Every year, thousands of families sit the 11-plus brilliantly and then almost lose the place they earned because they misunderstand one document: the Common Application Form, or CAF. Sitting the 11-plus and applying for a secondary school are two entirely separate steps, run by two different bodies, with two different deadlines. The 11-plus tells a grammar school your child is academically suitable; the CAF is how you actually request a place. Miss it, muddle the order of your preferences, or assume a good score does the applying for you, and a strong result can still end in a disappointing offer. This guide explains exactly what the CAF is, how to rank your choices, and the avoidable mistakes that cost families places every March.
What the CAF actually is (and is not)
The Common Application Form is the single form your home Local Authority (your local council, wherever you live) uses to collect your ranked list of preferred secondary schools. In some areas it is called the SCAF (Secondary Common Application Form). You submit one CAF to the council where you live, even if the schools you list sit in other authorities. The council then coordinates offers with every school and issues a single result on National Offer Day.
Crucially, the CAF is not the 11-plus registration form. For a grammar school you complete two separate things:
- The school or consortium's own 11-plus registration form — this books your child a seat in the test. It typically closes in the summer before the exam (often late June to mid-July), and there is no late entry and no appeal for a missed registration deadline.
- The Local Authority CAF — this is your actual application for a secondary place, and it lists grammar and non-selective schools together. The national deadline is 31 October in Year 6.
Register for the test but forget the CAF, and your qualifying score buys you nothing. Complete the CAF but forget to register, and your child never sits the exam. Both steps, every time.
The admissions timeline for one cycle
The dates below are typical for a GL-region grammar cycle. Always confirm the exact days on your own council and school websites, because they shift slightly each year.
| When (Year 5/6) | What happens | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| April–July (Yr 5) | Register on the school/consortium 11-plus form | Hard closing date; no late entry |
| First two weeks of September (Yr 6) | Sit the 11-plus test | Clashing dates across regions |
| Mid-October (Yr 6) | Results letter released | Tells you qualified/not — not a place |
| 31 October (Yr 6) | CAF deadline | The single most important date here |
| 1 March | National Offer Day | Your one place is confirmed |
| Within 20 school days of a refusal | Appeal window opens | Grammar academic appeals are hard |
Notice the order: results arrive in mid-October, just before the CAF closes on 31 October. That timing is deliberate — you find out whether your child qualified, then rank your schools accordingly. Use our 11-plus dates page to pin your region's exact days.
Qualified is not the same as offered
This is the single biggest parental misunderstanding, so it deserves its own callout. Passing the 11-plus makes your child eligible; it does not reserve a seat. A place is only confirmed on National Offer Day, and it is allocated using the school's published admissions criteria applied to your ranked preferences on the CAF. A child can qualify comfortably and still be offered a lower choice — or a non-selective school — if higher-ranked selective schools filled up with even higher scorers or nearer-living applicants. The CAF, not the test result, is what turns "qualified" into "offered".
How scores work: the Standard Age Score
Raw marks are converted to a Standard Age Score (SAS) using a lookup table, so results are comparable regardless of a child's exact age. The SAS is age-standardised: a summer-born, younger child is given a small uplift so they are not penalised for being months behind an older classmate. There is no fixed national pass mark — qualifying scores are set by each school or region and recalculated each year from that cohort's distribution, the number of places, and catchment weighting.
| SAS band | What it broadly means |
|---|---|
| 69–99 | Below the national average of 100 |
| 100 | Exactly the national average |
| ~111 | A common qualifying threshold for many grammars |
| 121+ | Competitive for super-selective schools |
| up to 141 | Top of the standardised range |
Worked example: Child A (age 10y 1m) and Child B (age 11y 0m) both score 55/60 raw. Because A is younger, the age adjustment lifts her further: A's SAS might land at 122 while B's is 118 on the same raw mark. Same paper, same score, different standardised result — that is age standardisation in action. Try our free GL practice papers and timed mocks to turn "what score do I need?" into a real benchmark.
