King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls: 11+ Entry Guide 2026/2027

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King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls is one of the most academically distinguished state grammar schools in Birmingham — and one of only eight schools in the city whose entrance test is arranged by the King Edward VI Foundation. Situated on Vicarage Road in Kings Heath, it shares a site with its sibling school, King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, but is a separate, single-sex girls' school with its own admissions policy, its own qualifying and priority scores, and its own Outstanding Ofsted rating. Most guides to this school stop at a paragraph inside a wider Birmingham grammar schools round-up. This guide goes further: the exact 2025-entry qualifying score (224) and priority score (205) quoted verbatim from the school's own admissions page, the full 18-ward catchment list, the five-tier oversubscription hierarchy including the 25% Pupil Premium cap, the school's Outstanding Ofsted findings, and its A-level and university destination results — all sourced directly from King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls' own website and official admissions documents, not recycled from other 11+ directories.

What Is the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test?

Applicants to King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls sit the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test, provided by GL Assessment. This is the same test used by all eight King Edward VI Foundation-arranged grammar schools in Birmingham — Five Ways, Aston, Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, and Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls — as well as a wider consortium of 19 selective schools across the West Midlands. A child registers once, sits one exam, and the resulting standardised score is used by every school listed on the family's Common Application Form.

The test comprises two papers, each approximately 50–60 minutes long, entirely multiple-choice, with answers recorded on a separate answer sheet rather than in the question booklet. A comfort break separates the two papers, and each paper is further divided into smaller, individually timed sections. Candidates need two HB pencils, an eraser and a sharpener in a clear pencil case; calculators, watches and mobile phones are not permitted, and parents cannot wait on site during the test.

Scores are weighted 50% English comprehension and verbal reasoning, 25% mathematics, and 25% non-verbal and spatial reasoning, then age-standardised so that summer-born children are not disadvantaged relative to those born earlier in the academic year. This weighting has a direct, practical implication for preparation: because half of the total score comes from the verbal component, families should not default to an even split of practice time across all four areas.

How Many Places Does Camp Hill Girls Offer, and How Competitive Is Entry?

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls has a Published Admission Number of 150 places for Year 7 entry — confirmed directly in the school's own September 2027 admissions policy document, not estimated from third-party sources. This puts Camp Hill Girls among the larger girls' grammar schools within the King Edward VI Foundation, comparable in size to its sibling school, Camp Hill Boys, which also admits around 150 boys.

Demand across the wider consortium is intense. Independent analysis of the 2024 cycle recorded approximately 4,998 children sitting the shared West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test, of whom around 2,188 achieved a qualifying score across the eight King Edward VI Foundation-arranged Birmingham schools — competing for roughly 1,200 total places. Camp Hill Girls and Camp Hill Boys are consistently among the most oversubscribed schools in that consortium, meaning that clearing the qualifying score alone does not guarantee a place; in recent years, the score at which essentially all applicants received offers at the most popular King Edward VI schools has typically sat in the high 220s to low 240s — well above the published qualifying score of 224.

What this means in practice: an out-of-catchment family should treat 224 as a floor, not a target. Girls who score meaningfully above the qualifying score, particularly those applying from outside the 18-ward catchment area described below, are in a far stronger position than those who scrape past the threshold.

What Are the Qualifying Score, Priority Score and Oversubscription Criteria?

The King Edward VI Academy Trust Board sets two numerical thresholds after each year's test sitting. Quoting directly from the school's own admissions page: “The King Edward VI Academy Trust Board have determined the qualifying score for entry in September 2025 will remain at 224. The priority score will be 205.” Both figures sit on GL Assessment's standardised scale, which runs to a maximum of 280.

