Grammar Schools in Warwickshire

Registration for the Warwickshire 11 Plus Test starts in May when the child is in Year 5 and closes at the end of June. This is a relatively small registration window compared to other areas of the country. Parents need to complete the registration form on the Warwickshire County Council website and create an account on the parent portal. This is also the opportunity to inform about any special educational needs so that provision can be made for this in the test.

There are six schools in the area which use the Warwickshire 11 plus, one of which is only partially selective. The schools also share the test with thirteen other schools which are located in nearby geographical areas. Each school, listed above, has different admissions criteria which will be taken into account alongside the results of the 11 plus test.

In Warwickshire, there are six grammar schools which use the test. Two are co-educational, two are boys only and two are girls only. Most schools offer around 150 places in Year 7.

The results of the Warwickshire 11 Plus Test will be delivered via the Parent Portal, which parents have used to register for the test. The results come out around the middle of October, leaving time for parents to complete the application form and name a grammar school on there if their child has been assessed as of grammar school standard. At this point, proof of address is also requested and must be submitted by the end of December.

The Warwickshire 11 Plus Test is held in the middle of September, with two test dates depending on the school. The test is taken in one morning and last around two and a half hours, with a break of around thirty minutes. As the test is shared between different school and local authorities there is usually no option to take the test on an alternative date.

The Warwickshire 11 Plus Test has two papers, each around one hour long. The papers are taken on the same day across all six schools, and with time for breaks this means that the test lasts around two and a half hours. Each test has clear instructions and time for practice questions, so children will not be answering questions for a hour; more like fifty minutes.

The Warwickshire 11 plus exam is part of a wider consortium of grammar schools which includes 19 schools in total. There are four subjects assessed in the test: maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning. The non-verbal reasoning sections do include spatial reasoning. Whilst children may be familiar with the English and Maths content, they are unlikely to have studied reasoning previously and so may need some extra support with this.

The Warwickshire 11 Plus Test is written and managed by GL Assessment. GL Assessment are a nationwide provider of 11 plus tests and there are useful familiarisation materials available on their website for parents. In this specific 11 plus test the subjects are mixed together into two papers, so children will undertake short sections of questions on different topics.

There are two papers in the Warwickshire 11 plus, both of which last around one hour. It is likely that students will have between 30 seconds and one minute for each question. This means that the number of questions is likely to be between 50 and 80. It is important to practise timed sections of each topic to improve exam technique before the real thing.

There is no room for re-marks with the test, because it is marked using computers, meaning mistakes are highly unlikely. However there is still a possibility of appeal once school places have been offered on National Secondary Schools Offer Day in March. At this stage if your child has been assessed as of grammar school standard or otherwise meets the admissions criteria, you can appeal their place.

The Warwickshire 11 Plus Test is part of a larger consortium of West Midlands grammar schools. In total there are nineteen schools which use the 11 plus in these areas. In Warwickshire itself there are six grammar schools which use a shared test, referred to as the Warwickshire 11 plus. These schools require children to take the test only once and then choose which school they wish to apply for. There are different pass marks at each of the schools beyond which your child will be considered to be eligible for a place.

The difficulty level of the Warwickshire 11 Plus Test will depend on the level of the student and how much preparation they have undertaken. Some schools do have high baseline scores and therefore children will need to aim for around 80% in practice tests to have a good chance of succeeding. However some children may find the test fairly accessible if they are already in the top 25% of their year group. It should be noted that the test includes verbal, non-verbal and spatial reasoning, which may be unfamiliar to most children.

A good Warwickshire 11 Plus Test score is a mark which places the child in the top 25% of their cohort. Top schools will require around 230 as a pass mark and so it would be a good idea to aim for this. The maximum score is around 280. Each paper has around 140 marks available and there are two papers, but scores are also standardised and age-weighted, which will affect the specifics of the marks.

The Warwickshire 11 Plus Test pass mark does differ between schools and very much depends on how many places are on offer. Each grammar school has its own admission criteria publicly available as an admissions policy, which publishes an admissions number for each academic year. Once places have been allocated there will be other criteria which are applicable, and this means that some schools have more places than others, and thus lower baseline pass marks.

King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon and Stratford Girls’ Grammar School have the highest pass marks historically, based on numbers of students who have applied and been accepted. This is very much changeable however as pass parks will depend on the numbers who apply in that calendar year, followed by the academic profile of the cohort.

Conversely, some schools may historically have had lower pass marks for the test. These include one school which is only partially selective: Ashlawn School. Other schools with potentially lower criteria include Lawrence Sheriff School and Rugby High School (not to be confused with Rugby School). Again, as with the higher pass scores described above, this will depend on the specific year group.