Warwickshire Grammar School Qualifying Scores and 11+ Entry

Warwickshire has six state grammar schools, each an academically selective secondary that fills its Year 7 places using the West Midlands Grammar Schools' Entrance Test, a single sitting shared with Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire so that a child registering for grammar schools across more than one of those authorities sits the test only once. Two of the six are in Stratford-upon-Avon, two in Rugby and one in Alcester. The sixth, Ashlawn School in Rugby, runs a single selective class alongside its comprehensive intake, with only that one class selected each year.

Warwickshire County Council coordinates registration, the test itself and the resulting score, while each grammar school remains its own admission authority and sets its own qualifying score, priority area and oversubscription criteria for the places it offers. Families registering for the current round, which covers children sitting the test in September for entry the following September, need to register between 7 May and 30 June, well before the national secondary application deadline at the end of October.

The six grammar schools in Warwickshire

Warwickshire's six grammars sit across three towns, with Year 7 admission shaped entirely, or in Ashlawn's case partly, by performance in the 11+ test.

• King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon: boys' grammar school
• Stratford Girls' Grammar School, Stratford-upon-Avon: girls' grammar school
• Alcester Grammar School, Alcester: co-educational grammar school
• Lawrence Sheriff School, Rugby: boys' grammar school
• Rugby High School, Rugby: girls' grammar school, distinct from the fee-paying Rugby School
• Ashlawn School, Rugby: a bi-lateral school running one selective class per year group alongside its comprehensive intake, with a slightly different curriculum in Years 7 and 8 for that class

Who runs the test and what it covers

GL Assessment has set the West Midlands Grammar Schools' Entrance Test since children applying for 2023 entry sat it, appointed after a joint procurement exercise between the participating authorities and The Schools of King Edward VI Foundation replaced the previous contract with CEM. The test covers four areas across two multiple-choice papers of around 60 minutes each, including spoken instructions and practice items, with Warwickshire's guidance noting that questions relate to the primary curriculum but can go beyond what children are expected to have covered by the end of Key Stage 2.

Warwickshire standardises and weights each child's raw scores into a single total before releasing a result, and does not publish or release raw scores even on request; when the county moved to GL Assessment, it stated that intensive coaching or tuition is not needed or encouraged for the test.

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Registration and the entry timetable

Registration runs to a fixed timetable published by Warwickshire County Council, and in the most recent round it covered children sitting the test in September for a Year 7 place the following September. Children do not need to live in Warwickshire to register, though a score from an 11+ test sat outside the shared West Midlands arrangement with Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire cannot transfer, and the child would need to sit the Warwickshire test instead.

• Registration opens: 7 May
• Registration and access arrangements deadline: 4pm, 30 June
• Test invitation letters sent: week commencing 10 August
• Test dates: 12 to 13 September
• Results available: 16 October
• Secondary school application deadline: set by the home council, normally 31 October and later when that date falls at a weekend
• Proof of address requested, where at least one grammar school was applied to: by 31 December
• National Offer Day: 1 March

What the 11+ score means and what to do next

Warwickshire standardises and weights each child's raw data into a total score, and the council's published figures show each grammar school's Automatic Qualifying Score and minimum waiting-list score for comparison. Each school fixes both scores afresh through a Committee of Reference, so earlier figures indicate the range a school has used without setting the next pass mark. The council also publishes a list of all 11+ test scores with their associated ranking.

Sitting the test is not an application. The family names the grammar schools on the home local authority's application by the home council's closing date, normally 31 October and later when that date falls at a weekend, and offers follow on 1 March, with each school working through its priority area and score order. A child who reaches a school's minimum waiting-list score is added automatically to the waiting list of any grammar school named on the application, ranked by that school's oversubscription criteria.

A family refused a grammar school place can appeal to an independent panel, and children who move into the area after the test can be tested in additional sessions arranged later in the autumn.

Priority areas and catchment

Each grammar school publishes its own admission arrangements setting out a priority area, comparable to a catchment area, together with residency requirements that go beyond the standard proof of address most schools ask for, so Warwickshire advises reading each school's arrangements carefully before applying. Living inside a school's priority area increases a child's chance of being offered a place without guaranteeing one, and families outside it may still apply.

