11 Plus Maths Tuition Southend | CSSE Maths Paper, Online

In short

Southend-on-Sea City Council says four grammar schools, Southend High School for Boys, Southend High School for Girls, Westcliff High School for Boys and Westcliff High School for Girls, admit only through the 11+, while Shoeburyness High School, St Bernard's High School and St Thomas More High School take part of their intake that way. All use the CSSE test: an English paper of sixty minutes plus ten minutes' reading, and a Mathematics paper of sixty minutes, each worth half the marks and based on Key Stage 2, with no calculators. The CSSE makes no offer to a child with a total standardised score under 303. For September 2027 entry the test was on Saturday 19 September 2026; the CSSE will publish 2028-entry dates by Easter 2027. We teach the maths, live online. Lesson one is on us; after it, lessons run at USD 100 a month in a group or USD 150 a month individually.

Starting in Southend

Three courses for a full maths paper

An hour of maths rewards breadth. Pick by which strands your child has not yet met properly.

SOUTHEND / A

Whole-curriculum 11 plus maths

Every Key Stage 2 strand to Year 5, from place value and Roman numerals to measures and data.

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SOUTHEND / B

Arithmetic without a calculator

An hour without a calculator is a stamina test for mental and written methods alike.

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Elementary Maths for Grades 1-5 course thumbnail

SOUTHEND / C

Primary foundations

For children in Year 4 who need earlier strands secured before Year 5 work.

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The CSSE test

What the consortium and the council publish

The CSSE runs the examination for ten schools in Southend and Essex; Southend-on-Sea City Council explains which Southend schools use it. Read on 26 September 2026.

The CSSE 11+ for September 2027 entry, from the CSSE Information Guide and website
Step	Date	As published
Registration opened	Tuesday 12 May 2026	Online with the CSSE, not with each school.
Registration closed	Friday 19 June 2026	The CSSE's absolute deadline.
Tests	Saturday 19 September 2026	English and Mathematics, at the nominated test centre.
Reserve day	Tuesday 29 September 2026	For religious, illness or exceptional circumstances only.
Results	Monday 12 October 2026	Emailed after the close of business.

The CSSE describes its test in two sentences on its home page: "The candidates sit two tests. One in English and one in Mathematics." The English paper lasts sixty minutes with ten minutes of additional reading time; "The Mathematics paper will last sixty minutes." Its guide adds that the papers are standardised and weighted, "each being worth 50% of the marks", and that they are "based on Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum".

The consortium was formed in 1993 so that children applying to more than one selective school sit one test rather than several. Calculators "of any description" are not permitted. Free English and maths familiarisation papers are downloadable from the CSSE website.

Southend-on-Sea City Council's booklet explains the local picture: the four grammar schools "only admit pupils through the selection test", while three other schools admit a proportion of their intake through it, in addition to their main criteria.

The CSSE says offers are not made to any child with a total standardised score under 303, and that its office "deals only with examination administration". For 2028 entry, it says registration opens next year and dates will be published by Easter 2027. Admissions after the test are for the schools and the council.

Sources: CSSE, home page and CSSE 11+ Examination page, with the 11+ Information Guide, Selective Test 2027 Entry; Southend-on-Sea City Council, secondary schools admissions booklet 2026-27 (the most recent we could read). Modern Age Coders has no connection with the CSSE, the council or any Southend school.

Half the marks

A maths paper with room for everything

In many 11 plus tests, maths is a section squeezed between others. In the CSSE test it is a paper of its own, and that changes what preparation should look like.

Why length matters

A short maths section has to be selective about topics. A sixty-minute paper does not. It can visit place value, all four operations, fractions, decimals and percentages, measures, geometry and statistics, and still have time for the smaller statements in the curriculum that rarely get a lesson of their own.

So the risk in Southend is not unfamiliar content. It is a gap: one strand a child has never really learned because it only got a week in class. On an hour-long paper, gaps are found.

Why weight matters

With each paper worth half the marks, a strong English score cannot carry a weak maths one as easily as it might where maths is a quarter. We say that not to predict anything, since the CSSE sets its cut-offs from each year's results, but to explain why maths deserves an equal share of preparation time.

An hour without a calculator is also a matter of stamina. Children who are accurate for twenty minutes and careless for the last forty lose marks that have nothing to do with knowledge.

Our answer is a checklist of every Year 5 statement in the national curriculum, ticked off only when a child can answer a fresh question on it correctly without help. The next section shows one of the statements families are most surprised to find on it.

The lesson

Roman numerals and numbers to a million

The Year 5 curriculum asks pupils to "read Roman numerals to 1,000 (M) and recognise years written in Roman numerals", right next to reading and comparing numbers to a million. Both are about place value.

