Results day brings a standardised score, and then a school place offer (or not) follows, usually via the National Offer Day process alongside other secondary applications. If your child narrowly misses a place, an appeal is generally possible — but the process, timeline and success criteria are specific to each local authority or school, so this page explains the general shape rather than any one area's exact rules.
After the 11+ test, your local authority or the school converts the raw result into a standardised score, then compares it against that year's qualifying/cut-off mark (which can shift year to year based on cohort performance). Where a place is offered depends on the specific school's admissions criteria — a "pass" mark alone doesn't guarantee a place at every school if it's oversubscribed, since some grammar schools also apply distance or other tiebreakers once a large pool of children all clear the qualifying score.
Every local authority and independent school publishes its own appeals process and deadlines — these are legally distinct processes with different criteria, so treat any general description (including this one) as a starting point, not a substitute for reading the specific published process for your area or school. Broadly, appeal panels for oversubscribed schools in England assess two things: whether the admission arrangements were applied lawfully and correctly, and (for schools with a set admission number) whether your case shows the reasons for admission outweigh the wider prejudice extra numbers would cause the school. Independent, specialist educational advice (not this page) is the right source if you're weighing whether to appeal.
If results don't go the way you hoped: (1) request the breakdown/feedback available from the local authority or school, (2) check the waiting list policy — places do come free over the summer as families make different choices, (3) read the specific appeal deadline and grounds for your school/authority carefully rather than relying on general advice, and (4) keep other offers live and genuinely consider them rather than treating an appeal as the only path forward.
Pulled straight from PipPrep's own question bank — not invented for this page.
PipPrep adapts to your child's target school with 100,000+ questions across maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Free to start, no card needed.
Start free →No, it can move year to year because standardised scores adjust for that particular cohort's performance and age. Don't assume last year's published cut-off will be this year's.
Appeals generally apply where a school is oversubscribed and your child was refused a place under its published admission arrangements. The specific right to appeal, process and deadline depends on your local authority or the individual school — check their published admissions policy directly.
Not necessarily at every school. Clearing the qualifying/pass mark makes a child eligible, but oversubscribed schools may then apply further criteria (such as distance, siblings, or feeder status) to allocate the limited places available.
Check waiting lists (places often free up over the summer), read the appeals process for your preferred school(s), and make sure you've genuinely engaged with the offer you do have, since it may turn out to be a good fit even if it wasn't first choice.