About the 11+
information and guidance

On this page you will find information on:

* What the 11+ is

* Details of fee-paying independent schools with 11+ entry

* Details of the Grammar Schools in the West Midlands Grammar School Partnership (and former Birmingham Consortium)

* A rough timeline for 11+ preparation

* Information on how to apply for the Grammar School of your choice(s), and how this affects applications for non-Grammar state schools should your child not pass the entrance examinations.

*REGISTRATION FOR 2026 GRAMMAR SCHOOL ENTRY WILL OPEN 6th MAY 2025*

2026 Entry arrangements

6.5.24: Test registration opens and you can register your child from this date at https://westmidlandsgrammarschools.co.uk/

13.6.25 4.00 pm: Reasonable adjustments deadline is to allow your child to access the paper, if for example they have a disability. Requests for adjustments and supporting evidence must be uploaded with your child’s registration form.

27.6.25 4.00 pm: TEST REGISTRATION DEADLINE 4.00 PM. It is not possible to register for the test after this time.

September 2025: You will be sent information to your home address about the testing procedure for your child. Contact the Admissions Office if you have not heard anything by 9th September.

13.9.25: Testing takes place on Saturday 13th September 2025 at an establishment indicated to you, which may not be the school you wish your child to go to.

17.10.25: Results will be released NO LATER THAN 17th October 2025 on a pass/fail basis. THIS IS NOT AN OFFER OF A PLACE

31.10.25: Apply for your child's preferred school place on the Local Authority preference form by this date. YOU ARE ADVISED TO WAIT FOR ENTRANCE TEST RESULTS BEFORE APPLYING FOR SCHOOL PLACES.

What happens now?

1.3.26: National School Offer Day. Receive your school placement offer today.

You can register your child for the 2026 entrance test through the Grammar Schools Portal when it opens on 6th May 2025. You will receive an email acknowledgement immediately after submitting your registration to confirm it has been successful. Following registration, you will be sent a further email in due course advising you of the venue of the test.

All costs associated with the state school entrance test, including the test itself, are paid for by the grammar schools themselves - the test is not to be used as a practice or ‘mock test’ by candidates with no intention of applying for a place at any of The Grammar Schools in Birmingham/West Midlands.

Should you decide to register for the optional entrance test and it is deemed that your home address is not within a reasonable commutable distance to West Midlands Grammar School Partnership, you will be contacted by the Admissions Office to provide further information to support your application to sit the test – this will include a request for evidence of your intention to relocate, such as a recent offer of employment in the area.

Please note that any requests for reasonable adjustments should be submitted by 13.6.25, 4.00 pm, along with all relevant evidence. Contact the Admissions office to request the relevant form after entrance test applications have been submitted.

The 11+ is a selective entrance examination for secondary school, used by both state-funded grammar schools and many private schools to identify the most academically-able children. The exam is taken towards the end of Year 5 or the beginning of Year 6 of primary school.

The 11+ is still used in the following counties which have state-funded grammar schools: Berkshire, Bexley, Birmingham, Buckinghamshire, Cumbria, Devon, Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Medway, Shropshire, Trafford, Wiltshire, Walsall, Warwickshire, Wirral, Wolverhampton and Yorkshire. Northern Irish grammar schools use the Northern Ireland Transfer Test.

Until recently, there were two main exam boards for the 11+ exam Birmingham/West Midlands Partnership: CEM (Durham University) and GL Assessment. However, CEM stopped offering 11+ tests from September 2023. Be sure to check that your preparation centre is using GL materials - a number of Tutor Room clients reported that their previous 11+ tuition providers (particularly group tuition centres) were still using older materials.

There are eight Grammar Schools in the Birmingham region. These eight schools belong to a ‘consortium’ for the Birmingham region and there is just one exam for children wishing to attend any one of the schools in the group. It is worth noting that the schools of the King Edward VI Foundation have now introduced catchment areas - please check each school's policy according to where you live.

There are a further five Grammar Schools in the Shropshire/Wolverhampton/Walsall Consortium and another six in the Warwickshire Consortium.

Testing takes place on a Saturday in early September; this year it is expected to be Saturday 13th September. It is expected that there will be testing on Sunday 14th September 2025 for followers of the Jewish and Seven Heavens faiths, who object to Saturday testing. It is usual that two sessions will be held (AM and PM) and you should plan to keep the whole of your day free in this case. If the test is held over two sessions, your child will be allocated to a session and you will receive confirmation of this in early September. - it is worth remembering that your child may not be sitting the entrance examination in the school of your choice, but that this bears no relation to whether or not your child is eventually accepted into your chosen institution.

What is the format of the 2025/26 September 11+ exam in Birmingham/West Midlands?

The test is provided by GL Assessment.
Candidates will sit 2 papers, each approximately 60 minutes long (which includes time for instructions and example questions).
Each test paper is divided into smaller individually timed sections that test English Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics and Non-Verbal/Spatial Reasoning.
Weighting is 50% for verbal ability, 25% for numerical ability 25% for non-verbal ability.
Each paper is approximately 60 minutes in duration and will be divided into timed sections, and instructions will be given on an audio soundtrack. Most questions are multiple choice and all answers are marked on a separate machine-readable answer sheet. There will be a short break between the two test papers.
The NVR section now contains a Spatial Reasoning section: 3D building blocks , nets and cubes, 3D rotations and other new types previously not seen in CEM papers (the chosen testing format until 2022).
All questions are multiple choice and children record their answers on a separate answer sheet.
The scores for each section are standardised to take into account differences in age, meaning younger children are not disadvantaged compared to children in the same cohort who could be almost a year older.

