Schools in Sutton
67 open schools · Ofsted ratings, catchment areas and admission criteria · best primary schools · best secondary schools
Sutton has 63 state schools: 41 primary, 15 secondary, 2 nursery. Between them they teach around 39,290 pupils. 46 have enough published data for a score, averaging 6.9 out of 10, and 15 score 8 or above.
19 have a sixth form. 33 take children from age three or under. 12 have a religious character, which usually means the school sets its own admissions criteria rather than the council's. 5 are selective and set an entrance test. How the score works.
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Sutton covers several towns — jump straight to the schools in yours.
Undersubscribed schools rated Good or Outstanding
These schools didn't fill on first preference in the latest admissions year, despite an Ofsted rating of Good or Outstanding — worth a look if you're chasing the same handful of famous names everyone else applies to.
How places are allocated in Sutton
Primary schools: No catchment-area criterion found in council admissions summaries; places allocated on distance among other factors. Moderate confidence. (source)
Most schools use the local authority's default scheme rather than a school-specific catchment map — see each school's page for its own designated/catchment area where one is published.
Sutton entrance test format
Sutton uses a TWO-STAGE selection system: Stage 1 — the Selective Eligibility Test (SET), shared by all five Sutton grammar schools: two papers of roughly 40-50 minutes (English and maths), content broadly based on the Key Stage 2 national curriculum. The SET does NOT test verbal or non-verbal reasoning. Sat in mid-September of Year 6; one sitting covers every participating school. Stage 2 — children who pass the SET are invited to a second-stage entrance exam at each school they're interested in, a few weeks later (the schools group their second-stage dates: historically Nonsuch and Wallington Girls on one Saturday; Wilson's, Wallington County and Sutton Grammar on another). Second-stage papers are NOT multiple-choice — written answers, still based on Key Stage 2 content but more demanding. Final selection uses the second-stage performance plus each school's own oversubscription criteria.
Key dates
| Entry year | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 2028 | Application deadline | 2027-10-31 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary application deadline | 2028-01-15 |
| Sept 2028 | Offer day | 2028-03-01 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary offer day | 2028-04-17 |
| Sept 2027 | Registration opens | 2026-05-01 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Registration closes | 2026-07-31 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Test date | 2026-09-15 |
| Sept 2027 | Application deadline | 2026-10-31 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary application deadline | 2027-01-15 |
| Sept 2027 | Offer day | 2027-03-01 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary offer day | 2027-04-16 |
| Sept 2026 | Registration opens | 2025-05-01 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Registration closes | 2025-08-01 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Test date | 2025-09-16 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Test date stage2 girls | 2025-09-27 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Test date stage2 boys | 2025-10-04 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Results released | 2025-10-20 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Application deadline | 2025-10-31 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary application deadline | 2026-01-15 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Offer day | 2026-03-01 (passed) |
Out-of-area applications
Sutton's five grammar schools (Nonsuch High School for Girls, Sutton Grammar School, Wallington County Grammar School, Wallington High School for Girls, Wilson's School) all use the Selective Eligibility Test (SET) as a shared first stage — one online registration and one sitting covers all of them, regardless of where you live. (Greenshaw High School's selective band also uses the SET, though it is a partially selective comprehensive rather than a grammar school.) Children sit the SET in mid-September of Year 6; those who pass are invited to a school-specific second-stage exam a few weeks later. Some of the schools apply distance or catchment criteria in their oversubscription rules, so check each school's policy — but sitting the test itself is open to all. Apply for places via your home LA's Common Application Form by 31 October; results arrive in mid-October, in time to inform your choices.
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