In 1944, The Butler Education Act confirmed The Judd School as a grammar school, at which time it applied for voluntarily aided status, which required it to abolish fees under the principle of universal free education. The school was required to offer entrance via an entrance examination, now known as the 11-plus, which pupils take aged 10 or 11, depending on their date of birth. Provision was made for pupils to enter aged 13 or 14, for those that had failed the test two years earlier. While defining the school-leaving age as 15, the act granted the government the power to raise the age to 16 "as soon as the Minister is satisfied that it has become practicable", which happened in 1973.