Grammar schools in Redbridge

There is a very short window to register for the Redbridge 11+. This normally opens at the start of May and closes in the middle of June. Your child will take the test when they are in Year 6, so you should register when they are in Year 5, in the summer term. The registration portal is available on the Redbridge Council website.

There are two schools which use the Redbridge 11+ exam: Ilford County High School for Boys and Woodford County High School for Girls. The Redbridge 11+ is technically available to those children living outside the area, but historically no child has been offered a place at either of these schools unless they live in the local area of Redbridge (called the ‘common catchment area’). There is a map on the Redbridge Council website which links to the common catchment area.

The Redbridge 11+ is a fairly small exam and only two schools use it. Despite this, over 3000 children registered for the test in 2024, and over 2500 ultimately sat the test. Both schools, Ilford County High School for Boys and Woodford County High School for Girls, admit around 180 pupils into Year 7 every academic year. This means around 14% of those who sit the test are offered a place. These two schools are heavily oversubscribed.

The results of the Redbridge 11+ area are released fairly quickly after the test date, due to the fact that the papers are marked by computer. The test results are provided to parents in mid-October. However, families have to wait until national secondary school offer day, in March of the following year, to find out which school has offered their child a place.

The Redbridge 11+ exam is sat at the very stat of Year 6, in September. Both papers are sat on the same day and all children sit the exam at one of the grammar schools in the Redbridge area, either Ilford County High School for Boys or Woodford County High School for Girls. Both schools publish their own admissions criteria alongside the requirement to pass the Redbridge 11+.

The Redbridge 11+ examination has two papers, one with English and Verbal Reasoning and one Maths and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Each paper lasts between 50 minutes and 1 hour and there is a break between them. This means that the overall timing for the exam is around 2 and a half hours.

There are four subjects covered in the Redbridge 11+: English, Maths, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Whilst English and Maths are part of the Key Stage 2 curriculum at all schools, the Reasoning questions may be unfamiliar to some children. Verbal Reasoning deals with words and letters, whilst Non-Verbal Reasoning deals with shapes and patterns.

The Redbridge 11+ exam is authored and marked by GL Assessment. GL Assessment provide many of the 11+ assessments taken by children all over the country. The exams are taken on paper but marked by computer. Familiarisation papers are available to parents and children on the GL Assessment website.

As the papers are around 50 minutes long, there are likely to be around 25 questions in each of the English and Maths sections and around 45 questions in the Reasoning sections. This means children have around 1 minute per question for the English and Maths questions but around 30 seconds for the Reasoning questions. There are likely to be a total of around 65 questions in each paper.

There is a possibility of an appeal once offers have been sent to parents on Secondary Schools National Offer Day in March. An independent panel will hear appeals from parents.

The pass mark for the Redbridge 11+ examination does occasionally change from year to year but is currently set at 104. This means that if your child achieves a combined score of 104, they will be eligible to apply for a place at one of the two schools covered by the test. This does necessarily mean they will be offered a place; there tends to be a disparity in this as the school is so over-subscribed.

The difficulty of the Redbridge 11+ depends on your child’s aptitude for different subjects. As there are four subjects covered in the test, your child will need to have practised examination technique and understanding in English, Maths, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning. The examination is certainly competitive, and only around 35% of children who apply and are eligible are offered a place.

As both schools are oversubscribed, achieving 104 does not necessarily mean that your child will be offered a place. There are further admissions criteria which must be examined carefully. Following these criteria is particularly important if you live outside the common catchment area; it is not usual for children to be offered place outside this area. For these reasons, it is a good idea to aim for a score 130 or above.

The pass mark does not differ between these two schools (it remains 104) but it may be that the final offers based on standardised scores do differ, simply because the two schools will have different numbers of children applying. It is important to aim for the highest mark possible in order to maximise your chances of achieving a place.