Haberdashers' Adams 11+ Guide 2026: Admissions, Exam & Prep

Haberdashers' Adams is a fully selective state grammar school on the High Street in Newport, Shropshire, within the Telford & Wrekin local authority area, tracing its origins back to 1656. For September 2027 entry, children currently in Year 5 must register between 5 May 2026 and 26 June 2026 for the entrance test shared across the Shropshire/Wolverhampton/Walsall Consortium, sit the test in September 2026, and be ranked highly enough within the school's own oversubscription criteria to secure one of 135 Year 7 day places, or one of up to 15 boarding places reserved for boys. Unlike some of its sibling consortium schools, Haberdashers' Adams does not have a stand-alone exam of its own, but it does give admissions priority to a defined list of partner primary schools — a genuine point of difference worth understanding before you apply.

This guide covers Haberdashers' Adams's history and its distinctive connection to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, exactly how the shared consortium entrance test works and who else sits it, the 2026 key dates for September 2027 entry, the school's priority primary schools and oversubscription criteria, its rare state boarding provision, its Ofsted history, its recent move to full co-education, and how to prepare effectively for a test that is entirely multiple-choice across two mixed subject papers.

Key Facts: Haberdashers' Adams

About Haberdashers' Adams: History and Its Haberdashers' Company Connection

Haberdashers' Adams was founded on 25 March 1656 by William Adams, a wealthy London haberdasher, at a time when England was governed under Oliver Cromwell's Interregnum — the school's foundational articles were subsequently reconfirmed by Parliament in 1660 following the Restoration. Adams endowed the new free grammar school with a 900-acre Staffordshire estate to fund it in perpetuity, and stocked its library with around 1,400 books, making it one of the largest school libraries in England at the time of founding. Crucially, Adams appointed the Master and Wardens of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers — one of the historic City of London livery companies — as the school's perpetual governors, a governance link that has continued for nearly 370 years and still holds today.

For most of its history the school was known simply as Adams' Grammar School. In January 2018, it formally changed its name to Haberdashers' Adams to make its historic ties to the Haberdashers' Company explicit in its public identity, bringing it into closer branding alignment with the wider family of Haberdashers'-linked schools across England, including Haberdashers' Boys' and Haberdashers' Girls' in Elstree, which are separate, unrelated foundations from a different historical endowment despite sharing the same livery company connection. Families researching 11+ options should take care not to confuse Haberdashers' Adams, a state grammar school in Shropshire, with these independent Haberdashers' schools in Hertfordshire, which sit entirely outside the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership.

Historically a boys' school, Haberdashers' Adams first admitted girls into its sixth form in 1993, and from September 2024 became fully co-educational, admitting girls into Year 7 for the first time in the school's history. The school's four houses are named after notable figures connected to Shropshire, and its house system remains central to pastoral care, described by parents as providing new pupils with a strong sense of belonging from their first weeks. With around 1,087 pupils on roll, including roughly 362 in the sixth form studying 17 traditional A-Level subjects, Haberdashers' Adams is a substantial school by grammar school standards, with STEM subjects, Economics and English Literature noted as particularly strong performers at A-Level.

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Is Haberdashers' Adams a Rare State Boarding Grammar School?

Yes — and this is one of the most distinctive features of the school nationally. Haberdashers' Adams is one of only a small number of state grammar schools in England that still offers boarding provision, housing up to 15 new Year 7 boarders (boys only, at present) each September at its junior boarding house, Longford Hall. Because boarding at a state school is funded very differently from an independent school, the fees charged to boarding families represent, in the school's own description, only a fraction of the cost of boarding at a fully independent school, and the education itself remains free at the point of use, as at any other state grammar school. Around 85 pupils board at Haberdashers' Adams in total across the school, giving the site a genuinely residential character that is unusual for a selective state school of its size.

Boarding places are allocated through a separate strand of the oversubscription criteria from day places, prioritising looked-after and previously looked-after children, then children of UK Armed Forces personnel receiving Ministry of Defence financial assistance towards boarding, then children with a demonstrated boarding need, before falling back on entrance test ranking with distance as a tie-break. Families interested in boarding should register by the same May–June 2026 window as day applicants but should also attend one of the school's dedicated boarding open evenings or taster weekends, since the boarding decision-making process runs on a partially separate timetable from the main day-place admissions round, with boarding interviews typically held in November and offers confirmed in December.

