Bucks runs a county-wide test in mid-September of Year 6, with a strict 121 qualifying threshold across all thirteen grammar schools.
Year 5 spring
Bucks registration opens in late spring through TBSP (The Bucks STT website). Confirm the registration window dates with your child's primary school or the Bucks Council admissions team.
Begin GL-format topic work. Bucks STT is GL Assessment-based, so GL practice papers and workbooks are the right preparation.
Year 5 summer
Submit registration in June (deadline typically early July). Begin baseline papers at half-term and identify priority topics for the summer push.
Bucks publishes a 121 county-wide threshold with no school-by-school flexibility. Plan preparation toward consistent practice scores comfortably above 121 (125+) to allow for exam-day variance.
Summer holidays
Substantive practice window. Full timed papers fortnightly in GL format. Six to eight mocks across the holiday is the working target.
Bucks STT covers Maths, English and integrated reasoning. Do not over-rotate on any single subject; the threshold is the combined output.
Mid-September — test
The Bucks STT typically falls in the third week of September, on a Saturday morning. Venue is the child's primary school in most cases.
Wind down the fortnight before. The test is one morning; preparation now should focus on rest, routine and confidence.
Mid-October — results
Results are released in mid-October. The score is reported as a single combined figure with the 121 threshold marked. Above 121 qualifies for grammar consideration; below does not.
A score one mark below the threshold is the most painful of all results. The appeals route is open but the bar is high.
31 October — preference deadline
Submit secondary preferences to Bucks Council. Bucks runs an unusually flexible system whereby qualifying children can be considered at any of the thirteen grammars based on preference order and oversubscription criteria.
Allocation is on national offer day, 1 March. Wait-list movement through spring is meaningful in Bucks given the county-wide test; movement between grammars is common.