Birmingham, B12 0EJ · Birmingham · primary school
LA-wide default is distance-based (nearest-school priority), but individual community schools can and do define their own catchment area on top — varies school by school, not a single LA-wide rule.
Source: Birmingham admissions policy
Category of concern: SM
One shared test for all eight Birmingham grammar schools, arranged by the King Edward VI Foundation and provided by GL Assessment: two papers of about an hour each, covering English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics, and non-verbal/spatial reasoning. Answers are multiple-choice and scores are age-standardised. There is no fixed pass mark — after the test, each school sets its own qualifying and priority score thresholds, so the same result can qualify a child for some of the eight schools but not others. Camp Hill schools have historically had the highest cutoffs. Register once (online, via the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, historically by late June of Year 5); the single result is used by every Birmingham grammar school named on your Common Application Form.
Same area, prioritising the same phase — useful for shortlisting alternatives.
Data sourced from GIAS, Ofsted and official Birmingham admissions publications. Figures can change year to year — always confirm with the school before applying.
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