Grammar schools in the West Midlands share one 11 plus test. Nineteen selective state schools take part, in Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Rugby, Stratford-upon-Avon, Alcester and Newport. Entry is at eleven, by a test set by GL Assessment and sat in September of Year 6. Parents register during Year 5, and preparation spans Year 3 to Year 5.
Grammar schools by town
Parents usually start by asking which grammar schools are near them, so the list by town comes first. Every school below is a selective state school in the West Midlands partnership. They are free to attend, and every one of them admits at eleven on the same entrance test. The town name links to the admissions area page that covers it; the school name links to that school's own page.
Four places parents search for often are not in that table, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than letting a list imply otherwise. No school in this partnership is in Coventry, Solihull, Shrewsbury or Worcester. Families living there sit the same test and travel to one of the schools above, and several of the Birmingham schools name wards outside the city in their own admissions policies. Solihull is the clearest case: Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Kingshurst and Fordbridge and Smith's Wood are all named in Birmingham school admissions policies, so a Solihull address is not automatically out of catchment. Check which schools name your ward before you assume a school is out of reach, or read how the council application works in your own area.
What is the West Midlands entrance test?
It is one shared test rather than a separate exam for every school. A group of selective grammar schools across Birmingham, Shropshire, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Warwickshire use the same sitting, so a child takes the test once and the result is available to all of them. That is a genuine mercy compared with areas where families collect a different paper for every school on their list.
Qualifying on the test and being offered a place are still two different things. Each school publishes its own admissions arrangements, which can include distance, siblings, feeder arrangements or other criteria, and those decide who gets an offer among the children who qualified. Read the arrangements for the specific schools you care about before you settle on a preference order, because two schools with similar scores can behave very differently once the offers go out.
The partnership does not write the papers itself. The shared entrance test is set by GL Assessment, an assessment publisher whose 11 plus papers are used by selective areas across the country, and what the publisher actually does is worth ten minutes of any parent's time. That is why the question style and the answer-sheet mechanics stay consistent from one year to the next rather than being reinvented by each school.
Which test the West Midlands uses compares that arrangement with the others a parent will have read about. Pathway Eleven has no connection to the admissions body and cannot register a child, confirm eligibility or say anything about catchment. Everything on this page about process is there to help you find the official information, not to replace it. Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
Which schools are in the partnership?
Nineteen selective schools take part, grouped by the partnership into three consortia. One test covers all of them, which is why a family can put several on a preference list without their child sitting several papers. What the shared test does not do is make the schools interchangeable: each one publishes its own admissions arrangements, and those are what decide offers.
Each entry below links to a page about that school and its entry route. None of them prints an intake figure, a qualifying score or a catchment description, because those change every year and the versions circulating on tutoring sites contradict one another. Check the school's official admissions page for this year's figures.
Shropshire, Wolverhampton and Walsall
The northern group, spread across three authorities. Two of them sit in the same Shropshire market town, and one of those is among the very few selective state schools in the country that boards.
- Haberdashers' Adams
One of very few selective state schools with a boarding house, for boys, in a Shropshire market town.
- Newport Girls' High School
A girls' grammar drawing from across Shropshire and Staffordshire, with a motto about kindness, hard work and fun.
- Queen Mary's Grammar School
A Tudor foundation in Walsall: boys to sixteen, then a sixth form open to both.
- Queen Mary's High School
Its sister school in the same trust, girls to sixteen with a co-educational sixth form, in listed buildings.
- Wolverhampton Girls' High School
Over a century of girls' education on Tettenhall Road, with a house system running back to the 1920s.
Birmingham
The largest group, and the one most families in the region are choosing between. Six of the eight are King Edward VI schools, which is why their names run together and why parents routinely apply to several at once.
- Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
A sixteenth-century Sutton Coldfield foundation: boys to sixteen, then a co-educational sixth form.
- King Edward VI Aston School
The only school in the King Edward VI Foundation still standing on its original site.
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys
Named for a district it no longer occupies: it began at Camp Hill and moved out to Kings Heath.
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls
Its sister school on the same road, from a foundation chartered in 1552 to endure forever.
- King Edward VI Five Ways School
The only mixed, non fee paying grammar school in the West Midlands, on a wooded site by Bartley Reservoir.
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys
Over 160 years of achievement, taking boys to sixteen and opening the sixth form to both.
- King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls
An eleven to eighteen selective girls' school, on its Handsworth site since 1911.
- Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls
A girls' grammar built around character education and a seven-year run from Year 7 to the sixth form.
Warwickshire
The southern group, centred on Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon. It is also the group with the exception in it: one member is not a grammar school at all, and reads its intake differently from the rest.
- Alcester Grammar School
Selective and co-educational, with houses named after the trees along the nearby Arrow Nature Reserve.
- Ashlawn School
Not a grammar school but a bilateral academy: a selective stream alongside non-selective and aptitude places.