Year 5 place value and Roman numerals, with questions of our own
Skill	Our question	Answer and reasoning
Read a year	The CSSE was formed in 1993. Write 1993 in Roman numerals.	MCMXCIII: M (1,000) + CM (900) + XC (90) + III (3)
Recognise a year	What year is MMXXVII?	2027: MM (2,000) + XX (20) + VII (7)
Compare	Which is larger: CDXLIV or CCCXCIX?	CDXLIV, which is 444; CCCXCIX is 399
Order	Put 405,090, 450,009 and 409,500 in order, smallest first.	405,090, then 409,500, then 450,009
Round	Round 748,500 to the nearest 100,000.	700,000: the ten-thousands digit is 4

Roman numerals look like a history lesson, but the reason they are in Year 5 maths is place value. Our system uses position: the 9 in 1993 is worth 900 because of where it sits. Roman numerals use subtraction instead: C before M means a hundred less than a thousand. Working out why CM is 900 and MC is 1,100 makes children think hard about what each symbol is worth.

The common errors are predictable. Children read IX as 11, or write 1993 as MDCCCCLXXXXIII by adding everything. On a multiple-choice or written paper, both lose the mark.

Numbers to a million go wrong in a different way. 405,090 and 450,009 have the same digits in a different order, and children who compare from the right, or who miss a zero, rank them wrongly. We teach comparing from the left, place by place, which works for any size of number.

Rounding uses the same habit: look one place to the right of the place you are rounding to. For 748,500 to the nearest 100,000, the digit that decides is the 4 in the ten-thousands place, so it rounds down.

Sources: national curriculum in England, mathematics, Year 5 number and place value (statutory requirements); CSSE Information Guide for the 1993 founding date. The questions are Modern Age Coders' own.

How we prepare

An hour of maths, practised properly

Three things matter for a sixty-minute, calculator-free paper worth half the score.

Coverage

Every Year 5 statement, taught and checked. Small ones like Roman numerals, thousandths and converting units of time get the same attention as long multiplication.

Stamina

Timed practice grows from twenty minutes to a full hour over the summer, so accuracy in the last quarter matches accuracy in the first.

Method

Without a calculator, written methods have to be quick and reliable, and mental arithmetic has to cover everything else.

The CSSE publishes free familiarisation papers and sells practice packs. Use the free papers to see the format. We do not reproduce CSSE material; our questions are our own, written to Key Stage 2.

The CSSE guide also notes that practice tests sold by booksellers are "based at a similar level but are not of the same format as the 11+ papers". We treat all practice papers as practice, not as a forecast.

The English paper is the other half of the total. We do not teach English for the test and say so before any family books with us.

We give no advice on the choice between the four grammar schools and the three partially selective ones, priority areas or places. The council and the schools publish those rules.

Southend's schools

Seven schools use the test; lessons come to you

The council names the Southend schools that admit through the CSSE test. We list them only to show which test this page covers.

Southend schools that use the CSSE test, as Southend-on-Sea City Council describes them
School	Places through the test
Southend High School for Boys	All
Southend High School for Girls	All
Westcliff High School for Boys	All
Westcliff High School for Girls	All
Shoeburyness High School	A proportion
St Bernard's High School	A proportion
St Thomas More High School	A proportion

The other three CSSE schools are in Colchester and Chelmsford; see our Essex 11 plus page for those. The test is the same.

For coding and computing in the city, see our Southend coding page.

Lessons are live on video. A child in Leigh-on-Sea, Westcliff or Shoeburyness is taught with children at the same level of Year 5 maths from across the country, in groups of five to ten.

We have no connection with the CSSE, Southend-on-Sea City Council or any of these schools.

Source: Southend-on-Sea City Council, secondary schools admissions booklet 2026-27.

Towards September 2027

Four stages to a full hour of maths

For a child in Year 5 now, the next CSSE test should fall in September 2027; the consortium will publish dates by Easter 2027.

Coverage first, then stamina
When	Stage	Evidence of progress
Autumn, Year 5	1. Number and place value	Numbers to a million, rounding and Roman numerals read without errors
Winter, Year 5	2. Operations and fractions	Written and mental methods fast and accurate, no calculator
Spring and summer, Year 5	3. Measures, shape, data	Every remaining Year 5 statement ticked off with a fresh question
Summer holiday	4. The full hour	Sixty minutes of mixed maths, as accurate at the end as at the start

Short on time

Coverage matters most on a long paper. If time is short, we find the gaps first and fill those before anything else.

At the free lesson we will say honestly what can be done.

After the results

A child who can work for an hour without a calculator is ready for secondary maths. Some continue with maths through coding.

Others enjoy the problem-solving challenges on our competitions calendar.

Course list

Maths and coding for Southend families

By stage, with each syllabus a click away.

