Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet 11+ guide

Atom Learning is partnered with Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet. You can read more about our partnership here.

Thinking about applying to Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet? Find out everything you need to know about admissions and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus.

Key information for Queen Elizabeth's School

• Address: Queen Elizabeth's School, Queen's Road, Barnet, EN5 4DQ
• Number of pupils: 1,250+
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Number of places in Year 7: 180
• 11+ exam: GL Assessment
• Catchment area: no

Dates for your diary

• Thursday 1st May 2025: registration opens for the Queen Elizabeth's School 11+ entrance exam
• Thursday 3rd July 2025: Queen Elizabeth's School open day
• Friday 11th July 2025: registration closes for the Queen Elizabeth's School 11+ entrance exam
• Wednesday 17th – Thursday 18th September 2025: Queen Elizabeth's School 11+ entrance exam
• Wednesday 1st October 2025: provisional date for parents to be notified of entrance exam results
• Friday 31st October 2025: national deadline to apply for secondary school places
• Monday 2nd March 2026: national offers day

About Queen Elizabeth's School

Queen Elizabeth’s School is a boys' grammar school in Barnet, north London. It was founded in 1573 and recently celebrated its 450th anniversary. It's one of the highest-performing state schools in the UK and competes with top independent schools. In 2022, it was named the Sunday Times State School of the Year.

Queen Elizabeth's offers an outstanding academic programme and extensive extracurricular activities. The school is committed to developing well-rounded students of excellence. Boys are encouraged to shine in music, sports, arts and languages.

How to apply to Queen Elizabeth's School

Queen Elizabeth's School is a selective school. This means that your son will need to take the 11 plus to be eligible for a place.

Entrance test request forms for 2026 entry will be available on the school website from 1st May 2025. These must be returned by 11th July.

The entrance tests will take place on 17th and 18th September 2025. Your son will be invited to take the test at Queen Elizabeth's School on one of these two dates. You'll receive your son's outcome in early October. This will give you enough time to decide whether to apply to the school before the common application form deadline on 31st October.

Remember – passing the entrance exam doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at your preferred school. Many grammar schools are often oversubscribed with qualified children. Schools and their admissions authorities work through admissions criteria to prioritise children for places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for Queen Elizabeth's School below.

What subjects are on the Queen Elizabeth’s School 11 plus?

Boys applying for 2026 entry to Queen Elizabeth's School will take the 11 plus entrance exam on either 17th or 18th September 2025. Details of the arrangements for the tests will be confirmed approximately one week before.

The 11 plus papers are provided by GL Assessment. All of the questions are multiple-choice. Your child will have a question booklet and separate answer sheets.

There are two papers, each lasting about 50 minutes:

1. English: questions are based on the national curriculum content your son will be learning at school. This often includes a reading comprehension task.
2. Maths: questions are based on Key Stage 2 maths content taught up to the start of Year 6. The areas typically assessed include aspects of number, measurement, geometry and statistics.

How does place allocation work at Queen Elizabeth's School?

After the exam, your son’s test papers are marked and age-standardised. This is a statistical process that takes your child’s age into account to make sure younger boys aren’t disadvantaged.

The scores from the English and maths papers are then combined to produce a single overall score. Boys who achieve a combined score of 220 or higher are considered eligible for a place at the school.

There are 180 places available at Queen Elizabeth’s School. Every year, many more than 180 boys achieve a score of 220 or higher:

• 2024: 3,294 boys took the entrance test and 742 reached the minimum standard. The lowest score accepted for a place was 235.
• 2023: 3,106 boys took the entrance test and 1,111 reached the minimum standard. The lowest score accepted for a place was 232
• 2022: 3,042 boys took the entrance test and 1,096 reached the minimum standard. The lowest score accepted for a place was 234
• 2021: 2,928 boys took the entrance test and 1,047 reached the minimum standard. The lowest score accepted for a place was 232
• 2020: 2,846 boys took the entrance test and 1,013 reached the minimum standard. The lowest score accepted for a place was 229

Places are offered to the 180 highest-scoring children. If two or more children achieve the same school, they are prioritised in order of who lives closest to the school (measured in a straight line).

There is no catchment area for Queen Elizabeth’s School.

Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation

Queen Elizabeth's School is one of the most popular state schools in London, so competition for places is very high. Here are our top tips to help you and your child feel confident for exam day!

Bitesize learning

It’s important to build a good knowledge base before the 11 plus. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when learning is key – our brains encode new information more effectively when dealing with smaller ‘chunks’ of information. For children aged 10–11, child psychologists recommend regular study sessions of 20–30 minutes.

Atom Home makes learning a more enjoyable process for your child. They'll explore exciting worlds full of interactive questions, earning coins to spend in the Atom shop. Atom adapts to your child, showing them questions at just the right level of difficulty to keep them motivated.

Read widely

11 plus exams test your child’s ability to analyse and interpret written information. Regular reading is a great way to help your child build these skills.

Encourage them to read books from different genres and by a diverse range of authors. Increasing the variety of your child’s reading will help them understand different styles, tones and purposes. Meanwhile, reading a little every day will help widen their vocabulary, sharpen their analytical thinking, and enhance their imagination.

Refine exam technique

When your child feels confident with the topics they’ve learnt in Year 5, they’ll be ready to put their knowledge to the test.

Practice tests can help your child develop problem-solving skills and build confidence working under test conditions. They’re also a great way to consolidate learning and highlight knowledge gaps for further improvement.

With Atom Home, you'll unlock online mock tests and printable practice papers. Enjoy automatic marking and progress tracking with the online tests, and help your child get familiar with the real exam experience with printable practice papers.

Celebrate progress

Setting regular, achievable goals and celebrating your child’s progress – no matter how big or small – will help keep their motivation high.

Make sure to encourage a growth mindset. This means celebrating effort, as well as achievement! When your child makes mistakes or struggles to understand a particular topic, help them understand that they’ll improve through practice. Regular praise will help your child improve their resilience when tackling new and challenging topics.