Apply to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar, Alford, in plain English.
QEGS Alford is a co-educational selective academy in Alford, Lincolnshire, and shares the Lincolnshire Consortium 11+. Your child qualifies by reaching a fixed standardised-score standard of 220 across the verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers — a pass mark, not a ranking. Unlike most Lincolnshire grammars it has a designated catchment area (its "free transport area"), and children living in it take priority, so register for the test by 31 March 2026.
The three things to know first.
If you read nothing else on this page, read these. They're the bits that catch parents out.
The 11+ is a pass mark of 220, not a ranking. Reaching it makes your child eligible — the catchment then decides priority.
The Lincolnshire Consortium 11+ is two papers — verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. The standardised scores are added together, and a child needs an aggregate of 220 (intended to identify the top 25% of children by ability) to reach the qualifying standard. Once a child has reached 220 they are fully qualified for QEGS. If too many qualified children apply, it is the oversubscription criteria — chiefly whether you live in the catchment area — that decide. The 11+ score is used only to rank within a criterion that is oversubscribed.
QEGS has a designated catchment — its "free transport area" — and living in it gives strong priority.
Unlike the other Lincolnshire grammars, QEGS Alford has a designated free transport area (its traditional catchment), covering Alford, Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Huttoft, Withern and the surrounding villages. Qualified children living inside it are placed above children outside it. Next come children outside the area who attend one of the catchment feeder primaries. Any qualified child can apply, but historically all in-catchment and feeder-primary children who qualified have been offered places.
Registering for the test and applying for the place are two separate jobs — with two separate deadlines.
Register your child for the 11+ by 31 March 2026 (when they are in Year 5) — sitting the test is not an application. You then have to name QEGS on your home council's secondary application form by 31 October 2026. Miss the test registration and they cannot sit; miss the application and they cannot be offered a place, even if they passed.
Five steps — register in spring, sit the test in autumn, apply by 31 October.
Registration for the test closes in March, six months before the papers are sat. Put the registration date in your calendar now — it is the easiest one to miss.
If too many children qualify, these nine criteria decide — in order.
Children with an EHCP naming QEGS are admitted before these criteria apply. All other qualifying children are placed in the highest criterion that applies to them; within an oversubscribed criterion they are ranked by 11+ score. Tap any criterion to read the detail.
In plain English: Children who are currently in council care, or who were previously in care and left it through adoption, a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order (including those adopted from state care outside England), get the highest priority — provided they have reached the qualifying standard. Where they live does not matter.
What the document says: Pupils who have reached the required score and who are or have previously been in public care.
In plain English: A qualified child who lives in the designated free transport area and has a brother or sister at QEGS who will still be there when they start comes top of the catchment criteria. Full siblings, half-siblings and other children living in the same household count.
What the document says: Pupils living within the designated free transport area (our traditional catchment area) who have a sibling at the school at the time of application and who have reached the required score.
In plain English: Next come qualified children living in the designated area who are eligible for the pupil premium (free-school-meals related funding). It is a deliberate boost for disadvantaged children within the catchment, placing them above other in-area applicants.
What the document says: Pupils living in the designated free transport area who have reached the qualifying standard for entry and who are eligible for pupil premium.
In plain English: All remaining qualified children living in the designated free transport area. This is usually the criterion in which places run out. If it is oversubscribed, children are ranked by their 11+ aggregate score (highest first); straight-line distance to the school is only the tie-break, then a random allocation.
What the document says: Pupils living within the designated free transport area (our traditional catchment area) who have reached the required score.
In plain English: Children who live outside the catchment but attend one of its feeder primaries — Alford, Huttoft, Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Theddlethorpe, Willoughby and Withern — and have a sibling at QEGS. The child must be at the feeder primary by 14 December to count as within catchment on offer day.
What the document says: Pupils who do not live within our designated free transport area, but attend the primary schools within it, who have siblings at the school at the time of application and who reach the required score.
In plain English: Qualified children who live outside the designated area but attend one of the named catchment feeder primaries, without a sibling link. Ranked by 11+ score if oversubscribed.
