Wirral Grammar School for Girls 11+ Guide 2026: Admissions, Exam and Preparation

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Wirral Grammar School for Girls is a state grammar school in Bebington, Wirral, offering 180 Year 7 places for children starting in September 2027. Entry is decided by the Wirral Admissions Test, sat on Tuesday 15 September 2026 and delivered by Quest Assessments, covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics across two papers on the same day — there is no English paper. This guide sets out the school's exact admission number, the full 2026 test and application timetable, the oversubscription criteria that decide places when demand exceeds 180, and how to prepare specifically for this school rather than a generic 11+ course.

What is Wirral Grammar School for Girls and how many places does it offer for 2026?

Wirral Grammar School for Girls was founded in 1931 and is based on Heath Road, Bebington, Wirral, CH63 3AF. It is a girls-only, non-selective-by-fee state grammar school teaching pupils aged 11 to 18, including a sixth form. The current headteacher, Mrs Jenny Ogunmyiwa, has led the school since September 2022. According to the most recent published data, the school has approximately 1,194 pupils on roll. The school was rated Outstanding by Ofsted across all five inspection categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth form provision — following an inspection on 6 December 2022, with the report published on 31 January 2023.

For the 2026/27 admissions cycle (children applying now for a September 2027 start), Wirral Council's official admissions policy confirms a Published Admission Number (PAN) of 180 for Year 7 at Wirral Grammar School for Girls. This is one of two largest all-girls intakes among Wirral's grammar schools, matched only by West Kirby Grammar School, which also admits 180 girls each year. Full details of the school's own admissions process are published on the Wirral Grammar School for Girls admissions page.

How does the Wirral Admissions Test work for 2026 entry?

Wirral Grammar School for Girls is one of four non-Catholic grammar schools that together form the Wirral Grammar Schools Consortium: Calday Grange Grammar School (210 places, boys, West Kirby), West Kirby Grammar School (180 places, girls), Wirral Grammar School for Boys (170 places, Bebington) and Wirral Grammar School for Girls (180 places, Bebington) — a consortium total of 740 Year 7 places. These four schools share a single entrance exam, the Wirral Admissions Test, administered on behalf of Wirral Local Authority. For 2027 entry the test is delivered by Quest Assessments and takes place on Tuesday 15 September 2026.

Children sit two papers on the same day, testing verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics. This is an important detail to get right when preparing: unlike some other regional consortium tests, and contrary to a small number of generic guides online, there is no English or comprehension paper in the Wirral Admissions Test. Content is based on the Key Stage 2 national curriculum up to and including early Year 6 for the mathematics element, while verbal and non-verbal reasoning are not formally taught in primary school and generally require dedicated preparation. A child registers for the test once and is automatically considered for any consortium school named as a preference — you do not need to sit separate tests for Wirral Grammar School for Girls versus, say, Calday Grange or West Kirby. For a general breakdown of how Quest Assessments scores are used to set the required standard, see our Quest Assessment scoring guide.

What are the exact 2026 key dates for Wirral Grammar School for Girls?

Families applying for a September 2027 start at Wirral Grammar School for Girls should work to the following official Wirral Council timetable. These dates apply to the whole four-school consortium, including Wirral Grammar School for Girls.

Two details catch families out every year. First, the test venue is not necessarily Wirral Grammar School for Girls itself — children are assigned to a test centre, with venue confirmation issued by the end of August 2026. Second, the test can only be sat once with no resits, so if your daughter is unwell on 15 September 2026 you should contact Wirral Local Authority immediately rather than waiting for results day, since access arrangements and exceptional circumstances have their own separate deadlines.

How is the oversubscription policy applied when demand exceeds 180 places at Wirral Grammar School for Girls?

