CSSE Essex 11+ Results 2026: Scores and Next Steps

The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE) emailed results for children seeking September 2027 entry at the close of business on Monday 12 October 2026. The school application is a separate step through your home local authority. Essex and Southend residents must apply by 31 October 2026; Kent residents have until 2 November 2026. If you live elsewhere, check your own council's deadline.

Your child's score tells you how they performed in the English and maths tests. It does not reserve a place at a particular school. Read the result letter, then check the current admissions policy of every school you may name.

Does 303 mean a place is likely?

No. CSSE says its secondary schools do not offer a place through normal allocation to a child whose total standardised score is below 303. This is a lower floor, not a universal score that wins a place. A school's last offered score can be higher, and its priority area and other admission rules matter. Appeals and special consideration places sit outside the published cut-off positions (CSSE information guide for 2027 entry).

The sheet titled 2027 Entry Historical Guidance was published this October, but its school-level figures describe offers made on 1 March 2026 for September 2026 entry. They are last year's outcomes, not cut-offs for children who took the test in September 2026. CSSE explicitly says they fluctuate. Compare the right inside or outside priority-area column for your child and use the figures as context when choosing schools, not as a guarantee.

Our full CSSE Essex guide explains why the score is standardised and how the separate English and maths papers are combined. This year's official standardisation report covers 4,994 candidates. It gives the 2026 test's English and maths averages and age adjustments; a raw mark or a practice percentage cannot be read directly as a total CSSE score. You can reproduce the published calculation using your child's raw marks and date of birth. The CSSE result email remains the official score.

Which schools and forms need checking?

CSSE administers the exam, while each member school applies its own admissions policy. Check the school's September 2027 arrangements, including its priority area and any additional information it requests. Chelmsford County High School for Girls is not a CSSE member; it runs a separate entrance process. Colchester County High School for Girls is a CSSE member (CSSE member schools).

The CSSE 2027-entry guide names ten schools offering selective places. Seven are grammar schools; Shoeburyness High School is a mixed comprehensive, and St Bernard's and St Thomas More are Catholic bilateral schools. The same test route does not mean the schools have identical admissions rules. Use the CSSE school and consortium guide to compare all ten, then open each school's current policy before naming it on your application.

CSSE says families eligible for Pupil Premium who intend to apply to Colchester County High School for Girls, Colchester Royal Grammar School or King Edward VI Grammar School should complete its Pupil Premium form and return it directly to the school. The Southend CSSE schools do not require that CSSE form. Get the form and instructions from the CSSE examination page, and check each school's policy for its own requirements.

The 2027-entry CSSE guide also says St Bernard's High School and St Thomas More High School for Boys require their own supplementary information forms if you name them. These are school forms, separate from the council application and the CSSE Pupil Premium form.

Put schools in your genuine preference order on your home council's form. Registering for the CSSE test was not a school application. Use our school application order planner to organise your shortlist, then verify your choices against the schools' policies.

Your checklist before your home council's deadline

1. Read the total standardised score and any school-specific guidance sent with the result.
2. Open the current admissions policy for each school you would actually choose.
3. Use the historical guidance sheet only for its stated 2026 entry offer year and the relevant priority-area column.
4. Complete any required extra school form, including the CSSE Pupil Premium form where applicable.
5. Submit your home local authority's common application form by its deadline and keep the confirmation.

National Offer Day is 1 March 2027. That is when you learn which school has offered a place. CSSE says it does not handle school applications or appeals, so direct those questions to your home local authority or the school concerned (CSSE home page).