How Does the Haberdashers' Adams 11+ Test Actually Work? Shared Consortium Testing Explained

Unlike a growing number of grammar schools elsewhere in England that set and mark their own stand-alone entrance exams, Haberdashers' Adams belongs to a genuine testing consortium. It sits within the Shropshire/Wolverhampton/Walsall Consortium, one of three regional groupings — alongside a Birmingham grouping of eight King Edward VI and related schools, and a separate Warwickshire consortium — that together make up the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership of 19 selective schools. Haberdashers' Adams shares a single entrance test with four sibling grammar schools: Newport Girls' High School, its near neighbour in the same town, Wolverhampton Girls' High School, and Queen Mary's Grammar School (boys) and Queen Mary's High School (girls), both in Walsall. Membership of this consortium is confirmed directly on the partnership's own schools page and on the school's own Year 7 admissions page. A child sits the test once, at a single sitting, and the same score can then be used to apply to any combination of these five schools, rather than needing to sit a different exam for each one.

This shared-test model is a significant practical advantage for families considering more than one West Midlands grammar school, since it removes the need to prepare for, register for and sit multiple separate exams on different dates. It also means, however, that a child's application to Haberdashers' Adams is judged on rank order of the shared test score combined with the school's own oversubscription criteria — performance in the same test may lead to an offer at one consortium school but not another, since each school applies its own admission arrangements and has its own number of places available that year. Families weighing up Haberdashers' Adams alongside Wolverhampton Girls' High School or Queen Mary's High School should note that school preferences for "data sharing" must be selected at the point of registration and cannot be changed afterwards, so the full list of consortium schools should be decided well before the closing date.

What Does the Haberdashers' Adams Entrance Test Cover?

The consortium entrance test used for Haberdashers' Adams consists of two papers, each approximately 50 to 60 minutes long, set and standardised by GL Assessment on behalf of the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership. Both papers are entirely multiple-choice, with candidates recording their answers on optical mark reading (OMR) sheets, and instructions and section timings delivered by audio recording during the test itself. Between the two papers, the test draws on four distinct areas:

• English: comprehension and language-based questions in multiple-choice format, rather than the extended written composition required by some other regional tests.
• Mathematics: numerical reasoning and problem-solving based on the Key Stage 2 curriculum, again in multiple-choice form.
• Verbal Reasoning: the pattern-based, code-and-logic question types — analogies, sequences, word relationships — common across 11+ testing nationally.
• Non-Verbal Reasoning: shape- and pattern-based reasoning that does not depend on reading ability, testing visual and spatial logic.

The school's own published admissions materials describe entry as requiring a child to achieve "the required academic standard in the school's entrance test," without publishing a single fixed qualifying score months in advance — a similar approach to sibling consortium schools such as Wolverhampton Girls' High School and Queen Mary's High School, both of which confirm their effective cut-off only once that year's cohort has been tested and ranked. This all-multiple-choice, mixed-subject format is a notable point of difference from schools elsewhere in England that set three fully separate subject papers including extended English writing. For a general introduction to how 11+ entrance tests work across England, see our guide to what the 11+ exam involves.

Does Haberdashers' Adams Have a Catchment Area? Priority Primary Schools Explained

Unlike some of its consortium sibling schools — Wolverhampton Girls' High School and Queen Mary's High School both state plainly that they have no catchment area or priority zone whatsoever — Haberdashers' Adams operates a distinctive middle-ground arrangement. The school does not draw a geographic catchment boundary around Newport, but its published oversubscription criteria do give priority to children who attend one of around 35 designated partner primary schools across the Telford & Wrekin borough, with a strong concentration of named schools in and around Newport itself. This means that, in practice, a child's primary school can materially affect their priority ranking at Haberdashers' Adams in a way that simply does not apply at some neighbouring consortium schools.

Based on the school's determined admissions arrangements published by Telford & Wrekin Council, the broad order of priority for day places, once children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school have been admitted, runs as follows: first, looked-after and previously looked-after children; second, children eligible for Pupil Premium or service premium funding who score within 5% of the qualifying standard; third, children attending one of the named partner primary schools by the registration deadline; and finally, all other qualifying applicants ranked strictly by entrance test score. Straight-line ("as the crow flies") distance from home to school is used only as a final tie-break between candidates who cannot otherwise be separated for the last available place.

Families whose children do not attend one of the designated partner primary schools are not excluded from applying, but should understand that they are competing without this particular priority category, making a strong entrance test performance especially important. The full, current list of partner primary schools is published each year in the school's determined admissions policy, available via Telford & Wrekin Council's admissions pages, and prospective families are strongly encouraged to check this list directly rather than assuming which schools are included.

What Are the Key 2026 Dates for Haberdashers' Adams Admissions?

