Bexley 11+ Guide: The Bexley Selection Test

In short

• Bexley runs the Bexley Selection Test through the London Borough of Bexley, covering the borough's four grammar schools.
• The test has historically used GL Assessment-style content across English, maths and reasoning, sat in the autumn term of Year 6.
• Bexley attracts applications from well beyond the borough, including neighbouring south-east London boroughs and Kent, which makes places highly competitive.
• Qualifying for the test standard does not guarantee a place — each grammar applies its own oversubscription criteria, in which distance often matters.
• Registration is with Bexley Council in the summer term of Year 5 and is separate from the 31 October secondary application.

The short answer

The London Borough of Bexley operates its own selection test, the Bexley Selection Test, used for entry to the borough's four grammar schools. Children register with Bexley Council, typically in the summer term of Year 5, and sit the test in the autumn term of Year 6, with results issued in time to inform the Common Application Form due on 31 October. The content has historically followed a GL Assessment-style profile covering English, mathematics and reasoning, with age-standardised scoring. What makes Bexley distinctive is not the format but the competition: as an outer-London borough with grammar schools, it draws applicants from neighbouring boroughs and from Kent, so the effective standard at the most popular schools sits well above the level needed simply to be assessed as suitable for selective education.

Which grammar schools are in Bexley?

Bexley has four selective schools, spanning single-sex and co-educational provision and located across the borough in areas including Bexleyheath, Welling and Sidcup. Each uses the Bexley Selection Test outcome alongside its own published admissions criteria, and those criteria are where allocation is actually decided once a child has met the test standard. Distance from the school is a significant factor at several, which has a real consequence for out-of-borough applicants: a child living further away typically needs to be more competitive on score than a near neighbour to secure the same place. Sibling links and other published priorities also feature. The practical instruction is the same one that applies across selective England — read each school's own admissions policy rather than assuming the borough's test information tells you how places are allocated, because it does not.

How competitive is the Bexley 11+?

Substantially more competitive than the borough's own population would suggest, because Bexley sits at a junction. It is an outer-London borough, so families across south-east London who want a selective state option look here; it borders Kent, whose own grammar system runs a separate test but whose families often apply to both; and it is reachable from parts of north Kent and neighbouring boroughs on reasonable commutes. The result is an applicant pool considerably larger than the borough's Year 6 cohort. Two implications follow. First, clearing the test standard is the beginning rather than the end: at the most oversubscribed schools, allocation effectively runs on a combination of score and distance, and a comfortable pass from several miles away may not secure a place. Second, a shortlist made entirely of the most popular Bexley grammars carries real risk, and a sensible preference list mixes ambitious and realistic options alongside strong non-selective choices.

When do we register and what happens next?

Registration for the Bexley Selection Test runs through Bexley Council, normally opening in the summer term of Year 5 with a firm closing date some weeks later; the test follows in the autumn term of Year 6. Bexley publishes each year's exact windows on its admissions pages, and those are the dates worth planning around rather than any recollection of previous years. Missing the registration deadline generally means the test cannot be sat that year, which closes the selective route for that admissions round. Separately and unavoidably, you must also submit the Common Application Form to your home local authority by 31 October of Year 6 — that is the application that allocates a school place, and registering for the test does not do it. Results are issued in time to inform how you rank schools on that form, which is precisely why the equal-preference system makes an honest, realistic ranking the right strategy.

How should Bexley families prepare?

Prepare for a GL-style profile and prepare for competition. The core is familiar: mathematics worked to the upper end of Key Stage 2 with confident multi-step problem solving, reading comprehension underpinned by genuinely wide daily reading, and fluency across the standard verbal and non-verbal reasoning question families that GL-style papers use — the ones our verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning guides break down. Because reasoning question types are not taught in school, they need dedicated exposure from Year 5 at the latest. Given the competitive field, accuracy under time pressure matters more here than in a pure threshold area: every additional mark improves standing where distance is working against you. Short daily sessions through Year 5, one timed paper a week from the summer, an errors log driving what gets practised, and a deliberate taper in the final week is the pattern that works — set out in full in our revision timetable guide.

Can we apply to Bexley and Kent grammar schools?

Yes, and many south-east London and north Kent families do, but they are separate systems requiring separate action. The Bexley Selection Test and the Kent Test are administered by different authorities, have different registration windows, and are sat separately — a result in one carries no weight in the other. If you are pursuing both, you will register twice, your child will sit two tests in the same autumn, and you will need to check that the dates do not clash. The underlying academic preparation overlaps heavily since both follow a GL-style profile, so the additional burden falls mostly on the diary rather than on the child's workload. Your single Common Application Form then lists preferences across both areas in genuine preference order. Our Bexley region page and Kent guide hold the local detail for each side of the boundary.

Where GrammarPrep fits

GrammarPrep configures practice to the format a child is actually sitting, so a Bexley family works GL-style question types rather than a generic syllabus, and the adaptive engine keeps difficulty at the level where learning happens rather than where confidence is comfortable. In a rank-and-distance environment like Bexley's, the parent dashboard's readiness trend is the useful signal — it shows whether accuracy under time pressure is genuinely improving, which is what converts into competitive standing. The free 15-minute diagnostic maps a starting profile across all four subjects with no account required, and is the right first step before deciding how ambitious a Bexley shortlist should be.