King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys 11+ Guide 2026: Admissions, Exam & Prep

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys is one of the highest-ranked state secondary schools in England, and one of five King Edward VI grammar schools competing for places in Birmingham. For September 2027 entry, boys currently in Year 5 sit the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test on Saturday 12 September 2026, with the school offering 120 Year 7 places from its Kings Heath site. Camp Hill Boys is entirely separate from its Kings Heath neighbour, King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls — the two schools share a foundation, a test and a postcode area, but set their own qualifying scores, admission numbers and oversubscription outcomes independently each year.

This guide covers Camp Hill Boys’ history within the King Edward VI Foundation, exactly how the shared entrance test and Foundation admissions process work, the current qualifying and priority score picture, the school’s 18-ward catchment area and five-tier oversubscription criteria, the 2026 key dates for September 2027 entry, its Outstanding Ofsted rating and academic results, and how to prepare a boy effectively for a test where the competitive threshold has been climbing for several years.

Key Facts: King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys

About Camp Hill Boys: History, Foundation and Character

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys was founded in January 1883, initially teaching for two terms from King Edward's School on New Street before its own building opened at Camp Hill in September 1883 — the site that gave the school its name, though the school itself moved on to Kings Heath in 1956, close to Kings Heath Park, where it remains today. The school is one of fourteen schools within the King Edward VI Foundation, a group tracing its own roots to the original King Edward's School endowment, now operating as the King Edward VI Academy Trust and governing a mix of selective grammar schools, non-selective academies and one remaining independent school across Birmingham. Camp Hill Boys sits alongside King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, King Edward VI Aston School and King Edward VI Five Ways School as one of the Foundation's selective grammar schools.

Academically, Camp Hill Boys has an unusually strong national reputation for a comprehensive-sized state school. It was named the Sunday Times’ West Midlands state secondary school of the decade in 2021, its students have won medals in the British Physics Olympiad and the International Chemistry Olympiad, and the school was ranked 40th nationally in the 2026 Sunday Times Parent Power state school tables — a notable outcome given that most schools ranked above it nationally are either fully selective independent schools or grammar schools drawing from far larger catchment populations. Notable former pupils include Keith Campbell, part of the team that cloned Dolly the sheep; novelist Mark Billingham; BBC continuity announcer Alan Dedicoat; High Court judge Sir Nicholas Green; and pioneering computer scientist David Wheeler.

It is worth being explicit about a point of confusion that trips up many families researching Birmingham grammar schools: King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls are two entirely separate schools. They share a name, a general Kings Heath neighbourhood, a foundation, and the same shared entrance test, but they are run separately, have separate headteachers, separate Published Admission Numbers, and separately calculated qualifying and priority scores each year. A boy's strong score does not carry over as any guarantee for a sister applying to the Girls' school, and vice versa — each school's own officially published admissions arrangements should be checked individually rather than assumed to be identical.

How Does Admission to Camp Hill Boys Actually Work?

Camp Hill Boys does not set its own, independent entrance test. Instead, it is one of eight King Edward VI Foundation and partner grammar schools — alongside Camp Hill Girls, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, King Edward VI Five Ways School, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School and Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls — that share a single test, the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test, set and marked by GL Assessment. A family registers their son once for the shared test, he sits it on a single day, and the resulting standardised score is then used by every King Edward VI Foundation and partner school the family lists on their preference form — there is no need to sit separate papers for separate schools.

Registering for the entrance test is a distinct step from applying for a school place through the local authority. To be considered for Camp Hill Boys for September 2027 entry, a family must both register their son for the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test through the King Edward VI Foundation's central registration system (opening in May 2026, closing in late June 2026), and separately submit Birmingham City Council's standard secondary transfer application, naming Camp Hill Boys among up to six preferences, by the national closing date. Missing either step means a boy cannot be offered a place, however strong his test performance.

What Does the Camp Hill Boys Entrance Test Cover?

The West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test consists of two papers, each approximately 60 minutes long, entirely in multiple-choice format. One paper combines English comprehension and verbal reasoning; the other combines mathematics and non-verbal/spatial reasoning. Together, the four skill areas are weighted so that English and verbal reasoning make up roughly half of the overall standardised score, with mathematics contributing around a quarter and non-verbal/spatial reasoning the remaining quarter — meaning a boy's reading comprehension and verbal reasoning ability carries the greatest single influence over his final score, even though mathematics and non-verbal reasoning are far from negligible.