I

For the CSSE maths paper

Years 3 to 5

SEM / 1a

11 plus maths preparation (CSSE)

All of Key Stage 2 to Year 5, for a full paper.

Open the syllabus

SEM / 1b

Mental maths for primary pupils

Fast, calculator-free arithmetic.

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SEM / 1c

Primary maths, Years 1 to 5

The earlier strands, secured.

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SEM / 1d

Abacus and mental maths

Place value made visible.

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II

Secondary

Year 6 and beyond

SEM / 2a

Key Stage 3 maths mastery

The step up from primary maths.

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SEM / 2b

GCSE maths (all boards)

Foundation and higher tiers.

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SEM / 2c

Competition maths and olympiads

Problems beyond the syllabus.

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III

Coding

Number in code

SEM / 3a

Maths through coding

Write a Roman numeral converter.

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SEM / 3b

Scratch for beginners

Logic in blocks.

Open the syllabus

SEM / 3c

Python and AI, junior level

The first typed language.

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IV

Later

Teenagers

SEM / 4a

Speed calculation (Vedic methods)

Faster arithmetic, on firm ground.

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SEM / 4b

Machine learning for teenagers

Maths put to work.

Open the syllabus

Lesson times

Evenings and weekends, on UK time

Our lessons are taught live from India. For primary children we use early evening and weekend morning slots by the UK clock, and adjust our own hours for British Summer Time.

After school

Early in the evening, before fatigue.

Saturday and Sunday mornings

For fuller weekday diaries.

School holidays

Extra lessons to build stamina.

Same teacher weekly

Continuity that catches recurring slips.

Direct feedback

Short, honest notes to parents.

Groups of five to ten

Children matched by level.

No copied papers

CSSE material is never reproduced.

One to one on offer

For filling particular gaps quickly.

Maths, not English

No English coaching and no admissions advice.

Student work

Where our students go with maths

Four projects by students at our school, built on primary number work like this. More on the student labs page.

AI and ML

NutriLife

An AI nutrition coach that reads what you eat and works you toward a target.

by Bhavya · Open it

AI and ML

Misti

A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

by Harshit · Open it

AI and ML

GuardianX

An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online.

by Vivaan · Open it

Web app

SkyCast

A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.

by Krish

Fees

Families outside India pay one monthly US dollar price. Nothing to join, and you can stop at any point.

Free first class

USD 0

no card required

A taught lesson, not a pitch
Our honest findings
No card needed

Book it

Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

Five to ten pupils, one level
A familiar teacher
Work marked in the lesson
A certificate on completion

Start here

One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

Individual teaching
Focused on the gaps
Useful for building stamina

Enquire

What families say

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

Reviews from parents on Google, exactly as posted.

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"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."

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Parent

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."

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Student

★★★★★

"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."

Vansh Agarwal

Student

★★★★★

"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."

Sonam Oswal

Parent of Dhairya

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."

Sonu Goyal

Parent

★★★★★

"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."

Ritu Kedia

Parent

Southend CSSE questions

What Southend families ask us

What is in the CSSE maths paper?

The CSSE says candidates sit two tests, one in English and one in Mathematics, and that the Mathematics paper lasts sixty minutes. Its guide says the tests are based on Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum.

How much does maths count in the CSSE test?

The CSSE guide says the two papers are standardised and weighted, each being worth 50% of the marks.

Can my child use a calculator?

No. The CSSE guide says calculators of any description are not permitted.

Which Southend schools use the CSSE test?

The council says Southend High School for Boys, Southend High School for Girls, Westcliff High School for Boys and Westcliff High School for Girls admit only through it, and Shoeburyness, St Bernard's and St Thomas More admit a proportion of their intake through it.

Is there a minimum score?

The CSSE says offers are not made to any child who has scored under a total standardised score of 303. We never treat that as a target or predict scores.

When is the test for September 2028 entry?

The CSSE says registration opens next year and important dates will be published by Easter 2027. For 2027 entry the test was on Saturday 19 September 2026.

Are there practice papers?

The CSSE offers free familiarisation papers on its website and sells practice packs. We write our own questions and do not reproduce CSSE material.

Do you teach the English paper?

No, only the mathematics. We also do not advise on applications or places.

Why are Roman numerals on this page?

Because reading Roman numerals to 1,000 is a Year 5 statement in the national curriculum, and a sixty-minute paper has room for every Year 5 statement.

What are your fees?

There is no charge for the first lesson. After that it is USD 100 a month in a group or USD 150 a month for one to one, month by month.

Nearby

More for Essex families

The other CSSE schools, coding in Southend, and our national 11 plus page.

11 plus maths in Essex

The CSSE schools in Colchester and Chelmsford.

Coding classes in Southend

Programming for the city's children and teens.