- King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon
Shakespeare's school, tracing its origins to 1295 and re-founded by royal charter, with a mixed sixth form.
- Lawrence Sheriff School
A Rugby boys' school with five houses dating to 1907 and a sixth form that admits girls.
- Rugby High School
A girls' school whose vision line is a translation of its own Latin motto about setting your heart on the heights.
- Stratford Girls' Grammar School
A girls' grammar in Shottery Manor, a fifteenth-century house with a Shakespeare legend attached to its hall.
Where does your own area differ?
One test, five admissions areas, and the differences between them are real: two registration portals with different closing times, two test dates, and thresholds that are published in Birmingham, set after the test in Walsall and not published at all in Warwickshire. Each page below covers one area, with every date and figure linked to the body that published it.
- The Birmingham 11 plus
The King Edward VI Foundation schools plus Bishop Vesey's and Sutton Coldfield, with the published qualifying and priority scores.
- The Walsall 11 plus
Both Queen Mary's schools, the published place categories, and a council form that closes at 10pm.
- The Wolverhampton 11 plus
The city's one school in the shared arrangement, and the schools next door that a Wolverhampton family names on the same result.
- The Warwickshire 11 plus
The county's own Parent Portal, its later closing time, and two test days rather than one.
- The Shropshire and Telford 11 plus
The two Newport schools, the Monday sitting, boarding at one of them, and which council to apply to.
Two more pages cover the moments the whole cycle turns on: how to register for the West Midlands 11 plus, in the May and June of Year 5, and what a West Midlands 11 plus result means, in the October of Year 6.
A third page answers the question none of the area pages can, because the answer sits with fifteen different publishers: what each school's score has actually been, year by year, with the document it came from and the date it was read beside every figure. Start with Bishop Vesey's Grammar School or Lawrence Sheriff School if you already know which school you are asking about, and read what is not published before you go looking for a figure that does not exist.
What is actually in the papers?
Two papers, each running for roughly fifty to sixty minutes, and that figure includes the instructions and the worked examples at the start. The actual working time is shorter than parents expect, which is the first argument for practising against a clock rather than only practising.
Both papers mix the areas rather than giving each subject its own paper, so a child moves between comprehension, word puzzles, arithmetic and shape questions inside a single sitting. Switching between those quickly is a skill of its own, and it is the main reason a full mock feels harder than the same questions met one topic at a time. How the answer sheet works is worth a look before the day itself.
| Area | What it looks like | Share of the result |
|---|---|---|
| English and verbal reasoning | Comprehension of an unseen passage, plus word puzzles: codes, sequences, analogies, hidden words, synonyms and antonyms. | Half the total, the two counted together. |
| Mathematics | Primary curriculum content asked at pace, usually inside multi-step word problems rather than bare calculations. | A quarter of the total. |
| Non-verbal and spatial reasoning | Shape and pattern puzzles: sequences, matrices, rotations, reflections, and questions about cubes and nets. | A quarter of the total. |
Weightings and paper structure are set by the partnership and published on its website. They have been stable, but check the current arrangements for the year your child sits, rather than trusting a description written for an earlier cohort.
Want all four areas moving daily without building the timetable yourself? Start a free week of Pathway Eleven.
Why does the weighting change how you prepare?
Look at that table again and the planning falls out of it. English and verbal reasoning together decide half the outcome. Most families spend their energy on the opposite end, because non-verbal reasoning looks strange and therefore feels urgent, while reading feels like something that is already happening.
English and verbal reasoning together decide half the outcome. Most families spend their energy on the opposite end.
From "Why does the weighting change how you prepare?"
It is the wrong instinct. Non-verbal reasoning is the area where children improve fastest with exposure and then flatten out, so a reasonable amount of it early does most of the available work. Vocabulary and comprehension move slowly and keep moving, and they carry twice the weight. A child who reads widely from Year 4 arrives at this test with an advantage that cannot be bought back in the summer before it.
Mathematics sits in between. School covers most of the content, so the gap is usually pace and multi-step problems rather than knowledge, and quick recall of number facts buys more marks per hour of practice than anything else in that quarter of the paper.
What is the timeline through Year 5 and Year 6?
The whole calendar is built backwards from the national deadline for secondary school applications in England, which is 31 October. Results have to reach families before that, so the test has to sit in September, so registration has to close well before the summer holidays.
| When | What happens | What you should be doing |
|---|---|---|
| Year 5, autumn | Nothing administrative. | Build the routine, meet every question type once, and read something harder than is comfortable. |
| Year 5, spring | Still nothing administrative. Check the partnership website for the coming registration window. | Cover the content properly and start short timed sections on secure subjects. |
| Year 5, summer | Registration opens and closes online. The window is short. | Register early in the window, then move on to full timed practice. |
| The summer holiday | Test centres confirm arrangements ahead of the sitting. | Full mock papers spaced out, shorter sessions, clear days off. |
| Year 6, September | The test is sat. | Sharpen rather than learn. Protect sleep in the final week. |
| Year 6, autumn | Results, then the common application form to your local council by 31 October. | Read each school's admissions arrangements before fixing your preference order. |
The date that catches people out: registration is a separate online step that a parent has to complete during the summer term of Year 5, and it closes long before the test. Schools do not do it for you and primary schools do not always remind you. Find the published dates for your child's year and diarise the closing time, not just the closing day.
