King Edward VI Aston School is a selective state grammar school on Frederick Road in Aston, Birmingham, and boys enter at eleven on the shared West Midlands test. This page covers Aston 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.
One test, sat once, in Year 6
Aston sets no paper of its own. It is a West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership school, which means one shared entrance test taken once, in September of Year 6, with the result sent on to each partnership school on your list. 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.
The trap sits a year earlier. Registration is done online by a parent during the summer term of Year 5, in a window that shuts quickly. Your primary school does not handle it and may never mention it. A registration missed is a year missed, however good the preparation behind it was.
Nor is the test the offer. Reaching the standard puts a boy among the qualified candidates. The school's own published admissions arrangements then settle which of those boys is offered a place, which is a second document and a second decision.
Diary the pair separately: the entrance test registration goes to the partnership in the summer term of Year 5. The application for a school place goes to your local council in the autumn of Year 6. Doing one leaves the other undone.
What sets Aston apart from its sister schools?
It has not moved. The King Edward VI Aston Grammar School opened in 1883 and it is the only school in the Foundation that still occupies its original site. Several of its sister schools carry the name of a district they left behind; Aston does not.
It sits on Frederick Road and belongs to the King Edward VI Foundation, run through the King Edward VI Academy Trust, which is why families looking here are usually weighing two or three related schools at the same time. It has been a grammar school for boys since 1883, and it has a sixth form.
Its stated vision is to see all students thrive at school, as they become articulate, well-rounded global citizens, and it names its values as diligence, honesty, integrity and kindness. Boys belong to houses.
How are the papers weighted?
A revision timetable that gives the four areas equal hours has already put its time in the wrong places.
The material comes as two multiple-choice papers, each about fifty to sixty minutes, and that figure covers the instructions and worked examples as well, so less of it is spent answering than a parent expects. Neither paper belongs to one subject; both move between the areas as they go.
Answers are recorded on a separate answer sheet. Boys rarely lose marks here for want of knowledge. They lose them by drifting one row out of step and then answering everything that follows a line adrift.
What should a family do in the year before?
Feed the half that carries the most weight. Read widely, talk about what has been read, and treat unfamiliar words as something to collect rather than skip. Vocabulary built slowly across Year 4 and Year 5 shows up in both the comprehension and the verbal reasoning.
Meet non-verbal reasoning early and briefly. Children tend to improve sharply once the question types are familiar and then plateau, so a short introduction long before the test earns more than a long grind close to it.
Rehearse the mechanics too. Timed practice on a separate answer sheet, with the discipline of checking the number beside each answer, removes a failure that has nothing to do with ability. Maths is usually about pace and multi-step questions rather than fresh topics.
None of this needs to be dramatic. It needs a routine that touches language every day and shape puzzles a couple of times a week, kept going long enough to compound.
Check this first: no score, no place figures, no catchment description and no cycle dates appear on this page, because those change annually and the versions repeated on tutoring sites are frequently out of date. Go to the primary sources instead:
King Edward VI Aston 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 King Edward VI Aston 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 Aston entry
Does King Edward VI Aston have its own entrance exam?+
No. Aston uses the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools entrance test, sat once in September of Year 6. There is no separate Aston paper and no second sitting. One test produces one result, which is passed to every partnership school the family has named on the registration.
Is Aston still on its original site?+
Yes, and it is the only school in the King Edward VI Foundation that still is. The school opened in 1883 and has stayed put, while several of its sister schools moved and took their old district names with them.
What is on the test, and how much does each part count?+
Two multiple-choice papers, each mixing comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics and non-verbal reasoning. Comprehension and verbal reasoning together decide half the result. Mathematics takes a quarter and non-verbal reasoning takes the last quarter, so the language side deserves the most preparation.
Other schools in this consortium
King Edward VI Aston School sits in the Birmingham group of the partnership. One result travels to every partnership school a family names, so the neighbouring schools are worth reading about before you decide which to put down.
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, boys, in Kings Heath, Birmingham.
- King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, girls, in Kings Heath, Birmingham.
- King Edward VI Five Ways School, mixed, in Bartley Green, Birmingham.
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, boys, in Handsworth, Birmingham.
- King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, girls, in Handsworth, Birmingham.
Where to go next
- The West Midlands 11 plus entrance test, the shared test in full, with every partnership school listed.
- 11 plus verbal reasoning question types, the types that repeat across both papers.
- Online 11 plus mock tests, timed practice with a separate answer sheet.
- What the 11 plus actually is, the starting point if this is your first child through it.