11 Plus Results Day 2026: What to Expect and What to Do Next

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11+ results day is not one fixed date on a national calendar — it is a rolling set of dates through October, each set independently by a county council, consortium, or group of schools. Kent, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Essex, Redbridge and the Birmingham King Edward VI schools all issue results in October 2026, but the exact date, the method of notification, and what the result actually tells you all differ from area to area. This guide sets out, region by region, when results are expected, how you will actually be told, what the notification does and does not mean, and exactly what to do if nothing has arrived by the time everyone else's has.

When Do 11+ Results Come Out in 2026?

Each selective area publishes its own test date and its own results date, and the 2026 dates differ from area to area. The table below sets out the 2026 dates for the major systems, based on each authority's own published guidance .

Two things stand out from this table. First, the state grammar school systems — Kent, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Essex, Birmingham — release results between Friday 9 October (Buckinghamshire, now released) and Friday 16 October 2026 (Medway, which has its own Medway Test, emails results after 10am on Wednesday 14 October 2026; Redbridge emails results in the middle of October), ahead of the local authority closing dates (Saturday 31 October 2026 in Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Birmingham, Essex and Medway; Monday 2 November 2026 in Kent), and families need their result in hand before they finalise their preference list. Second, North London Collegiate School, an independent school, runs to a different calendar, because its process includes an entrance exam on Thursday 3 December 2026 and interviews from Monday 11 to Friday 22 January 2027 — its "results day" concept doesn't really exist in the same way, since offers are notified on Friday 12 February 2027 rather than October. If you are navigating that specific process, our dedicated guide to London Consortium schools and how their offers are decided covers the shared-paper system and interview stage in full.

How Will Families Be Notified?

The method of notification is not standardised. In practice, Medway, for example, says it cannot give out test scores over the phone.

Email is now the default in most areas. Kent will email results to the address registered on your Kent Test application; if no email address was given, Kent posts the result by first class post on results day. Buckinghamshire notifies most families by email, and Redbridge emails results. This makes it essential to check that the email address on your original registration is current, and to check your spam or promotions folder on the expected day , because Kent can only send results to the email address used to register your child, and Medway advises checking junk or spam folders if the email has not arrived.

Post is the fallback in some areas. Kent posts a result by first class post only where no email address was given, while Essex's CSSE emails results to all candidates after the close of business on 12 October 2026 and asks families to allow 24 hours for receipt. If you have moved house since registering, or if your child's registration used a childminder or grandparent's address, confirm this is still correct before your results date.

Some areas use an online portal. Warwickshire makes 11+ results available on its Parent Portal on 16 October 2026. Sutton Council says families find out the Selective Eligibility Test (SET) result before the closing date for applications, and that success means being eligible to sit second stage entrance examinations at the Sutton grammar schools rather than a final outcome.

Because the method differs so much by area, the single most useful thing you can do is confirm, in writing, exactly how and when your specific county or consortium says it will notify you — most publish this on their admissions webpage — rather than assume it will match what a friend in a different county experienced.

What Does the Result Actually Say?

This is where results day most often surprises first-time parents. What arrives on the day is often more than a simple "pass" or "fail." Kent, Buckinghamshire and Essex's CSSE issue standardised scores, sometimes broken down by subject, and Medway adds a decision on whether your child is assessed as suitable for grammar school.

Kent Test results show three standardised scores — one each for English, maths and reasoning — plus a total aggregate, with each individual score ranging from 69 to 141. Kent's grammar school threshold for 2025 required a total score of 332 or higher, with no single subject score below 108; Kent says the grammar school threshold for 2026 will be available in October 2026. Buckinghamshire's system is simpler on paper — a single age-standardised score, with 121 as the qualifying mark for consideration for a grammar place — but it is still a score, not a placement.

Essex's CSSE results email gives the raw score for each subject as well as the overall standardised score rather than a binary result, and the CSSE office deals only with examination administration, with no involvement in school applications, admissions or appeals. Birmingham's King Edward VI Foundation likewise standardises the score for each section of the test. In every one of these systems, the result you receive in October is a score or an assessment, not an offer — it does not, by itself, tell you which school (if any) your child will actually attend.

What Results Day Doesn't Tell You: The National Offer Day Distinction

This is an important fact about 11+ results day. In almost every state grammar school area, the October result is separate from the actual offer of a school place, and the two arrive months apart.

The October result tells you your child's standardised score and, in several areas, whether that score reaches the qualifying standard the local grammar schools use as one factor in their admissions criteria. The actual decision about which secondary school your child is offered a place at is made by your home local authority, through the ordinary Common Application Form process, taking into account your ranked preferences, distance, sibling links and the test outcome together. That decision is communicated to every family in England on the same day: National Offer Day, which falls on Monday 1 March 2027 for children starting secondary school in September 2027. Medway Council makes this distinction explicit in its own results guidance: a child assessed as suitable for grammar school is not guaranteed a grammar school place, because schools with more applications than places must use their oversubscription criteria, and Sutton Council says that a child found eligible through its Selective Eligibility Test can then put that school on the application.

