Your complete guide to the 2026/27 entry cycle for all eight Birmingham grammar schools
Book a Free ConsultationThe King Edward VI 11+ works through a shared consortium test: all eight Birmingham grammar schools arranged by the KEF — Five Ways, Aston, Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, Handsworth Girls, KE Handsworth Grammar for Boys, Bishop Vesey's, and Sutton Coldfield Grammar for Girls — use the same West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test, sat on a single day in September. Your child registers once, sits one exam, and that result is used by every school you list on your Common Application Form. The exam is provided by GL Assessment, covers English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal and spatial reasoning across two hour-long papers, and scores are age-standardised before schools set their qualifying and priority thresholds. For the 2026/27 admissions cycle, the test takes place on 12 September 2026, with results released 16 October 2026 and offers going out on 1 March 2027. This guide covers everything families need to know: which schools are in the consortium, how many places each offers, what the exam tests, how scores are used, and how to prepare effectively.
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The King Edward VI Foundation (KEF) is a Birmingham-based educational charity whose roots go back to 1552, when King Edward VI granted a royal licence to establish grammar schools in the city. Today the Foundation arranges the entrance test for eight selective grammar schools in Birmingham: the five core KE VI schools (Five Ways, Aston, Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, and Handsworth Girls), plus King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School for Boys (Sutton Coldfield), and Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls. Together these eight schools represent the most academically prestigious state secondary pathway available in Birmingham.
All eight schools participate in the West Midlands Grammar Schools group, a consortium of 19 selective schools spread across Birmingham, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. Every school in the group uses the identical entrance test, administered by GL Assessment on the same day in September. The practical benefit for families is significant: rather than registering for and sitting separate tests for each target school, your child sits one exam and you simply list your preferred schools in rank order on the Common Application Form. The same standardised score is then used by each school when allocating places.
The consortium approach also means that if your child is aiming for a KE VI school alongside a school in Warwickshire or Walsall, there is no additional exam burden. Registration is handled via the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, and you must register before the June deadline — parents cannot register after this point, even if their child would otherwise be eligible. The registration window for 2027 entry opened on 5 May 2026 and closes at 4pm on 26 June 2026.
For more context on preparing specifically for these schools, see our companion blog post: King Edward VI School Birmingham 11+ Preparation.
Each of the eight Birmingham grammar schools has its own character, specialisms, and admissions geography, but all share the same academic standards and the same entrance exam. Understanding the differences helps families decide which schools to list on their application and in what order. The table below profiles each school with its type, location, approximate Year 7 intake, and recent academic performance.
| School | Type | Location | Year 7 Places | GCSE 7–9 Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KE VI Five Ways | Co-educational | Bartley Green | 180 | ~88% |
| KE VI Camp Hill Boys | Boys | Kings Heath | ~150 | 90%+ |
| KE VI Camp Hill Girls | Girls | Kings Heath | ~150 | 90%+ |
| KE VI Aston | Boys | Aston | ~150 | ~85% |
| KE VI Handsworth Girls | Girls | Handsworth | ~120 | ~86% |
| KE VI Handsworth Grammar for Boys | Boys | Handsworth | ~120 | ~85% |
| Bishop Vesey's Grammar School | Boys | Sutton Coldfield | ~150 | ~88% |
| Sutton Coldfield Grammar for Girls | Girls | Sutton Coldfield | ~180 | ~87% |
Places: Five Ways confirmed at 180 via published admissions data; others approximate. GCSE percentages are indicative of recent performance. Verify current figures directly with each school or via Birmingham City Council admissions guidance.
King Edward VI Five Ways is the only co-educational school among the eight and has the largest Year 7 intake among the KE VI schools at 180 places. It is located in Bartley Green in the south-west of Birmingham. The Camp Hill schools — Boys and Girls — are based in Kings Heath in south Birmingham and are consistently among the highest-performing state schools in England, with over 90% of GCSE grades at 7–9 in recent years. King Edward VI Aston serves boys in north-east Birmingham and has a strong tradition in sciences and mathematics. King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls serves girls in north-west Birmingham. All five schools offer a broad curriculum, a wide A-level programme, and strong university destinations.
Across the wider Birmingham grammar school system, the KE Foundation processes approximately 6,000 applications for around 1,200 grammar school places each year, making it one of the most competitive selective processes in England outside of London. Only the top-performing children — roughly the top 10–15% of applicants — receive offers. Families applying from outside Birmingham should be aware that children throughout the West Midlands are eligible to sit the same test and apply to the same schools, meaning competition extends well beyond the city boundary.