Meeting the required standard in the Wirral Admissions Test does not guarantee a place — it makes a girl eligible to be considered under the school's oversubscription criteria if applications exceed the 180-place PAN. Wirral Council's published admissions policy for Wirral Grammar School for Girls sets out six criteria, applied strictly in order:

One detail worth flagging for families comparing consortium schools: the Free School Meals quota at criterion 3 differs by school. Wirral Grammar School for Girls and Calday Grange Grammar School each reserve up to 15 places for FSM-eligible children, West Kirby Grammar School reserves up to 18, and Wirral Grammar School for Boys reserves up to 30 — a meaningful difference for FSM-eligible families weighing preferences across the four consortium schools. There is no defined catchment area for Wirral Grammar School for Girls; distance is used purely as a tiebreaker once the criteria above are exhausted, measured from home to the nearest school gate by the shortest safe route.

How is Wirral Grammar School for Girls different from Wirral Grammar School for Boys and the Catholic grammar schools?

It is easy to conflate Wirral's grammar schools, so it is worth being precise. Wirral Grammar School for Girls and Wirral Grammar School for Boys are two entirely separate single-sex schools, both located in Bebington and both members of the same four-school consortium. They share the Wirral Admissions Test and the Quest Assessments format, but each is an independently admitting school with its own Published Admission Number — 180 at the Girls' school against 170 at the Boys' school — its own admissions policy, and its own oversubscription criteria. A place at one does not carry over to the other, and families with both a son and a daughter sitting the test in the same year should treat each school's application as separate.

The picture is different again for Wirral's two Catholic grammar schools, Upton Hall School FCJ and St Anselm's College, which are not part of the consortium and do not use the Wirral Admissions Test or Quest Assessments at all. Upton Hall (Catholic girls') uses a GL Assessment exam of two multiple-choice papers in English and verbal reasoning, while St Anselm's College (Catholic boys') sets its own written English and Mathematics papers marked by the school itself. Both have separate registration deadlines and test dates from the consortium timetable above. For families weighing Wirral Grammar School for Girls against Upton Hall specifically, the practical implication is that a daughter may need to prepare for two genuinely different assessment formats in the same admissions cycle. For a side-by-side view of all six Wirral grammar schools, see our Wirral Grammar Schools 11+ Guide.

What results and outcomes does Wirral Grammar School for Girls achieve?

Wirral Grammar School for Girls' most recently published 2025 performance data shows consistently strong outcomes. At GCSE, 92.2% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths, against an Attainment 8 score of 69.3 and a Progress 8 score of 0.00 — well above the national average, meaning pupils progress in line with or better than the top-performing schools nationally relative to their starting points. At A-level, students achieved an average of 42.58 points per entry, with 25% of students achieving AAB or better including two facilitating subjects. Among a recent leaver cohort, 81% progressed to higher education or training, with 44% going on to Russell Group universities. These outcomes sit alongside the school's Outstanding Ofsted judgement (inspected 6 December 2022, published 31 January 2023) across every category, including sixth form provision — a rating shared by relatively few schools nationally when all five categories are Outstanding simultaneously.

How should families prepare for the Wirral Admissions Test for Wirral Grammar School for Girls?

Because the Wirral Admissions Test covers only verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics — with no English paper — preparation for Wirral Grammar School for Girls should be narrower and more targeted than a generic 11+ programme that spreads time across four subjects. We recommend three priorities. First, familiarise your daughter with the Quest Assessments multiple-choice question style specifically: timed, electronically marked, and delivered under exam conditions rather than as an open-ended written response. Second, build genuine fluency in non-verbal reasoning, since it is the area least reinforced by ordinary primary-school work and typically needs the most dedicated practice time between Year 5 and September of Year 6. Third, since the maths content is based on the Key Stage 2 curriculum up to early Year 6, focus revision on arithmetic fluency, problem-solving and numerical reasoning rather than content beyond the school curriculum.

A realistic preparation timeline for the 15 September 2026 test starts no later than the previous autumn term, with structured practice increasing through the spring and summer terms of Year 5 into Year 6, tapering to timed full-length mock papers in the six to eight weeks immediately before the test date. Because the test cannot be resat, a final diagnostic mock in early September helps confirm your daughter is comfortable with timing and question format before test day itself, rather than discovering gaps on the day. If a place is not offered in the first round, it is also worth understanding how waiting lists tend to move regionally — see our grammar school waiting list movement data by region for what typically happens after National Offer Day.

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