Scores across all four sections are combined and age-standardised — adjusted so that a boy's exact date of birth within the school year does not disadvantage him relative to an older classmate — producing a single standardised score out of a maximum possible 280. This single figure is what determines both whether a boy reaches the qualifying score needed to be considered at all, and, separately, whether he reaches the higher priority score used to rank catchment-area applicants once a school is oversubscribed. Because all eight participating schools use the same test and scoring system, a boy's single result can be compared directly against the different thresholds set independently by each of the eight schools he has listed as a preference.

What Is the Pass Mark for Camp Hill Boys? Understanding Qualifying and Priority Scores

Camp Hill Boys does not publish a fixed pass mark that applies every year. Instead, the Foundation calculates and publishes a qualifying score and a higher priority score after each year's sitting, based on how that year's cohort of test-takers actually performed — a boy either reaches the required standard for that specific year or he does not, and the bar itself moves slightly from one year to the next. In 2022, the qualifying score for Camp Hill Boys was set at 205; the priority score used to rank catchment-area applicants has been reported at 222 for 2020 entry and 224 for the 2021–2024 entry years. More broadly across Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls and Five Ways together, the competitive score — the level above which an offer has, in recent years, been essentially certain — has typically sat in the high 220s to low 240s out of the maximum possible 280.

Two figures therefore matter for any family assessing a boy's chances: the qualifying score, which is the minimum standard needed simply to be considered for a place at all, and the priority score, which is the higher threshold used to rank catchment-area children ahead of everyone else once places are oversubscribed. Reaching only the qualifying score gives a boy a chance at one of the places allocated after catchment-area priority applicants have been placed; reaching the priority score gives a materially stronger position if he lives within the designated catchment. Because the threshold moves with cohort performance each year, families should treat any single year's published figure as a guide to recent form rather than a fixed target to aim for precisely.

Camp Hill Boys Catchment Area and Oversubscription Criteria

Any boy may register for and sit the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test whether or not his family lives within Camp Hill Boys' designated catchment area — residence is never a barrier to sitting the test itself. Camp Hill Boys' catchment area covers 18 electoral wards across south and central Birmingham: Acocks Green, Balsall Heath West, Billesley, Bordesley & Highgate, Bordesley Green, Bournbrook & Selly Park, Brandwood & Kings Heath, Druids Heath & Monyhull, Hall Green North, Hall Green South, Highters Heath, Moseley, Small Heath, South Yardley, Sparkbrook & Balsall Heath East, Sparkhill, Stirchley, and Tyseley & Hay Mills.

Once places are oversubscribed, Camp Hill Boys applies its officially determined oversubscription criteria in the following order:

1. Looked-after and previously looked-after children who meet the qualifying score, ranked by test score and then distance
2. Pupil Premium children within the catchment area, ranked by distance to the school
3. Pupil Premium children outside the catchment area (capped at up to approximately 25% of total places), ranked by test score, then sibling priority, then distance
4. Catchment-area children who meet the priority score, ranked by sibling priority and then distance
5. All remaining children who meet the qualifying score, ranked by test score, then sibling priority, then distance

This ordering means a family's most important early decision is not simply "does my address fall inside the catchment map" but understanding which of the five tiers a boy is likely to be assessed under, since Pupil Premium status and catchment residence interact with test score in a specific sequence rather than catchment residence alone deciding priority. Families uncertain whether an address sits within one of the 18 wards should check the current admissions map published each year via the King Edward VI Foundation and Birmingham City Council's coordinated admissions documentation, since ward boundaries are periodically reviewed.

Key 2026 Admissions Dates for Camp Hill Boys, September 2027 Entry

For boys seeking September 2027 entry to Year 7 at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, the following broad 2026–2027 timetable applies, based on the pattern the King Edward VI Foundation has followed in recent admissions cycles:

• Test registration opens: May 2026, via the King Edward VI Foundation's central registration system
• Test registration closes: Late June 2026 (families should confirm the exact date on the Foundation's website each spring, as it can shift by a week or two year to year)
• Entrance test date: Saturday 12 September 2026
• Results notified to families: Friday 16 October 2026, by email
• Local Authority secondary transfer application deadline: 31 October 2026 (Birmingham City Council, or the family's home local authority if outside Birmingham)
• National Offer Day: 1 March 2027

