Schools in Liverpool
178 open schools · Ofsted ratings, catchment areas and admission criteria · best primary schools · best secondary schools
Liverpool has 169 state schools: 114 primary, 31 secondary, 2 all-through, 5 nursery. Between them they teach around 76,419 pupils. 134 have enough published data for a score, averaging 4.3 out of 10, and 5 score 8 or above.
40 have a sixth form. 100 take children from age three or under. 74 have a religious character, which usually means the school sets its own admissions criteria rather than the council's. 1 is selective and sets an entrance test. How the score works.
Undersubscribed schools rated Good or Outstanding
These schools didn't fill on first preference in the latest admissions year, despite an Ofsted rating of Good or Outstanding — worth a look if you're chasing the same handful of famous names everyone else applies to.
How places are allocated in Liverpool
Primary schools: Children living within a school's catchment area are usually prioritised, ahead of pure distance tiebreaker. (source)
Most schools use the local authority's default scheme rather than a school-specific catchment map — see each school's page for its own designated/catchment area where one is published.
Liverpool entrance test format
The Blue Coat School uses a two-phase, fully COMPUTER-BASED assessment (keyboard and mouse required — very different from the paper tests used in most grammar areas): Phase 1 (early July, end of Year 5) — an online adaptive test of about 1 hour 40 minutes: five 20-minute modules including reading (word recognition, decoding, comprehension) and other core skills, using CEM's Primary Insight platform. All registered children sit Phase 1. Phase 2 (mid-September of Year 6) — for children who pass Phase 1: verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and non-verbal reasoning via the Cambridge Select Insight test. Results arrive in mid-October; qualifying children can then name the school on the Common Application Form by 31 October.
Out-of-area applications
Liverpool's only grammar school is The Blue Coat School (mixed). It runs its own two-phase COMPUTER-BASED entrance assessment — registration is direct with the school, and note the unusually EARLY timeline: Phase 1 is sat at the start of July while the child is still in YEAR 5 (most areas test in September of Year 6), with Phase 2 in mid-September for those who qualify. Children living outside Liverpool can register — the school draws from across Merseyside and beyond. Apply via your home LA's Common Application Form by 31 October; results arrive in mid-October. Check the school's oversubscription criteria for distance effects.
Key dates
| Entry year | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 2028 | Application deadline | 31 October 2027 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary application deadline | 15 January 2028 |
| Sept 2028 | Offer day | 1 March 2028 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary offer day | 17 April 2028 |
| Sept 2027 | Registration opens | 26 March 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Registration closes | 24 April 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Test date phase1 | 2 July 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Test date phase2 | 19 September 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Application deadline | 31 October 2026 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary application deadline | 15 January 2027 |
| Sept 2027 | Offer day | 1 March 2027 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary offer day | 16 April 2027 |
| Sept 2026 | Application deadline | 31 October 2025 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary application deadline | 15 January 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Offer day | 2 March 2026 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary offer day | 16 April 2026 (passed) |
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