Ashlawn School's selective class has its own priority area. Warwickshire advises families to contact the school directly for details, since the general grammar school priority area maps do not cover it.

How places are allocated

An application can list up to six school preferences, and Warwickshire recommends naming at least three schools a child would be happy to attend in case a grammar school place does not follow. Where a grammar school is oversubscribed, places go first by that school's own criteria, typically test score and priority area residency, and any applicants left exactly tied for a final place go to random allocation, carried out by two Admissions Service officers in the presence of a Local Authority solicitor who record and countersign the order generated; multiple-birth siblings tied for a place are excluded from this and offered a place together.

Children not offered a place join a waiting list ranked in strict priority order under the same oversubscription criteria, a position that can move up or down as other children join, with neither a late application nor time already spent on the list affecting priority.

Appeals

A parent whose child is refused a grammar school place can appeal, and Warwickshire recommends contacting the admissions service first, on 01926 414143 or admissions@warwickshire.gov.uk, to discuss alternative schools with places available and reserve list options before doing so. Appeals go in online at apps.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolappeals, or by paper form requested from school appeals on 01926 412954 or schoolappeals@warwickshire.gov.uk, with a dedicated process and guidance document for grammar school admission appeals kept separate from standard secondary appeals.

Preparing for the test

Warwickshire publishes an Entrance Test Familiarisation Guide covering the 11+ test used across Birmingham and Warwickshire, offering example and practice questions across the test's four areas so a child can become familiar with the format before test day. Families whose child needs access arrangements apply for these by the same 30 June deadline as registration, through the county's special testing arrangements process.

For a child in Year 4 or Year 5, the guide towhen to start 11+ preparationworks back from the test date year by year.

Qualifying scores over recent years

Each grammar school's Automatic Qualifying Score and minimum waiting-list score are set by a Committee of Reference once the test has been sat and results are known, which is why the figures move from one entry to the next. Warwickshire's offer-day leaflets for the three most recent entries show how far each school has shifted, together with the number of offers it made.

In the latest leaflet, Rugby High School made 150 offers against a published admission number of 120, whilst every other school's offers matched its published number. The exact year-by-year figures sit in the key facts table.

• King Edward VI School: Automatic Qualifying Score between 232 and 239, waiting-list minimum between 230 and 231, 87 offers each time.
• Stratford Girls' Grammar School: Automatic Qualifying Score between 226 and 227, waiting-list minimum 224, 120 offers each time.
• Alcester Grammar School: Automatic Qualifying Score between 220 and 225, waiting-list minimum between 214 and 220, 150 offers each time.
• Lawrence Sheriff School: Automatic Qualifying Score between 212 and 213, waiting-list minimum between 209 and 210, 150 offers each time.
• Rugby High School: Automatic Qualifying Score between 212 and 213, waiting-list minimum between 209 and 210, 120 offers twice and 150 once.
• Ashlawn selective class: Automatic Qualifying Score 208, waiting-list minimum 204, 31 offers each time.

Rugby High School admissionsare covered in a separate guide for families considering the girls' grammar in Rugby.

Because the same test is shared with Birmingham, families may also want to read about theBirmingham grammar schoolsbefore naming preferences.

Warwickshire 11+ key dates

Warwickshire's 11+ timetable runs from registration in May to National Offer Day on 1 March, with the dates fixed by the council each cycle and listed in the key facts table. Access arrangements applications, with supporting evidence, close on 30 June alongside registration, and decision letters follow in the week commencing 13 July.

Results appear on the Parent Portal in mid-October, ahead of the 31 October secondary application deadline set through the home authority. Families who named a grammar school then send proof of address to poa@warwickshire.gov.uk, one document for the parent or carer and one for the child, requested in the week commencing 1 December and due by 31 December.

How to read the 11+ score ranking

Warwickshire's score ranking is a spreadsheet, held in the council's school admissions document library, listing all the 11+ test scores with their associated ranking. A parent can find their child's total standardised score in it and see where that score sits against every other score on the list.

To judge a likely outcome, set the child's total against each school's earlier Automatic Qualifying Score and waiting-list minimum from the table above. Because each school resets both figures after testing, earlier numbers show a range, and a score at or above a school's figure still leaves places to be allocated by that school's own oversubscription criteria.

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