King Edward's School Birmingham

A boys only fee-paying option, located next to the University of Birmingham and sharing its 50-acre grounds with its sister school, King Edward VI High School for Girls. It has 25 assisted places for Year 7 entry, about 10 of which are free. Scholarships are available.

King Edward VI High School for Girls

A girls only fee-paying option, located next to the University of Birmingham and sharing its 50-acre grounds with its sister school, King Edward's School Birmingham. It has around 96 places for Year 7 entry. Means-tested assisted places and discretionary Scholarships are available.

Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School

Located in Sutton Coldfield, it is a boys only Grammar School with 192 places for year 7 entry.

King Edward VI Aston School

Located in the Aston area, this is another boys only Grammar option. There are 120 places available each year for year 7 entry.

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys

A boys only Grammar School in the Kings Heath area of Birmingham. There are 120 year 7 places available each year.

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls

Located in Kings Heath, close to Camp Hill School for Boys and has 150 year 7 places. This is a girls only Grammar option.

King Edward VI Five Ways School

A mixed Grammar School. There are 180 places for year 7 girls and boys.

King Edward VI Handsworth School for Boys

Has 150 places per year 7 intake. It is a boys only Grammar School.

King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls

Has 150 places per for year 7 intake. It is a girls only Grammar School.

Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls

A girls only Grammar school with 180 places each September for year 7 entry.

The Birmingham Consortium Grammar Schools

The Schools requiring entry tests:
Private / Fee Paying Schools

What is the 11+?

11+ Timeline

The West Midlands Grammar School Partnership explicitly states that "intensive coaching or tuition is not in the long term best interests of your child. None of the schools are connected to nor endorse nor recommend, the services of any organisation or agency purporting to offer tuition and/or revision courses for children to assist in preparing them for school entrance tests".

(see https://westmidlandsgrammarschools.co.uk/preparing-for-the-test/)

And this is the conundrum... yes, we understand that children should be getting places at Grammar Schools if they have natural abilities. BUT there are only a handful of places at these schools compared with the number of students hoping for places - and very few of these students taking the tests will not have had tuition beforehand. At Mrs BC's Tutor Room, our aim is not to 'cram' information, or 'drum in skills' that will be needed to pass a test only to leave a student floundering and out of their depth once they get to the school itself. Instead, our aim is to teach skills that will set them up for their life at Grammar School (should they pass the entrance exams). 11+ tutoring can, of course, help with some of the basics if your child is struggling, but our main focus will be on developing the unique yet transferrable skills required for these tests - your child will not be learning simply to pass a test, but will be gaining skills necessary for life-long learning.

Years 1-4

It's never too early to start with the basics! Focus on phonics in the earlier years (remembering that there is currently phonics screening at the start of Year 2, and a Multiplication Tables Check (MTC screening for mathematics) in Year 4

Year 4

If you're seriously considering your child for a Grammar School place then now is the time to start. It might seem early but entrance testing for Grammar schools requires a different skill set to those taught in schools preparing children for SATs. Whilst there is undoubtedly some cross-over, such as in reading comprehension and mathematics, these skills need to be at a higher level than generally taught in mainstream schools. The other areas (Verbal and Non-Verbal Problem Solving/Reasoning) is not explicitly taught in primary schools.

Year 5

At the beginning of Year 5: Visit the schools you are interested in. There is more than one Grammar School in the Birmingham Grammar Schools list and it may surprise you how different these settings can be. For instance, don't be put off by a school's location (a surprisingly common reaction) - the quality of education and the educational settings themselves will more than outweigh its location!

REMEMBER: IT IS ONLY 12 MONTHS FROM SEPTEMBER IN YEAR 5 UNTIL YOUR CHILD TAKES THE ENTRANCE TESTS

Make, or work with me to make a 12 month revision plan to cover what is needed for these tests.

Application forms for secondary school placements are sent out at the end of Year 5. YOU NEED TO FILL THIS IN WITH YOUR CHOSEN SCHOOLS EVEN IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR GRAMMAR SCHOOLS - but the deadline for applications is not until October 31st, which is after entrance examination results are published. However, if you have decided by this time that your child will not be sitting the Birmingham Grammar Schools entrance examinations, there is no reason why you cannot send in your secondary school application form when it is issued.

Year 6

September: GRAMMAR SCHOOL TESTING TAKES PLACE AT THE START OF YEAR 6. Remember that tests may not always be taken in the institution of your choice but that this bears no relation to later acceptance at your preferred school.

October: Results from Grammar Schools tests will be released by 17th October 2025 on a pass/fail basis. You now need to complete the common application form. EVEN IF YOUR CHILD HAS PASSED THE ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS YOU WILL STILL NEED TO COMPLETE THIS APPLICATION FORM.

The deadline to apply for a secondary school place in 2026 is 31st October 2025, in line with the dates for previous years. If you apply by this date, you will receive your child’s school offer on National Offer Day (1st March 2026).

See https://www.gov.uk/schools-admissions/how-to-apply

March: National Offers Day. You’ll be told by letter whether your child has been offered a place at your first-choice school. If your application was unsuccessful you will automatically receive details of the appeals procedure.

About the 11+ information and guidance