Best Grammar Schools in Birmingham: GCSE and A Level Results Ranked

The best grammar schools in Birmingham, ranked by average Attainment 8 score, start with King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls on 80.4, followed by Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls on 79.4, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School on 77.1 and King Edward VI Five Ways School on 75.9. Eight state grammar schools are ranked on that one measure, taken from the latest DfE key stage 4 performance tables.

Attainment 8 averages each pupil's grades across eight GCSE-level qualifications, with English and maths double-weighted, to a maximum of 90. The table also shows the percentage of pupils achieving grade 5 or above in English and maths, and the DfE's average A level grade where one is published, so a family can set the GCSE order beside sixth-form results.

Which grammar schools in Birmingham have the best GCSE results?

Average Attainment 8 scores run from 80.4 at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls down to 71.2 at King Edward VI Aston School, against a maximum of 90. Two schools sit close together at the head, with Camp Hill Girls on 80.4 and Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls on 79.4. King Edward VI Five Ways School on 75.9 and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys on 75.7 form a second near-equal pair in the middle, with Bishop Vesey's Grammar School on 77.1 placed between the two groups. King Edward VI Handsworth School on 74.2, King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys on 72 and Aston on 71.2 make up the lower group.

Girls' schools hold ranks 1, 2 and 6, boys' schools hold ranks 3, 5, 7 and 8, and Five Ways is the only co-educational school, at rank 4. The grade 5 percentages in English and maths sit in a narrow band from 96.6 to 99.4. Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls has the highest at 99.4, and King Edward VI Handsworth School records 98.4 despite ranking sixth, whilst Camp Hill Boys and Handsworth Grammar School for Boys share the lowest figure of 96.6.

The A level grades follow the GCSE order only loosely. Camp Hill Girls and Camp Hill Boys both show A-, which places the boys' school level with the girls' school at A level even though it ranks fifth at GCSE. Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls ranks second on Attainment 8 and shows B+, the same grade as Bishop Vesey's Grammar School and Five Ways. Handsworth School, Handsworth Grammar School for Boys and Aston all show B, matching the three lowest places in the GCSE ranking.

How does entry to grammar schools work for Birmingham families?

Entry is by entrance examination, and the Birmingham Consortium runs a common test used by the majority of grammar schools serving Birmingham families. Each school still manages its own admissions and operates its own catchment area, and families register separately with each school, because there is no single application portal for consortium schools.

Registration typically opens in June for a test taken the following September. Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls and Bishop Vesey's Grammar School each admit around 120 pupils into Year 7, and Bishop Vesey's allocates places on test performance and catchment area. Competition ratios frequently exceed 10:1, so preparation for the test tends to matter as much as the choice of school.

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Why are Sutton Coldfield schools included in a Birmingham ranking?

Sutton Coldfield is included because it kept its grammar schools when Birmingham abolished selection in the 1970s, and its two grammar schools serve families across Birmingham. The city itself operates a comprehensive system for most pupils, which is why Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls (rank 2) and Bishop Vesey's Grammar School (rank 3) appear beside the King Edward VI schools in the table.

Some families also look at grammar schools in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, though distance and catchment restrictions often apply to those.

Which King Edward VI schools are in the ranking?

Six of the eight ranked schools belong to the King Edward VI Academy Trust: Camp Hill School for Girls, Five Ways School, Camp Hill School for Boys, Handsworth School, Handsworth Grammar School for Boys and Aston School. All six are state grammar schools in the city, and they hold ranks 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

The foundation's two independent schools, King Edward's School and King Edward VI High School for Girls, charge fees and set their own entrance assessments, so they sit outside this table of state schools. Checking each school's own admissions criteria avoids confusing the two groups.

What do the results show and not show?

The figures show how each school's pupils performed on one DfE measure at GCSE, with the grade 5 English and maths percentage and the average A level grade as supporting detail. Every school here has a grade 5 percentage between 96.6 and 99.4, so the Attainment 8 score is the figure that separates them.

The table does not show how a particular child would fare, which entry route suits them or how many places are offered, and an A level grade is only given where the DfE publishes one. The sensible use of the ranking is to shortlist schools by boys', girls' or mixed intake and then check each one's catchment and test arrangements.

How the schools are ranked

The ranking covers every state grammar school in Birmingham with a published Attainment 8 score in the Department for Education's key stage 4 performance data, ordered from highest to lowest, with schools on the same figure sharing a rank. Every school in the table selects by ability at eleven, so the figures reflect a selective intake as well as the teaching; Progress 8 was not calculated for this cohort.

The data is the Department for Education's own download from Compare school and college performance, so anyone can reproduce the order from the same file; the data year and source are listed in the key facts above.

Admissions guides for the ranked schools

• King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls (ranked 1)
• Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls (ranked 2)
• Bishop Vesey's Grammar School (ranked 3)
• King Edward VI Five Ways School (ranked 4)
• King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys (ranked 5)
• King Edward VI Handsworth School (ranked 6)
• King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys (ranked 7)
• King Edward VI Aston School (ranked 8)

Related guides

• Birmingham Grammar Schools
• Best private schools in Birmingham and the West Midlands
• Best grammar schools in the UK by GCSE results
• Grammar schools in England: the full directory
• The 11+ entrance exam explained

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