Southend High School for Boys
Boys grammar school in Southend-on-Sea.
| Places in Year 7 | 180 |
| How places are allocated | Catchment, then score |
| Own entrance test | No |
| Feesstate-funded, like every grammar school | None |
What score is needed?
These are the scores of the last place actually offered — not a pass mark. Everyone offered a place scored at least this much.
| Entry year | Category | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Inside catchment | 305 |
| Outside catchment | 342 |
The consortium makes no offer anywhere below 303. Anything above that in the table is the school being oversubscribed, not a higher pass mark.
These move every year and are published months after most families have to choose. Treat them as a guide to how competitive a school is, not a target.
How hard is it to get a place?
In 2026, 308 families put Southend High School for Boys first, and 150 of them were offered a place there (49%).
That includes children who did not reach the qualifying score, so it reflects the test and the allocation together, not the allocation alone.
| Year | Places offered | Put it first | Offered a placeof those |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 164 | 247 | 13153% |
| 2025 | 178 | 259 | 14154% |
| 2026 | 177 | 308 | 15049% |
35% of the places offered in 2026 went to families living outside its local council area.
Source: Department for Education, applications and offers. Figures are for National Offer Day in March; places filled later from waiting lists are not included.
How you get a place
Mostly allocated by distance, but with a tier of places reserved for the highest scorers. A very strong score can get you in from outside the usual catchment.
- Catchment is defined by postcode - SS0 to SS9 - not by distance. It is a hard boundary.
- 150 of the 180 places go to the catchment area, leaving only 30 for everyone else.
- Publishes no pass mark. States that the standard is set annually to remain comparable to the 1990 to 1994 period.
Does it run its own test?
No. Entry is through the CSSE 11+ only.
Does it charge fees?
Southend High School for Boys is a state grammar school, so there are no fees. Selective does not mean private. Admission is decided by the CSSE 11+ and the school’s published criteria, never by what a family can pay.
Work out where a score lands
The CSSE 11+ calculator turns marks into a standardised score you can compare against the figures above.
Other schools to look at
Same region, so the same test gets you into all of them. Which of these is a realistic alternative depends far more on how each one allocates places than on its reputation.
Source
Built from published admissions documents for 2027/28: admissions arrangements. Check the school’s own site before applying — arrangements change annually and deadlines are unforgiving.