What are admissions criteria, and how do tie-breakers work?

Who sets them

Each school's Board of Governors. SEAG says each one also decides how it uses SEAG results. That's why two schools can treat the same score differently.

How grammar schools usually use the result

Schools use the result in different ways. Take two made-up schools. School A lines every applicant up by TSAS, highest first, and offers places down the list until it's full: if its last place went to 205, a child on 204 misses out. School B takes everyone in Band 1 first, then Band 2, and so on. Inside a band it uses its other rules, such as a brother or sister at the school or being the eldest child, with a random draw at the very end, so at School B a child on 230 and a child on 208, both in Band 1, are treated the same. Each school's own criteria say which way it works: you'll find them on the Education Authority's Search Admissions Criteria page. The rules for 2027 are published on the Education Authority's website on Wednesday 9 December 2026.

Where to find a school's criteria

On the school's own website and through the Education Authority. Read them before you list the school. Schools use the information on your transfer application when they apply their criteria, so anything a criterion asks for has to be there.

Special circumstances

Schools may consider medical or other problems that may have affected your child in the test, backed by independent documentary evidence. Each school's criteria say what it needs.