The practical implication is that the October letter or email is a piece of information to act on, not a conclusion to react to. If your child's score meets the local threshold, the next job is to make sure your Common Application Form correctly lists every grammar school you want considered, ranked in genuine order of preference, before your home local authority's closing date — Saturday 31 October 2026 in Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Birmingham, Essex and Medway, and Monday 2 November 2026 in Kent. If the score narrowly misses the threshold, there is still a Common Application Form to complete, and still time before the March decision to think through independent school options in parallel. We cover exactly how to navigate a score that falls just short in our detailed guide, What Happens If Your Child Misses the 11+ by a Few Marks.

What If You Don't Hear Anything on the Expected Day?

If your result does not arrive on the published date, work through a short checklist.

First, check your spam, junk and promotions folders — Medway Council, for example, advises checking junk or spam folders if the results email has not arrived in your inbox. Second, confirm the email address and postal address held on your original registration are still correct; Kent, for example, can only send results to the email address used to register your child. Third, if you did not give an email address and the posted result has not arrived, ask your child's primary school: Kent County Council says you can ask the primary school for their test scores the day after results go out.

If none of that resolves it, contact the county council or consortium that runs your test directly; Medway, for example, asks families who have not received a result by Thursday 15 October 2026 to email its test team.

Immediate Next Steps After Your Result

What you do in the days immediately after results day matters more than the result itself, in practical terms, because deadlines start moving immediately regardless of how the news landed.

If the result qualifies your child for grammar school consideration, check and, if necessary, amend your Common Application Form so that every grammar school you would genuinely accept a place at is listed and ranked in true order of preference . If your child's score sits close to, but below, the qualifying mark, look into your specific school's waiting list process and appeals timeline now, even though a formal appeal typically cannot be lodged until after the March offer — being prepared in advance means you are not starting from scratch under time pressure. Our guide on what happens if your child misses the 11+ by a few marks sets out the appeals and waiting-list mechanics in detail.

Whatever the outcome, how you talk to your child about it in the first hour or two matters enormously for their confidence going into Year 7, regardless of which school they eventually attend. We have written a dedicated guide, How to Talk to Your Child About 11+ Results, covering exactly that conversation — what to say, what to avoid, and how to manage siblings who received different outcomes. For the full accept-by, appeal-lodging and waiting-list timeline that follows National Offer Day itself, see our Post-Results-Day Decision Timeline for the 11+.

How North London Collegiate School Handles Results Differently

Everything above describes the state grammar school systems , where tests in September lead to results notifications before the application closing dates. North London Collegiate School (NLCS), an independent school, runs to a noticeably different timetable, and it is worth understanding the difference so you know what to expect if your child is sitting for NLCS alongside a state grammar test.

NLCS holds its entrance exam on Thursday 3 December 2026, later than the state grammar tests, and a written score alone does not produce a final decision. A number of students are then invited back for interview, which for NLCS runs from Monday 11 to Friday 22 January 2027, and offers are then sent by email, notified on Friday 12 February 2027, considerably later than the state grammar October result. For the specific schools involved, the registration windows, and how offers are actually decided school by school, see our guide to the 11+ London Consortium schools.

A Results Day Checklist for Parents

A short, practical checklist for the days immediately around your county or consortium's published results date:

• Confirm your exact results date and notification method in advance by checking your county or consortium's own admissions page — do not rely on what happened in a different area.
• Double-check the email address and postal address on your original registration are still current, ideally before your results date.
• On the day, check spam and junk folders before assuming nothing has arrived.
• If nothing has arrived by the following morning, contact the county council or consortium that runs your test directly; in Kent you can also ask your child's primary school for their test scores.
• Understand what the number or letter you receive actually means for your specific area — a standardised score, an assessment of suitability for grammar school, or (for North London Collegiate School) an offer.
• Note your county's Common Application Form or Secondary Transfer Form deadline (Saturday 31 October 2026 in Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Birmingham, Essex and Medway, and Monday 2 November 2026 in Kent) and make sure your preferences are correctly ranked before it passes.
• Remember that, for most state grammar systems, the real decision on a specific school place lands on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027 — not on results day itself.
• Plan the conversation with your child before the result arrives, so you are not improvising in the moment either way.

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Reviewed October 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against Buckinghamshire Council, the Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools, the CSSE, Kent County Council, Warwickshire County Council, the King Edward VI Foundation and North London Collegiate School's own admissions pages.

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