The Blue Coat School

Liverpool, L15 9EE · Liverpool grammar school

Ofsted: Good Mixed
Test board
Consortium: N/A. Unique July Phase 1 test date — earlier than any other grammar school LA. Phase 2 only for successful Phase 1 candidates

Ofsted judgement breakdown (2022-11-08)

Overall effectiveness
Good
Quality of education
Good
Behaviour and attitudes
Outstanding
Personal development
Good
Effectiveness of leadership and management
Good
Safeguarding is effective?
Yes
Sixth form provision (where applicable)
Good

Oversubscription criteria

  1. Pupil premium — Up to 27 places: highest-scoring Free School Meals-eligible applicants who achieve the required entrance test score
  2. Score rank — All other places: highest-scoring remaining applicants

What the entrance test covers

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.

University destinations

Oxbridge
11%
Russell Group
80%
Top-third university
82%
Any degree
91%

Of the 158-student 2019/20 leaver cohort, sustaining a higher-education destination the following year. This is the last cohort the Department for Education published with an Oxbridge/Russell Group breakdown — these categories were discontinued as official accountability measures after this release, so a more recent figure does not exist.

House prices nearby

Median price, Church ward (Year ending Mar 2023)
£307,000

Median price for the school's electoral ward, year ending March 2023 — a neighbourhood-level indicator, not the school's actual admissions catchment (catchments are often smaller than a ward or span parts of several).

Data sourced from GIAS, Ofsted and official Liverpool admissions publications. Figures can change year to year — always confirm with the school before applying.

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