and only with a doctor's certificate or similarly documented evidence. If a child is unsuccessful, families can consider applying again the following year, though this is uncommon, or explore other selective schools that use a different test or a later testing window.
A candidate who scores below 104 is not added to the ranked list or the waiting list at all — the threshold applies before the oversubscription order comes into play. A candidate who clears 104 but is not offered an immediate place can remain on the waiting list, and Redbridge fills vacancies as they arise by working back down the ranked order, applying the same catchment and pupil-premium priority described above. Families in this position should ensure they have applied to other strong schools as part of a balanced set of choices.
No, but it puts her in the final priority category. Redbridge's arrangements rank looked-after children first, then 45 (25%) children entitled to the pupil premium, then other catchment candidates, and only then candidates living outside the Common Catchment Area, all by standardised score. The school's own admissions page says: “In practice, no places are ever awarded out of the catchment area.” Redbridge's registration page says “Your child needs to live in the blue lined area on the map.”, and paragraph 2.2 of its 2027-28 arrangements puts consideration of parents living outside the Common Catchment Area after “all the requests from those within the Common Catchment Area”.
No. Redbridge's own description of the Redbridge 11+ names two papers — English and Verbal Reasoning, and Mathematics and Non-Verbal Reasoning — and does not include a creative-writing task in either. Families researching Woodford should prepare for the test the school actually uses.
Woodford says “Each September about 1000 girls take the 11+ on the school site.” Redbridge's date for September 2027 entry was Friday 18 September 2026, and at the start of September it emails a photo ID form and an invite letter giving the “time and location of the test”. For girls who “register on-time but are unable to take the tests on the published date”, paragraph 2.6 of the 2027-28 arrangements says late testing “will be arranged only on the provision of a doctor’s certificate or proof of why the child could not sit on the original dates provided i.e. religious observance”. A family abroad should put its circumstances to the Redbridge Admissions Office, on 0208 708 3139, before registering.
Note 4 of the 2027-28 arrangements says the address must be “the one where the child normally lives, on the closing date for your application, and is expected to live in September 2027 and beyond”, with 31 October 2026 as the closing date. Note 11 says “If an application is made from another country, the Admission Authority will consider the application as adequate proof of an intention to move/return to the area”, and lists four kinds of evidence of an intention to return. How that applies to a girl abroad on 31 October is a question for the Admissions Office. Our expert 11+ tutors can plan her preparation around the family's return date: book a free consultation.
The 2027-28 arrangements, which apply from September 2027, say “children are not considered for entry into Years 10 or 11 at either grammar school. If there is a vacancy in Years 7, 8 and 9, a waiting list will be maintained of applicants who have attained the minimum threshold score.” For a move during 2026-27, the 2026-27 arrangements apply, and their paragraph 3.6 adds: “If there is a vacancy in Years 7, 8 and 9, late applicants will be tested.” In the 2027-28 version, paragraph 2.12 puts the score at 104 and paragraph 3.4 ends waiting lists on 31 July each year. Ask the Redbridge Admissions Office whether there is a vacancy in her year.
Our specialist 11+ tutors build each girl's programme around the Redbridge 11+ as Woodford actually sets it — English and Verbal Reasoning, and Mathematics and Non-Verbal Reasoning — rather than a generic 11+ course. We work on comprehension, grammar and vocabulary alongside verbal and non-verbal reasoning technique, full KS2 maths coverage, and timed exam practice ahead of the test date, so a child is prepared for the paper she will actually sit rather than for a different school's format.
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