The West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test is provided by GL Assessment and consists of two papers, each approximately one hour long. Both papers are divided into individually timed sections. All questions throughout both papers are multiple choice, and answers are recorded on a separate answer sheet that is scanned and marked electronically. There is no writing component and no extended answer questions.
The test covers four content areas, weighted as follows:
Because English and verbal reasoning jointly account for 50% of the mark, a child who is strong in language can offset only moderate maths performance. Conversely, strong mathematicians who underperform on comprehension or verbal sections may fall below the qualifying threshold despite their numerical ability. This weighting differs from some other grammar school exams and is an important factor when planning a preparation programme. Our 11+ tuition specialists advise families on subject weighting as part of every preparation plan.
After raw marks are combined, GL Assessment applies age standardisation. Each child's score is adjusted based on their exact date of birth within the school year to compensate for the developmental advantage that September-born children have over August-born children in Year 6. The result is a Standardised Age Score (SAS) with a maximum of 280. The KE Foundation then sets a qualifying score and a priority score based on that year's cohort performance.
The 2026/27 admissions cycle — for children entering Year 7 in September 2027 — follows a fixed timeline. Missing any deadline, particularly the registration window, means your child cannot sit the exam that year. The dates below are confirmed for the current 2027 entry cycle.
Only children born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016 are eligible to sit the 2026 test for September 2027 entry. Passing the test does not guarantee a place — it makes your child eligible to be considered. Once results are issued, schools use admissions criteria to rank eligible applicants and allocate places. For children who qualify but do not receive an offer on 1 March 2027, waiting lists operate through the spring and summer term as families decline offers.
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With the September 2026 test date approaching, structured preparation from an experienced tutor makes a measurable difference. Leading Tuition's specialist 11+ team — rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot — works with Birmingham families to build the exam technique, vocabulary, and subject confidence your child needs to score in the competitive range.
Once raw marks are combined and weighted, GL Assessment applies age standardisation to produce the SAS. The maximum SAS is 280. The KE Foundation announces the qualifying score and priority score for each school in October after results are issued. These thresholds vary year on year based on the cohort's performance.
For the 2026 entry cohort (children who sat in September 2025 for entry in September 2026), the qualifying score was approximately 205 and the priority score was approximately 224. The qualifying score is the minimum standard required for eligibility. The priority score is a higher threshold that gives additional weight to in-catchment applicants in the oversubscription criteria. Children who do not reach the qualifying score cannot receive a place, regardless of any other factor.
In practice, at the most competitive schools, even children who achieve the qualifying score may not receive offers because eligible applicants far exceed available places. At Camp Hill Boys and Camp Hill Girls, the competitive score — the score above which essentially all applicants received offers in recent years — has typically been in the high 220s to low 240s. Aiming for a score well above the qualifying threshold is therefore the most reliable strategy, particularly if your child does not live within a school's catchment area.
Oversubscription criteria at KE VI grammar schools are applied in a priority order that typically runs as follows: looked-after children first; then Free School Meals or Pupil Premium children within the catchment area; then children achieving the priority score and living within the catchment area (with sibling priority and distance as tiebreakers within this group); and finally all other children who achieved the qualifying score, ranked by score and then by distance from the school. Understanding where your child is likely to fall in this ordering helps you gauge the strength of each application. At Five Ways, the defined catchment covers wards in south-west Birmingham including Bartley Green, Harborne, Northfield, Bournville, King's Norton, Longbridge, Quinton, and Weoley, plus parts of Sandwell. Other KE VI schools have their own catchment definitions.
For a detailed explanation of how grammar schools resolve tied scores and borderline cases, read our blog: How Grammar Schools Decide Between Equal-Scoring Children.
Effective preparation for the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test requires a structured, multi-subject approach that begins well before the September exam date. Most children who succeed at KE VI grammar schools start preparing in Year 4 or early Year 5, building foundational knowledge before transitioning to timed exam practice in Year 5 and full mock exam conditions in Year 6. Children who begin later can still prepare well, but a compressed timeline requires more intensive input and careful prioritisation of weak areas.
English comprehension and verbal reasoning account for 50% of the mark and deserve proportionate attention. Reading widely — novels, newspapers, non-fiction — is the most effective long-term investment. For verbal reasoning, children need to become fluent with question types including word analogies, letter sequences, coded words, missing words in sentences, and antonyms and synonyms. These are pattern-recognition skills that respond well to regular, varied practice. Children who read a broad range of texts from an early age consistently outperform those who only encounter verbal reasoning question types through exam-specific practice materials.
