As a former primary school teacher turned 11-plus tutor and a mother of two, Holly Jones has seen the grammar school entry system from a variety of vantage points. While her son passed, last year Jones’s daughter did not score high enough. “She took it amazingly well,” said Jones, who lives in Thanet, Kent. “She wanted to be the one to open the email, and when she did, she knew she hadn’t passed the English, but she ran up to me and said, ‘Look at my maths and reasoning score’, which were really high.”
Year six pupils who live in grammar school areas can take the 11-plus test each September. To pass, they have to meet a set score; if they fall just under that mark, there is an option to appeal. Similarly, an appeal can be made if they pass but aren’t offered a place.
For some parents who have already spent a year – or possibly more – tutoring their children, the thought of extending the 11-plus hellscape even further is unappealing. But for others, the lure of a grammar school education and fear of curtailing their child’s opportunities can be all they need to ready them for the appeal process.
For Jones, her daughter secured a place at her preferred grammar school after a successful appeal. But appealing won’t be suitable for everyone, she says. “I tell parents not to panic,” she says. “You’ve got six months to get a really good idea of whether your child would thrive in a grammar school, or whether a different school would be a better fit.”
The controversial 11-plus test is sat by around 100,000 10- and 11-year-olds across England each year to win the right to apply to one of England’s 163 grammar schools, which are spread across 35 local authorities, with most in Kent, Buckinghamshire, London and Lincolnshire. There are none in Scotland or Wales, and of the 600,000 to 650,000 children entering secondary school in England each year, only 25,000 go to a grammar.
The marks needed for a pass vary across the country. For 2026 grammar school entry in Kent, for example, out of a total possible score of 423 marks across maths, English and reasoning (verbal and non verbal), pupils needed to score an aggregate of 332, and at least 108 on each paper. This year, it rose to 111. While this makes them eligible for a grammar school place, highly competitive schools might ask for scores of over 340 or even 360. For Buckinghamshire, the pass mark in 2026 was 121. Parents of children who score under 118 are often advised by their primary school not to appeal.
That’s because appeal places are not easy to win. It’s unclear how many are lodged or won each year across the UK, but Buckinghamshire, for example, has 13 grammar schools, and in 2025, there were 274 appeals; 169 came from applicants who had not met the required level in the 11-plus and this group had a two per cent success rate. Of 105 appeals from pupils who had passed but hadn’t been offered a place at a grammar school, seven per cent succeeded.
Competition for a grammar school place is hot even with a pass, and expected to increase as private school fees rise. In some areas, you’ll need to live in catchment or score well above the minimum mark to confirm a place. It’s often said that grammar school is comparable to a private education, but it’s important to address the cost to those scrapping to get in. Years of hot-house tutoring may allow a child to pass the test, but if they’re destined to spend the next seven years at the bottom of the class, grammar starts to look less appealing.
While tutoring for a grammar school place is a thriving business, the appeals business is also a money spinner. The Good Schools Guide, which has seen an increase in views of its grammar school reviews since the introduction of school fees VAT, offers a consultancy package for £450, and specialised education solicitors offer fixed fee appeal packages from £360 to £3,000.
There are two stages to the appeal process. The first – known as the headteacher appeal – happens behind closed doors during the week before pupils receive their marks. The second appeal, from parents to individual schools, only comes into play after the secondary school places have been offered, which next year is on 1 March.
The headteacher appeal is an opportunity for teachers to make a case for pupils who have narrowly missed out, if their work in class suggests they are capable. As executive head of the ASPIRE federation of four primary schools near Maidstone, Kent, Emma Woods has more than 20 years’ experience. This year, around 50 children from her schools sat the 11-plus exam. “We look at the individual scores and the aggregate score and make a decision about whether or not we think the child is worth putting through a headteacher’s appeal,” she says.
“The main factor is the test scores,” says Woods. “Children can grow and develop, but you have to think about those working at borderline or below the line of grammar school level, and whether they’re better in a grammar or in the top set at a high school.”
Jones thinks the appeal process is vital in making the system more equitable. “There’s always going to be controversy around this subject, but the appeal system is a very good thing,” she says. “Not everybody thrives in a test environment at 10 years old. Forget about the thousands of hours of schooling, their future is in the hands of a 2.5 hour exam.”
For a parent appeal, which takes place after secondary places have been allocated in March, the family is appealing to their school of choice, putting a case both for why that school is the most suitable for their child, and why their allocated school is not. Parents are advised to accept whatever school they are offered and then head into the appeal process, which will have a deadline ranging from late March to mid-April.
As with the headteacher test, they put together evidence to show their child is working at the right level, highlighting the factors they believe make their desired school the right fit, as well as introducing any mitigating circumstances from the day of the test, such as illness.
“There are lots of genuine reasons where children can be successful at appeal,” says The Good Schools Guide editor-in-chief Melanie Sanderson. “People think it has to have been a life-changing incident like death or divorce, but that isn’t always the case. I heard recently of a really bright child who failed to turn over all the pages of their test. It remains to be seen what happens there, but the primary school has said to the parents that they have lots of data on this boy to demonstrate he is capable.”
Still, Sanderson urges caution to potentially pushy parents. “The last thing you want to do is build your child’s hopes up, or send the message that second choice isn’t good enough. You want them to bounce into school on the first day happy to be there.”