Ranking your choices on the CAF
Most authorities use an equal preference system: every school you list considers your child as if that school were your only application, using its own criteria. The ranking only matters if your child qualifies for more than one — then you are offered the highest-ranked school you qualify for. This has two practical consequences:
- Ranking a school lower does not protect a lower choice. Schools cannot see where they sit on your list, so listing an aspirational school first never harms your chances at a safer one.
- Order = your genuine preference. Put the school you most want first, then work down. If you qualify for choices 1 and 3, you get choice 1.
Build your list in three tiers — an aspirational choice (a super-selective or highly competitive grammar), a realistic choice (a catchment grammar or strong comprehensive where your predicted score is comfortably in range), and a safety choice (a good non-selective school you would be genuinely happy with and are very likely to be offered). Use every preference slot your council allows — leaving slots blank is the most common way families end up with no offer at all and fall to a distant allocated school.
Catchment schools vs super-selectives
Not all grammars rank applicants the same way, and this changes how you should order your CAF.
| Type | How it ranks | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Catchment / designated area | Qualifiers ranked mainly by distance or priority area | Many county grammars in Kent, Bucks, Lincolnshire |
| Super-selective | Purely highest scores, regardless of address | QE Boys Barnet, Tiffin, Henrietta Barnett |
For a catchment school, where you live is decisive; for a super-selective, only the score matters, so the bar sits much higher (often 121+). Some catchment grammars also reserve a block of open places for out-of-area high scorers, so it can be worth listing one even from outside the priority area. Priority is usually measured by continuous residence and straight-line distance, with feeder-school or sibling criteria as tie-breakers on oversubscription.
Grammar vs independent — and the ISEB Pre-Test
State grammars are free and admit on the 11-plus. Independent schools charge fees, run their own admissions, and many use the ISEB Common Pre-Test — an online, adaptive assessment, sat once and shared across several schools, registered separately via the schools' portals with their own deadlines. Independents also offer scholarships and means-tested bursaries. If you are weighing both routes, our comparison of grammar versus independent schools goes deeper.
On exam boards: GL Assessment now provides the majority of grammar tests; CSSE runs the Essex exam; some consortia use bespoke papers. Importantly, CEM discontinued its paper 11-plus around 2022–2023, and former CEM regions have migrated to GL or bespoke tests — so do not prepare for an obsolete CEM format. Match your region to its live provider before you buy or download anything; our free CSSE papers and subject worksheets cover English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning.
After offer day: waiting lists and appeals
On 1 March you accept, decline, or hold your offer, and you can usually join the waiting list for higher-ranked schools — declining an offer to chase a waiting list is risky, so take advice first. If your child is refused, you have a legal right of appeal: lodge it within 20 school days, and an independent panel hears it under the School Admissions Appeals Code, normally notifying you around five school days after. Strengthen an appeal with school reports, teacher references, predicted SATs, mock results, and any medical or personal circumstances that affected exam day. Be realistic, though — grammar academic appeals are difficult, harder than standard oversubscription cases. Our guide to the 11-plus appeals process walks through both scenarios in detail.
Relocating for a grammar — proceed carefully
If you move to be in catchment, councils apply strict continuous-residence rules and set an address-evidence deadline (often tied to the CAF). Keep council tax bills, tenancy agreements and utility statements. Using a relative's address, a temporary rental you do not truly live in, or moving after being offered can see the place investigated and withdrawn — councils do check. Honesty here protects the offer.
Frequently asked questions
What score do I need to pass the 11-plus?
There is no single answer. A qualifying SAS commonly sits around 111 for catchment grammars and 121+ for super-selectives, but it is recalculated each year from the cohort, places available and catchment weighting. Practise with free timed mocks to see where your child sits.
What happens if we miss the CAF or registration deadline?
For the school's 11-plus registration there is normally no late entry and no appeal — the seat is simply gone. If you miss the 31 October CAF, your application is treated as late and processed only after on-time applications, so you are far more likely to be left with a distant allocated school.
Does passing the 11-plus guarantee a place?
No. Qualifying makes your child eligible; the place is confirmed only on National Offer Day, based on the school's criteria applied to your ranked CAF preferences. Always list a realistic and a safety choice alongside any aspirational one.