Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School: Admissions Guide & 11+ Preparation

Admissions & Oversubscription Criteria

Sir Henry Floyd uses the standard Buckinghamshire admissions criteria. As a co-educational school, boys and girls compete for places in a single pool rather than separately. The qualifying threshold of 121 is required, with oversubscription resolved by distance after looked-after children and siblings.

All Buckinghamshire grammar schools share the same entry requirement: a standardised score of 121 or above on the Secondary Transfer Test. Qualification is necessary but not sufficient — at oversubscribed schools, qualified applicants compete for places on the basis of each school's published oversubscription criteria. These are typically ordered as: looked-after children, siblings of current pupils, then distance from the school gate in ascending order. All families should read the individual school's admissions policy (available from the school and via Buckinghamshire Council's admissions portal) rather than relying on general summaries.

Catchment & Location

The school is on Bierton Road in northern Aylesbury. Its co-educational nature makes it popular with families across the Vale who prefer a mixed environment. Applications come from Aylesbury town and the broader Vale catchment, including Waddesdon, Wing, and surrounding areas.

Distance Cut-Off

Sir Henry Floyd is one of three grammar schools in Aylesbury, meaning the effective applicant pool is spread across multiple schools. This can make distance allocation slightly less acute than at schools where there is only one option for a gender — but the 121 qualifying threshold remains non-negotiable.

Distance cut-offs vary year to year based on the number of qualifying applicants and the proportion who list this school on their SCAF. In years with higher-than-average qualifying rates across Buckinghamshire, the effective catchment distance at popular schools can compress. Families should use any published historical cut-off figures as a guide only — the actual distance for any given year is determined at the point of offer in March.

What Makes Sir Henry Floyd Distinctive

Sir Henry Floyd is the only co-educational grammar school in central Aylesbury, making it the natural option for families who prefer a mixed school environment. It occupies a distinct campus on Bierton Road, separate from the Walton Road schools.

The Admissions Process for Sir Henry Floyd

There is no separate entrance examination for Sir Henry Floyd — entry is based entirely on the Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test result. The process for families applying to this school follows the standard Buckinghamshire grammar school admissions timeline:

Preparation Advice for Sir Henry Floyd Applicants

Children in Aylesbury applying to Sir Henry Floyd may also list Aylesbury Grammar (boys) or Aylesbury High (girls) on their application. Preparation using the same GL Assessment materials applies equally to all three schools.

Because Sir Henry Floyd is typically oversubscribed, qualifying at the threshold is not sufficient to guarantee a place for families who do not live close to the school. For families in the likely catchment area, qualifying comfortably above 121 reduces the risk of a borderline result that could be questioned in a difficult year. For families outside the typical catchment, qualifying is a prerequisite but the admissions outcome depends on distance — not on how far above 121 a child scores.

What the Four Test Domains Look Like

Regardless of which grammar school a family targets, all applicants must qualify via the same Secondary Transfer Test. The four domains are: Verbal Reasoning (word codes, analogies, compound words, sequences), Non-Verbal Reasoning and Spatial Reasoning (matrices, reflections, rotations, nets, cube views), Mathematical Reasoning (number, fractions, percentages, ratio, algebra, shape, data), and English Comprehension (retrieval, inference, vocabulary in context, author technique). All answers are multiple-choice. The test is delivered with audio timing — a recorded voice announces each section and controls the pace throughout.

Practice with a GL Assessment-style readiness check early in Year 5 identifies which domains need the most work before the September Year 6 test. Domain-specific practice, timed papers, and realistic mock conditions in the summer holidays are the core of effective preparation.