What the document says: Pupils who do not live within our designated free transport area but attend the primary schools within it (Alford, Huttoft, Mablethorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Theddlethorpe, Willoughby and Withern) and who reach the required score.
In plain English: Qualified children who do not live in the catchment and do not attend a feeder primary, but who have a sibling at QEGS at the time of application.
What the document says: Pupils not living in the designated free transport area or attending a primary school in this area who have a sibling at the school at the time of application and who have reached the required score.
In plain English: Qualified children living outside the area who are eligible for the pupil premium or, for armed-forces families, the service premium. This lifts disadvantaged and forces children above other out-of-area applicants.
What the document says: Pupils not living in the designated free area who have reached the qualifying standard for entry and who are eligible for pupil premium or the service premium.
In plain English: Any places still left go to all other qualified children who live outside the area and do not attend a feeder primary. Here the 11+ aggregate score does the ranking — highest scores first — with straight-line distance, then a lottery, breaking ties.
What the document says: Pupils not living in the designated free transport area or attending a primary school in this area who reach the required score.
A designated "free transport area" — living inside it puts you ahead.
QEGS Alford's catchment is its designated free transport area — the school's traditional catchment, covering Alford, Mablethorpe, Trusthorpe, Sutton-on-Sea, Huttoft, Withern, Strubby, Maltby le Marsh and the surrounding villages out to Ulceby Cross and Burwell. Once your child reaches the qualifying standard of 220, a child living inside the area is placed above a child outside it. After in-area children come those who attend one of the catchment feeder primaries, and only then everyone else. A test score above 220 makes no difference unless a criterion is oversubscribed — and then it ranks children within that one criterion.
The boundary on our map is an approximate traceApproximate traceQEGS publishes its designated area only as a road-atlas map, with no parish or postcode list. The boundary on our map is a georeferenced trace of that map (accurate to roughly half a mile), so treat it as a close guide rather than an exact legal edge — check your address against the school's own map if you are near the boundary. of the school's published transport-area map, so treat it as a close guide near the edge.
See the catchment area on the GrammarBound mapTwo qualified children, no sibling link — the one inside the catchment ranks higher.
Both children have reached the qualifying standard of 220 and neither has a sibling at the school. Child A lives inside the designated catchment area, so ranks above Child B, who lives outside it — even if Child B scored higher in the 11+. Score only separates children within the same criterion.
You have two routes, and you can use both.
Reserve list
If your child met the qualifying standard but was offered a lower-preference school, they are placed on QEGS's reserve list automatically (unless you were offered a higher preference). The list is held in oversubscription-criteria order — not by how long you have waited — so a higher-priority later applicant can move above them. The list is the LA's property until the end of August, then is kept by the school until 31 December of the admitting year.
Appeal
You can appeal if a place is refused, provided you named QEGS on your application form. Appeal forms come from the Headteacher's PA after places are allocated in March and should be returned by the end of that month to be heard "on time". An independent panel hears the appeal and its decision is binding. Appealing does not affect your position on the reserve list.
Joining Year 12 — around 20 external places.
QEGS's sixth form admits students from other schools alongside its own Year 11. The grade floor is at least grade 5 in GCSE Maths and English, with at least four further GCSEs at grade 6 or above.
Grade 5 in Maths and English, four more GCSEs at grade 6+, and grade 7 in each A-level subject.
The general requirement is at least grade 5 in GCSE Mathematics and English, together with at least four further GCSEs at grade 6 or above. On top of that, for each A level your child wants to study they should usually have grade 7 or above in that subject at GCSE. The same requirements apply to QEGS's own Year 11 and to external applicants.
Apply direct to the school — internal students continue automatically.
The published admission number for external Year 12 entry is 20, over and above students continuing from QEGS's own Year 11. If more qualified external students apply than there are places, they are ranked by GCSE points score, with straight-line distance breaking ties. Contact the school for a sixth-form application form.
See queenelizabeths.co.uk for the sixth form prospectus and subject entry requirements.