Registration for the shared entrance test is completed directly through the King Edward VI Foundation's own website, not through the local authority. Separately, every family must also submit their home local authority's standard secondary transfer form, naming Camp Hill Boys among their preferences, by the national closing date of 31 October 2026, regardless of whether they have already sat the Foundation's own test. Families weighing Camp Hill Boys against other Birmingham King Edward VI schools may also find our existing King Edward VI Birmingham 11+ preparation hub useful for comparing the Foundation schools side by side, and our wider 11+ exam dates guide sets this timetable in the context of grammar and independent school admissions across England.

Ofsted Rating and Academic Results

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys holds Ofsted's highest possible rating of Outstanding, awarded across every category assessed — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision — following an inspection on 22 November 2023, with the full report published on 19 January 2024. This places the school in a small minority of English secondary schools rated Outstanding in every category under the current inspection framework.

Academically, the school reports GCSE results of approximately 70.6% of grades at 9–7 and A-level results of approximately 84.5% at grades A*–B in its most recent published results, contributing to its 40th-place national ranking in the 2026 Sunday Times Parent Power state school tables. These figures sit comfortably above national averages for state comprehensive and grammar schools alike, and reflect the highly selective nature of entry combined with a strong sixth-form academic culture. In 2021, the Sunday Times separately named Camp Hill Boys the West Midlands' state secondary school of the decade, and its students have represented the school at international level in both the British Physics Olympiad and the International Chemistry Olympiad.

How Should My Son Prepare for the Camp Hill Boys 11+?

Because the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test weights English and verbal reasoning most heavily, effective preparation should not treat all four skill areas as equally important from the outset. English comprehension and verbal reasoning deserve the greatest share of preparation time: wide reading across fiction, non-fiction and quality journalism builds the vocabulary and inference skills that comprehension questions test directly, while structured practice with verbal reasoning question types — codes, sequences, word relationships, and hidden words — builds the pattern-recognition speed the test rewards under time pressure.

Mathematics preparation should be built on secure Key Stage 2 arithmetic — times tables, fractions, decimals, percentages and the four operations applied quickly and accurately — layered with multi-step reasoning problems similar in style to the multiple-choice format used on test day. Non-verbal and spatial reasoning, often the least familiar skill area since it maps to no primary school subject directly, responds well to progressive practice with matrices, sequences, shape rotation, reflection and net-folding questions, building from untimed familiarisation up to full timed practice.

Given how competitive the priority score has become in recent years — sitting in the high 220s to low 240s out of a maximum 280 — families should be realistic that reaching the bare qualifying score is unlikely to be sufficient for a catchment-area place, and that genuine strength across all four tested areas, not just familiarity with one publisher's practice papers, is what separates a marginal result from a comfortably competitive one. A personalised one-to-one approach is particularly valuable here, since a tutor can identify precisely which of the four areas is weakest for an individual boy and rebalance a preparation programme accordingly, rather than applying a generic, evenly-split study plan. At Leading Tuition, our specialist 11+ tutors work with families across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands preparing for Camp Hill Boys and the other King Edward VI Foundation schools.

Most families begin structured preparation in Year 4 or the autumn term of Year 5, giving twelve to eighteen months to introduce every question type, address individual weaknesses, and progress to full timed practice papers ahead of the September 2026 test date. Families comparing Camp Hill Boys against other Birmingham King Edward VI options may also find it useful to read our guides to King Edward VI Birmingham 11+ preparation and King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, and for general background on how 11+ testing works across England's selective regions, see our guide to what the 11+ exam involves.

What Is the Sixth Form at Camp Hill Boys Like?

Camp Hill Boys runs a substantial, co-educational sixth form — one of the points at which the otherwise boys-only school opens its doors to girls, typically both from its own Year 11 and from other schools including Camp Hill Girls. The sixth form was itself rated Outstanding as a distinct category in the school's November 2023 Ofsted inspection, and its strong A-level results (approximately 84.5% of grades at A*–B in recent published results) support progression to a wide range of competitive university courses, including Oxbridge and medicine. Families weighing up Birmingham grammar schools more broadly may find our 2026 grammar school league tables useful for comparing outcomes across schools like Camp Hill Boys on a national basis.

Frequently Asked Questions