St Thomas More High School for Boys
Boys school with a selective quota in Westcliff-on-Sea.
| Places in Year 7 | 180 |
| How places are allocated | Small quota |
| 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 | 303 |
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, 202 families put St Thomas More High School for Boys first, and 143 of them were offered a place there (71%).
These figures cover every Year 7 place at the school, not only the small quota admitted on the 11+, so they say little about the selective places on their own.
| Year | Places offered | Put it first | Offered a placeof those |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 172 | 182 | 14177% |
| 2025 | 184 | 184 | 13774% |
| 2026 | 179 | 202 | 14371% |
25% 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
This is not a grammar school. It is a comprehensive or faith school with a small number of places set aside for children who pass the 11+, with the rest admitted on ordinary criteria. The selective quota is only a fraction of the intake.
- A Catholic school with a selective quota, not a grammar school. Up to 30 of its 180 places go to boys passing the CSSE test.
- CSSE states selective places are only offered to residents within the catchment area, with an accepted minimum score of 303.
- Requires a Supplementary Information Form direct to the school, on top of CSSE registration and the local authority application. Three separate forms.
Does it run its own test?
No. Entry is through the CSSE 11+ only.
Does it charge fees?
St Thomas More High School for Boys is a state school. There are no fees for a Year 7 place. 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.