The naming can be counter-intuitive, so it is worth explaining exactly how the two figures function within the oversubscription criteria published in the school's admissions policy, applied in this order when there are more qualifying applicants than places:

1. Looked-after and previously looked-after children who achieve the qualifying score, ranked by score and then by distance from the school.
2. Pupil Premium-eligible children within the catchment area who achieve the qualifying score, ranked by distance.
3. Pupil Premium-eligible children outside the catchment area who achieve the qualifying score — up to a combined cap of 25% of places for categories 2 and 3 — ranked by score, then sibling priority, then distance.
4. Children who achieve the priority score (205) and live within the catchment area, ranked by sibling priority and then distance.
5. All remaining children who achieve the qualifying score (224), ranked by score, then sibling priority, then distance.

In other words, the priority score (205) is a lower bar that only benefits catchment-area applicants, letting them be ranked ahead of the general pool once the higher-priority Pupil Premium categories are filled. The qualifying score (224) is the higher bar that determines whether an out-of-catchment applicant is considered at all under the final, most competitive category. Distance is measured as a straight line from the child's home address to the school's front gates, and in the rare case of two applicants at an identical address with identical scores, random selection is used as the final tie-break.

Which Wards Are Included in the Camp Hill Girls Catchment Area?

Camp Hill Girls publishes a specific catchment area map alongside its admissions policy, defined by 18 Birmingham electoral wards: Acocks Green, Balsall Heath West, Billesley, Bordesley & Highgate, Bordesley Green, Bournbrook & Selly Park, Brandwood & King's 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. Families can check which ward their home address falls in using Birmingham City Council's ward lookup tool, and the school's own catchment map (downloadable from its admissions page) should always be treated as the definitive source, since ward boundaries are occasionally redrawn.

Living within these 18 wards materially changes a family's position in the oversubscription criteria: a catchment-area girl who reaches the priority score of 205 is ranked ahead of the general applicant pool (category 4 above), whereas a girl living outside these wards is only considered once the qualifying score of 224 is reached, and then only within the final, most competitive category. For borderline families, understanding precisely which category applies — and therefore which score threshold is realistically relevant — is one of the most valuable pieces of planning information available before results day.

What Are the Key Dates for 2026/2027 Entry?

For girls currently in Year 5 who will sit the test in autumn 2026 for September 2027 entry, the King Edward VI Foundation's published timetable runs as follows:

Registration is completed online through the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, and families must register within the stated window regardless of how many consortium schools they intend to list — there is no late registration route once the deadline passes. Eligible Pupil Premium families receive free access to the Atom Home preparation platform, which is worth checking with your daughter's primary school if she qualifies.

What Ofsted Rating and Academic Results Does Camp Hill Girls Have?

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls holds an overall Outstanding Ofsted rating, following an inspection on 17–18 November 2021 that rated the school Outstanding across every individual category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. Inspectors described the school as “an inspirational place to be” where “pupils are happy,” praised “exceptional leadership” from the headteacher and senior team whose decisions are “thoughtful, deliberate and rooted in what is best for pupils,” and highlighted a curriculum that is exceptionally well sequenced, alongside a strong reading culture promoted across all subjects. The report also noted the school's attention to pupil wellbeing, including mindfulness sessions addressing the pressure some high-achieving girls put on themselves.

Academically, King Edward VI Foundation reporting on the most recent GCSE and A-level results cycle recorded, for Camp Hill Girls specifically, 20.5% of A-level grades at A* and 62% at A*/A, alongside sixteen students securing Oxbridge places and nearly 170 gaining first-choice university offers. The Foundation also highlighted individual achievements such as a student securing a degree apprenticeship at the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology — illustrating that outcomes extend beyond traditional university routes. Camp Hill Girls' sixth form takes eleven GCSEs and four A-levels as standard, with dedicated science teaching from Year 7 and a broad extracurricular programme including a large-scale show choir with over 100 participants.

Notable alumnae of the school include Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Jess Phillips MP, actress Kate Ashfield, Dame Bernadette Kelly (Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport), England netball captain and doctor Layla Guscoth, former Stonewall chief executive Ruth Hunt, and Commodore Carolyn Stait CBE, the first female Royal Navy commodore — reflecting the breadth of career paths the school's alumnae community has gone on to pursue.