For children seeking September 2027 entry to Year 7 at Haberdashers' Adams, the following timetable applies, based on the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership's published admissions calendar and the school's own Year 7 admissions pages:

Registration for the entrance test itself is completed through the consortium's own website rather than through a local council, but families must still separately submit their home Local Authority's standard secondary transfer application (commonly the Common Application Form or equivalent preference form) naming Haberdashers' Adams among their preferences by 31 October 2026 — sitting the consortium test alone does not result in an offer if this separate step is missed. For the wider national picture of grammar and independent school timetables, see our 11+ exam dates 2025–2026 guide. Full official details are published on the Haberdashers' Adams admissions page and on the West Midlands Grammar Schools Partnership website.

What Is Haberdashers' Adams's Ofsted History and Current Position?

Haberdashers' Adams was last inspected by Ofsted on 10 May 2022, receiving an overall judgement of Good. Within that overall rating, inspectors judged behaviour and attitudes to be Outstanding, while quality of education, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth form provision were each judged Good. This reflects a school performing consistently well across the board, with particular strength in pupil conduct and the culture created by its house-based pastoral system.

Because Ofsted ratings can and do change between inspections, families should always check the school's most recent Ofsted report directly for the current position before making final admissions decisions, rather than relying solely on the summary above. In its most recently published results, Haberdashers' Adams recorded 59% of GCSE grades at grade 7 or above and 94.6% of pupils reaching at least grade 5 in both English and Mathematics, alongside 47% of A-Level entries graded A* or A, with around 95% of sixth formers progressing to university and roughly 70% securing places at Russell Group institutions.

What Is the Sixth Form and Wider School Life Like at Haberdashers' Adams?

The sixth form at Haberdashers' Adams is a substantial part of the school, with around 362 students studying 17 traditional A-Level subjects, alongside a main school population that includes both day pupils and around 85 boarders. STEM subjects remain the strongest performing area at A-Level, with Economics and English Literature also achieving notably strong results. The school's house system, built around four houses named after figures connected to Shropshire, forms the backbone of pastoral care, and events such as the school's Dixon Cup — a competition showcasing pupil talent in dance, drama and public speaking — reflect a stated ethos that places as much emphasis on shaping "fine young individuals" as on academic results alone.

Notable alumni of Haberdashers' Adams include the physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, a pioneer of early radio technology; the politician Jeremy Corbyn, former Leader of the Labour Party; his brother, the weather forecaster and activist Piers Corbyn; bumblebee conservation expert Professor Dave Goulson; and broadcaster Radzi Chinyanganya, known for presenting Blue Peter. For families weighing up grammar school options more broadly across the West Midlands, our overview of 2026 grammar school league tables provides useful context on how schools like Haberdashers' Adams compare on outcomes, and our dedicated guides to Newport Girls' High School, Wolverhampton Girls' High School and Queen Mary's High School cover three of its consortium partner schools within the same shared testing arrangement.

How Should My Child Prepare for the Haberdashers' Adams 11+?

Because the Haberdashers' Adams entrance test is entirely multiple-choice and spans four distinct areas across only two papers, an effective preparation plan needs to build genuine competence and speed across English, Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning, rather than assuming any one subject can be safely neglected.

English and Mathematics preparation should focus on multiple-choice technique as much as underlying subject knowledge — since marks are earned purely by selecting the correct option under time pressure, children benefit from practising elimination strategies and learning to manage their time across a paper that mixes several subjects together, rather than working through one subject at a time as in a traditional single-subject test.

Verbal Reasoning practice should cover the standard range of question types — codes, analogies, sequences, hidden words, synonyms and antonyms — built on a foundation of wide reading to develop vocabulary. Non-Verbal Reasoning is frequently the least familiar skill area for children, since it is not taught directly in the primary curriculum, and responds well to progressive practice with matrices, series, rotation, reflection and pattern-completion questions, moving from untimed familiarisation towards full timed practice as test day approaches.

Because the test is shared across five consortium schools and used to determine offers at each individually — and because Haberdashers' Adams gives additional priority to children from its named partner primary schools — a personalised, one-to-one approach is particularly valuable: a tutor can identify which of the four tested areas represents a child's greatest opportunity for improvement, while a family whose child does not attend one of the priority primary schools can focus additional effort on maximising raw test score, since that priority category will not be available to them. At Leading Tuition, our specialist 11+ tutors cover all four Haberdashers' Adams/consortium exam components and work with families across Newport, Telford, Shropshire and the wider West Midlands, including online tuition for families outside the immediate area. For a structured overview of how to plan preparation over time, see our 11+ six-month countdown guide.

Frequently Asked Questions: Haberdashers' Adams 11+ 2026