Bexley, Greater London · Bexley
Beths Grammar School
Score above the borough's annual 'top 180' cutoff and a family gets to choose which of Bexley's four grammar schools to attend — an allocation mechanism this project hasn't seen documented anywhere else.
One of four grammar schools sharing the borough-run 'Bexley Selection Test,' alongside Bexley Grammar School, Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, and Townley Grammar School. Beths is its own admissions authority as a single-academy trust, but Bexley Council administers the shared test and — critically — decides the annual 'top 180' cutoff score itself, not the school. Its own admissions policy states that boys who score above that cutoff (253 for the most recent cycle) get to choose which Bexley grammar school they attend, a borough-wide allocation layer sitting above each individual school's own criteria. Of the school's 192 places, 180 go by pure score rank with no distance factor at all — only the remaining handful use proximity, making this a genuinely superselective school in practice despite the hybrid structure.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- London
- Local authority
- Bexley
- Established
- 1976
- DfE URN
- 136334
- Website
- https://beths.bexley.sch.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Sources conflict directly: Bexley Council's own test-information page names the provider as Quest Assessments, while the school's own admissions policy document states age-standardisation is performed by 'the test provider, CEM/GL' — likely outdated boilerplate in the school's document given CEM wound down its national 11+ assessment business some years ago, but not resolved from primary sources.sources conflict
Bexley Council's own page names Quest Assessments; the school's own admissions policy names CEM/GL. Likely outdated text in the school's document, but not resolved — recommend verifying directly with Bexley Council before publishing a single answer.
- Test format
- The shared 'Bexley Selection Test,' used by all four Bexley grammar schools: two multiple-choice papers sat in one session (around 2.5-3 hours including a break, roughly 50 minutes per paper), covering verbal ability/comprehension, numerical ability, and non-verbal ability, weighted 50% verbal, 25% numerical, 25% non-verbal, producing a total age-standardised score. Sat in September of Year 6, results issued within about four weeks.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- No single fixed pass mark — recalculated annually by Bexley Council. For September 2026 entry (test sat September 2025), the 'top 180' automatic-priority cutoff was 253 — the score above which a family may choose which Bexley grammar school to attend. The school's own policy separately mentions 212 as a historic floor for last-resort reserve-list offers, describing it explicitly as 'an arbitrary figure,' not a guarantee. Neither figure is the base 'deemed selective' eligibility threshold, which wasn't found published for a specific recent year.partly verified
253 is specific to the September 2026 entry cycle and will change annually — shouldn't be presented as a stable figure. 212 is explicitly described by the school itself as an arbitrary historic floor, not a target to aim for.
- Superselective?
- Yes
The school's own oversubscription criteria rank all deemed-selective applicants by test score and award the top 180 of 192 places (over 93%) automatic 'top scorer' priority ranked above distance and siblings — the overwhelming majority of the intake is admitted by pure score rank with no distance factor at all, the functional hallmark of a superselective school. This isn't identical to a 'pure' superselective that ranks its entire qualified pool with no cap: only the remaining roughly 12 places use distance-based allocation, and distance also breaks ties to 0.001-mile precision.
Catchment & priority criteria
None. Proximity is used only as a distance-ranked allocation method for the small number of non-'top-180' places, and as a tiebreaker, measured as straight-line distance from home to the school's east entrance.
- Children who are or have been in Local Authority Care
- 'Top scorer' status: boys who achieve one of the highest 180 scores in the Bexley Selection Test (cutoff set annually by Bexley Council, not the school)
- A sibling currently attending the school
- A child of a staff member employed on a permanent contract
- Up to 12 places for boys eligible for Pupil Premium/Free School Meals who are deemed selective, ranked by distance
- Proximity — shortest straight-line distance from home to school
- Tie-break where distance is identical to within 0.001 mile: higher test score wins
- A fallback route exists for boys not deemed selective in the Bexley test but who are deemed selective in the neighbouring Kent (Dartford) 11+ test, allocated using the same sub-order as above
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 72 (Bexley LA average 50.4, England average 45.9) | 96.3% (Bexley LA average 55.0%, England average 45.9%) | +0.53 ('Well above average', confidence interval +0.33 to +0.73) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap. The prior cohort (2022/23) scored +0.63, also well above average, a consistent strong-progress trend. | — | — |
| A-level (349 students): average point score 35.37 (grade B-). EBacc entry 47.1%. | |||||
| 2025 | 71.6 (Bexley LA average 50.6, England average 46.1) | 97.9% (Bexley LA average 53.8%, England average 45.4%) | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (357 students): average point score 36.47 (grade B-), 14.6% achieved AAB+ with 2 facilitating subjects (Bexley LA average 16.5%, England 17.5%). EBacc entry 55.0%. GCSE grade 4+ in English and Maths: 100.0%. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good overall (this was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since, so this remains the current rating). Behaviour and attitudes was Outstanding; quality of education, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision were all Good.
- Date
- 4-5 May 2022
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/136334
- 2. School's own Admissions Policy, Year 7 and 12, September 2026/27 — https://beths.bexley.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Admissions-Policy-for-Year-7-12-September-2026-27.pdf
- 3. School's own Year 7 Admissions FAQ page — https://beths.bexley.sch.uk/year-7-admissions/
- 4. London Borough of Bexley — About the Bexley Selection Test — https://www.bexley.gov.uk/services/schools-and-education/selection-tests/about-test
- 5. Ofsted report, inspected 4-5 May 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50188938
- 6. DfE Find School Performance Data — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk/school/136334/beths-grammar-school/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
- 7. DfE Find School Performance Data — A-level qualifications — https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk/school/136334/beths-grammar-school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.