Is Camp Hill Girls the Same School as Camp Hill Boys?

No — and this is a distinction families researching Birmingham grammar schools frequently get wrong. King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys are two entirely separate, single-sex schools, each with its own headteacher, governing arrangements, admissions policy, Ofsted inspection history and academic results. What they share is a single site on Vicarage Road in Kings Heath: both schools relocated there from central Birmingham in 1958, and the two sets of buildings are physically connected, with some shared facilities and a small number of joint sixth-form subjects taught across both schools. Beyond that operational overlap, however, the schools function independently.

The practical implication for families is straightforward but important: a place offered at Camp Hill Boys carries no bearing on, and provides no advantage for, an application to Camp Hill Girls, and vice versa. Each school sets its own qualifying score and priority score independently after every test cycle — the two figures are not automatically identical, even though both schools use the same underlying West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test. Families with children of both sexes applying in the same or different years should check each school's own published admissions policy and catchment map separately rather than assuming shared figures. Similarly, comparisons of academic results, Ofsted grading, or oversubscription criteria between the two schools should always be verified against each school's own official page rather than assumed to be interchangeable.

How Should You Prepare for the West Midlands Grammar Schools Test?

Because the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test weights English comprehension and verbal reasoning at 50% of the total score, preparation that spreads time evenly across all four question types under-serves the component that decides most of the outcome. A well-structured preparation programme for Camp Hill Girls typically begins in Year 4 or early Year 5 — 12 to 18 months before the September test — and runs through three broad phases.

In the foundation phase, the priority is introducing every question format the test uses: comprehension technique, verbal reasoning codes and analogies, non-verbal and spatial reasoning patterns, and any gaps in KS2 mathematics. Reading widely and regularly from this stage is one of the highest-value investments a family can make, because comprehension performance is built over months of sustained reading, not weeks of exam practice.

In the timed-practice phase (typically January to summer of Year 5), the focus shifts to working through full papers under realistic time pressure, identifying which of the four scored areas is losing the most marks, and building the stamina to sustain concentration across two separate 50–60 minute papers with only a short break between them.

In the final consolidation phase (summer through September of Year 6), full mock tests under exam conditions become the priority, alongside confidence-building so that your daughter walks into the test centre on 12 September 2026 calm rather than anxious. Because Camp Hill Girls' qualifying score of 224 sits well above the theoretical pass mark, and because competitive offers at the most popular King Edward VI schools have recently required scores in the high 220s to low 240s, aiming meaningfully above the published threshold — rather than treating 224 as a target — is the safest strategic approach, particularly for families applying from outside the 18-ward catchment area.

How Does Camp Hill Girls Compare to Other Birmingham Grammar Schools?

Camp Hill Girls sits within the King Edward VI Foundation's wider Birmingham consortium alongside King Edward VI Five Ways (co-educational, the largest intake at 180 places), King Edward VI Aston (boys), King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, and its own sibling school, Camp Hill Boys. All eight King Edward VI Foundation-arranged schools in Birmingham share the identical West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test, so a girl sitting the exam can list Camp Hill Girls alongside any of the other schools on a single Common Application Form. For a full breakdown of how the shared test works, each school's relative size, and how the Foundation-wide oversubscription process operates, see our King Edward VI Birmingham 11+ guide.

Families weighing up catchment strategy across schools should also read our guide to 11+ designated and catchment areas, which explains how priority-area rules like Camp Hill Girls' 18-ward catchment interact with sibling and Pupil Premium criteria more generally. For a deeper explanation of standardised scoring — useful background for interpreting the 224/205 figures used here — see our 11+ standardised scores explained guide, and for how schools resolve tied or borderline scores at the margin, see how grammar schools decide between equal-scoring children. For the official Camp Hill Girls admissions policy and catchment map, see the school's own admissions and open days page.

Frequently Asked Questions