Ashlawn School is not a grammar school. It is a co-educational bilateral academy in Hillmorton, Rugby, with a selective grammar stream reached through the shared West Midlands entrance test. This page covers Ashlawn School entry at eleven by the GL Assessment test, for children now in Year 3 to Year 5, and not sixth form, fees or A levels.
What kind of school is Ashlawn?
Not a grammar school, and calling it one causes real trouble at application time. Its own admissions policy describes it as a publicly funded, bilateral, co-educational secondary academy containing both selective and non-selective streams, and elsewhere as a mixed bilateral academy with a sixth form. Bilateral is not a word most prospectuses use, which is half the problem.
Bilateral means the selective stream and the community stream sit inside one school, on one site, in Hillmorton on the edge of Rugby. Two other schools in the same partnership describe Ashlawn in their own published policies as a bilateral school offering selective and non-selective places, so this is not our reading of it.
The school is part of the Transforming Lives Educational Trust. Its values sit under the word CARE: Community, Aspiration, Respect and Excellence. It calls itself an inclusive school, sums up its purpose as educating for life, and runs an open access sixth form for students from Rugby and the surrounding areas in a comprehensive and inclusive environment.
How many ways into Year 7 are there?
Three, which is unusual among the partnership schools and is the most useful fact on this page. There is the 11 plus selective route, a Modern Foreign Language Aptitude Test route, and the community route for non-selective places.
So a family sitting the shared entrance test for Ashlawn is competing for the selective stream specifically. A child who does not reach the standard has not automatically run out of road at this school, which is not the case at the fully selective schools taking the same test. Be precise about this when you speak to the school, because what happens next depends entirely on which stream you were aiming at.
Be clear which route you are on: the school describes a long established tradition of educating young people locally in Hillmorton alongside a selective cohort reached by meeting the required standard in the 11 plus selective test. The routes have their own arrangements, so read the admissions policy for the one you are actually pursuing.
What does the 11 plus selective test involve?
It is not an Ashlawn paper. The school belongs to the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership, and the selective route uses the shared entrance test, sat once in September of Year 6. Registration is online, done by a parent in the summer term of Year 5, and the window closes quickly. The paper itself is set by GL Assessment, the assessment publisher the partnership uses, so the format is the same at every school in the group.
Half the marks sit with English comprehension and verbal reasoning combined. The other half divides evenly between mathematics and non-verbal reasoning.
From "What does the 11 plus selective test involve?"
The test is two multiple-choice papers, each around fifty to sixty minutes with instructions and worked examples inside that time. Both papers mix the areas rather than giving one subject a paper of its own: English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal reasoning with spatial questions in it.
Answers go on a separate sheet, and a slipped row costs a run of marks that the working underneath had already earned.
What should we work on?
Weight the practice the way the test is weighted. Reading, vocabulary and comprehension deserve the largest share, because they and verbal reasoning decide half of it between them, and neither improves in a hurry. Start them in Year 4 or early Year 5 if the timing still allows it.
Non-verbal reasoning is the quickest win available. Children improve sharply once the question types stop being a surprise, then plateau. Mathematics usually needs speed and multi-step reasoning rather than fresh topics, because the content is already sitting on the primary curriculum.
Then rehearse the format itself, timed, on a real answer sheet. The switching between comprehension, word puzzles, arithmetic and shape questions inside a single paper catches out children who have only ever practised one area at a time.
Check this first: because Ashlawn offers more than one route in, the detail that decides your family's case sits in the school's own admissions policy rather than in any guide, this one included. Two places hold the current version:
Ashlawn School official website and the partnership's own site. Check the school's official admissions page for this year's figures.
Pathway Eleven has no connection to Ashlawn School, to the partnership or to any admissions authority. We cannot register a child, confirm eligibility, or say anything about catchment or your chances. Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
Common questions about Ashlawn School entry
Is Ashlawn School a grammar school?+
No. Its own admissions policy calls it a publicly funded, bilateral, co-educational secondary academy containing both selective and non-selective streams. It runs a selective grammar stream alongside non-selective places on the same site, which is what bilateral means, and it should not be described as a grammar school.
What happens if my child does not reach the standard?+
At a fully selective school, that is the end of the route. At Ashlawn it is not necessarily, because the school also admits through a community route and through a Modern Foreign Language Aptitude Test route. Read the admissions policy for whichever of those applies to you.
Which test does the selective stream use?+
The shared West Midlands Grammar Schools entrance test, sat once in the September of Year 6. Ashlawn sets no paper of its own for it. A parent has to register online with the partnership during the summer term of Year 5, and that window is short.
Does Ashlawn have a sixth form?+
Yes, and the school describes it as an open access sixth form serving students from Rugby and the surrounding areas in a comprehensive and inclusive environment. The school itself is co-educational and part of the Transforming Lives Educational Trust.
Other schools in this consortium
Ashlawn School belongs to the partnership's Warwickshire group. A child sits the shared test once, and the result reaches each of these schools if you name them.
- King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, boys, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Lawrence Sheriff School, boys, in Rugby, Warwickshire.
- Rugby High School, girls, in Rugby, Warwickshire.
- Stratford Girls' Grammar School, girls, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Alcester Grammar School, mixed, in Alcester, Warwickshire.
Where to go next
- The West Midlands 11 plus entrance test, the shared test, and which schools use it.
- What is the 11 plus?, selective, bilateral and comprehensive entry, explained.
- How to prepare for the 11 plus, a plan that follows where the marks actually are.
- Online 11 plus mock tests, timed papers on a separate answer sheet.