Schools near Sutton Coldfield
42 open schools in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham · Ofsted ratings, catchment areas and admission criteria · see all Birmingham schools · grammar schools in Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield has 42 state schools: 32 primary, 8 secondary, part of Birmingham's wider catchment. 41 have a published Ofsted rating, and 32 of those are rated Good or Outstanding. 2 are state grammar schools and set an entrance test.
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 Birmingham
Primary schools: 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)
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.
Sutton Coldfield straddles a council boundary: the scheme above is Birmingham's, and Staffordshire, Walsall, Warwickshire also have schools here, applying under their own.
Birmingham entrance test format
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.
Key dates
| Entry year | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 2028 | Application deadline | 2027-10-31 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary application deadline | 2028-01-15 |
| Sept 2028 | Offer day | 2028-03-01 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary offer day | 2028-04-17 |
| Sept 2027 | Registration opens | 2026-05-06 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Registration closes | 2026-06-26 (passed) |
| Sept 2027 | Test date | 2026-09-12 |
| Sept 2027 | Application deadline | 2026-10-31 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary application deadline | 2027-01-15 |
| Sept 2027 | Offer day | 2027-03-01 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary offer day | 2027-04-16 |
| Sept 2026 | Registration opens | 2025-05-06 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Registration closes | 2025-06-27 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Test date | 2025-09-13 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Results released | 2025-10-17 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Application deadline | 2025-10-31 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary application deadline | 2026-01-15 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Offer day | 2026-03-01 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary offer day | 2026-04-16 (passed) |
Out-of-area applications
All eight Birmingham grammar schools (Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, King Edward VI Aston, King Edward VI Camp Hill Boys, King Edward VI Camp Hill Girls, King Edward VI Five Ways, King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls) share a single entrance test arranged by the King Edward VI Foundation. Children register once via the West Midlands Grammar Schools website, sit one exam, and the result is used by every school listed on the Common Application Form. Registration historically closes in late June of Year 5 (4pm deadline), with the test on a Saturday in mid-September of Year 6 (AM and PM sessions). Out-of-area caveat: if the family's home address is not within a reasonable commutable distance of the Birmingham grammar schools, the Admissions Office may ask for evidence of intent to relocate (e.g. a recent house purchase in the area) before allowing the child to sit the test. Apply for places via your home LA's Common Application Form by 31 October. Several of the schools operate priority catchment areas and pupil-premium priority places — check each school's oversubscription criteria.
Have a specific question about admissions, scores or dates?
Ask SchoolsGPT