Mathematics at the KE VI level tests the full Key Stage 2 curriculum, often at pace. Children should be confident with fractions, percentages, ratio and proportion, written multiplication and division, basic algebra including simple equations, properties of 2D and 3D shapes, area and perimeter, data interpretation, and problem-solving in unfamiliar contexts. Speed matters: the timed section format means hesitation on any cluster of questions risks running out of time. Mental arithmetic fluency is therefore as important as conceptual understanding. Weekly timed arithmetic drills, starting from Year 4, are one of the most reliable ways to build the speed needed in Year 6.
Non-verbal and spatial reasoning is frequently underestimated by families. Because it does not correspond to a school curriculum subject, some children arrive at exam preparation with no prior exposure to this question type. Given that it contributes 25% of the total mark, weak non-verbal reasoning can prevent an otherwise strong candidate from reaching the qualifying score. The good news is that with focused practice — working through the standard GL Assessment question types including odd-one-out, series, analogies, rotation, and reflection — most children improve substantially over a six-to-twelve month period.
Mock exams under timed conditions are essential in the six months before September. Working through full papers with a stopwatch builds the stamina and time management skills children need on exam day, when the format and pace can feel unfamiliar. Reviewing wrong answers carefully — understanding why an answer was incorrect, not just what the right answer was — accelerates improvement far more than simply completing more papers without analysis.
Managing exam day is a preparation area that is often overlooked until too late. Children who have practised under strict timed conditions, used a proper pencil and eraser on a multiple-choice answer sheet, and experienced at least two or three full mock exam sessions with strangers present are significantly more likely to perform at their best on the day. Anxiety on the morning of 12 September 2026 will be reduced if the exam format genuinely feels familiar rather than merely understood in theory.
The King Edward VI Foundation arranges the entrance test for all eight selective grammar schools in Birmingham: the five KE VI schools (Five Ways, Aston, Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, and Handsworth Girls), plus KE Handsworth Grammar for Boys, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School for Boys, and Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls. All eight are part of the wider West Midlands Grammar Schools group of 19 selective schools and share a single entrance test provided by GL Assessment. Your child registers and sits only one exam regardless of how many schools you list.
The exam consists of two papers, each approximately one hour long, divided into individually timed sections. All questions are multiple choice. The four content areas assessed are English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal and spatial reasoning. Scores are weighted: English comprehension and verbal reasoning together account for 50% of the total, while mathematics and non-verbal/spatial reasoning each contribute 25%. After marking, raw scores are age-standardised — adjusted for each child's exact date of birth — to ensure that younger children within the year group are not disadvantaged relative to older peers.
For 2027 entry (the 2026/27 admissions cycle), registration opened on 5 May 2026 and closes at 4pm on 26 June 2026. The test takes place on Saturday 12 September 2026, with results emailed to parents on 16 October 2026. Children who meet the qualifying standard can then name a King Edward VI school on their Common Application Form, which must be submitted to their home local authority by 31 October 2026. Secondary school offers are released on National Offers Day, 1 March 2027.
The KE Foundation sets two thresholds after each year's test. The qualifying score is the minimum standard for eligibility — for the 2026 entry cohort this was approximately 205 on the standardised scale. Above this sits the priority score (approximately 224 for 2026 entry), which carries additional weight in oversubscription criteria for children within a school's catchment area. However, eligibility alone does not guarantee a place: at popular schools such as Camp Hill and Five Ways, competitive offers typically require scores in the high 220s to low 240s. The maximum possible standardised score is 280.
Children from outside the catchment area may apply and receive offers, but the catchment area matters once the school is oversubscribed. For King Edward VI Five Ways School, children who achieve the priority score and live within the defined catchment wards — which span parts of Birmingham including Bartley Green, Harborne, Northfield, Bournville, and adjacent Sandwell wards — are prioritised over out-of-catchment applicants who achieved the same priority score. For children who only reach the qualifying score, places are allocated by score order then distance, regardless of catchment.
Leading Tuition's specialist 11+ tutors provide personalised, one-to-one preparation for all eight Birmingham grammar schools using the KEF entrance test. Our tutors are familiar with the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test format and weight Maths, English comprehension, verbal reasoning, and non-verbal reasoning in line with the actual exam proportions. We track progress week by week, run timed mock exams under test conditions, and focus on the subject areas most likely to lift a borderline candidate into the competitive scoring range. Rated 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot by Birmingham families. Book a free consultation to discuss a preparation plan for your child.
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