What about the answer sheet?
Every question is multiple choice and the answers are recorded on a separate sheet. This sounds like a detail and it is not. Children who have only ever answered in the space beneath the question can lose a run of marks by slipping a row, and they almost never notice until the end, if at all.
It is also a timing issue. Moving your eyes between a question booklet and a grid costs seconds each time, and seconds add up across a paper with a short working time. The fix is unglamorous: practise on the format until the sheet stops being a second task. The partnership publishes familiarisation material showing the question style and how answers must be recorded, and it is worth working through before any commercial paper.
How does Pathway Eleven fit?
Pathway Eleven is an online 11 plus preparation service that gives each child a personalised daily plan of revision, guided teaching, timed practice and full mock papers, with every question reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher. The areas it covers are English and verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal reasoning including spatial questions, which is the same ground this test samples.
- A Starting Assessment firstIt finds the level, so the daily plan gives more attention to whichever area is weakest rather than spreading time evenly out of habit.
- Timed drillsThey build pace on a subject once it is secure, rather than putting a clock on work that is not reliable yet.
- Full mock papersThey rehearse the switching between areas that both papers demand inside a single sitting.
- A parent areaEvery completed session stays in a PIN-protected parent area for you to read.
One monthly price covers all of it, and the first week is free.
Common questions about the West Midlands 11 plus
How many papers is the West Midlands entrance test?+
Two. Each runs for roughly fifty to sixty minutes, and that includes the time spent on instructions and worked examples, so the working time is shorter than the headline figure suggests. Both papers mix the subject areas rather than devoting one paper to each.
What subjects does the West Midlands 11 plus cover?+
English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal reasoning including spatial questions. The scoring puts half the weight on English and verbal reasoning together, and splits the remaining half evenly between mathematics and non-verbal reasoning.
When do you register for the West Midlands entrance test?+
Registration is an online step a parent completes during the summer term of Year 5, and the window is short. Missing it cannot be undone by preparation, so find the published opening and closing dates for the year your child sits it and put the deadline in the calendar.
Who sets the West Midlands 11 plus?+
The shared entrance test is set by GL Assessment, the assessment publisher the partnership uses. Children sit that one test rather than a separate paper for each grammar school, and the result is available to every selective school in the partnership. Each school then applies its own published admissions criteria, so qualifying and being offered a place are two different steps.
Are the answers written on the paper?+
No. Every question is multiple choice and the answers go on a separate sheet, which is a genuine skill in itself. A child who loses their place on that sheet can shift a run of answers by one row, and the marks go even though the thinking was right.
Which schools use the West Midlands entrance test?+
Selective grammar schools across Birmingham, Shropshire, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Warwickshire take part. The list is published by the partnership and can change, so check the current one and each school's own admissions arrangements before you build a preference order.
When do West Midlands 11 plus results arrive?+
In the autumn term of Year 6, timed so that families know the outcome before the national deadline for secondary school applications on 31 October. The application itself goes to your local council on the common application form, not to the individual schools.
What should we prepare first for this test?+
Reading and vocabulary, because English and verbal reasoning carry half the result between them and both move slowly. Non-verbal reasoning is worth meeting early since children improve quickly on it once exposed, and mathematics is the area school already covers most thoroughly.
Where to go next
- Which grammar schools can my child apply to, from my postcode, the nineteen partnership schools in distance order from a postcode, each with its catchment or priority area in its own words.
- West Midlands 11 plus dates and deadlines, the registration, test, results and offer dates for the current cycle, each one sourced.
- Birmingham 11 plus standardised scores explained, what the number on the results letter means and every cut-off score the schools have published.
- How to prepare for the 11 plus, the full parents' guide to timing, routine and the four skill areas.
- What is the 11 plus?, the test explained from scratch, including how standardised scores work.
- 11 plus preparation in Year 5, a term-by-term plan for the year the registration falls in.
- Online 11 plus mock tests, why switching between areas under a clock is its own skill.
- What Pathway Eleven costs, one plan, one price, everything included.
- Can you retake the 11 plus?, one sitting per child, in the consortium's own published words.
- A free 11 plus guide for your parents, for a primary school office: a newsletter paragraph and a link line to copy, and an ungated A4 sheet to print and send home.
- What is a good 11 plus score?, the qualifying, priority and ranking scores explained.
- 11 plus mock exams in Birmingham, who runs them, and when one is worth sitting.
A Starting Assessment, then daily work weighted towards whichever area your child needs most.
Start your free week