Birmingham runs one of the most competitive grammar school systems in England. Eight grammar schools across the city and Sutton Coldfield, a single consortium entrance test, and demand that routinely sees five to eight children applying for every place at the super-selective schools. If grammar school is on your radar, the consortium test is the thing you need to understand. So let's walk through it.
What is the Birmingham 11+?
There are eight grammar schools in the Birmingham area. Six of them are run by the King Edward VI Foundation: Aston, Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, Five Ways, Handsworth Boys, and Handsworth Girls. The other two are Bishop Vesey's Grammar School and Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls, both in Sutton Coldfield. Together they form the Birmingham Grammar Schools Consortium, which administers a single entrance test that all eight schools use.
One test, eight schools. You sit it once and the result is shared across the consortium. You then apply to your chosen schools through the normal admissions process, ranking them on your preference form.
The test sits early in Year 6, usually in September. Registration closes in June of Year 5, and that deadline catches a lot of families out. There's no automatic registration, even for Birmingham residents. You have to actively apply through the consortium website.
Why is Birmingham so competitive?
The short answer: the Foundation's schools consistently rank among the best state schools in the country. Camp Hill Boys and Camp Hill Girls in particular are super-selective with no geographic catchment. Children come from across Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry, Wolverhampton, and well beyond. A bright child in Walsall competes with bright children from Harborne, Moseley, Erdington, and further out.
Five Ways sits in the same bracket. Super-selective. City-wide draw. The Handsworth schools and Aston are selective but weight distance more heavily. Bishop Vesey's and Sutton Coldfield Grammar for Girls also take distance into account once the pass mark is cleared.
The practical implication is this: passing doesn't settle which school your child will attend. That depends on their score, where you live, and how you order your preferences. Families in Moseley targeting Camp Hill face a different calculation from families in Sutton Coldfield targeting Bishop Vesey's.
The test format
Until 2022 the Birmingham consortium test was produced by CEM (Durham). CEM retired its 11+ products, which forced most of its client areas, Birmingham included, to find a new partner. The consortium now uses a test developed with ATOM Learning.
The test covers English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning, and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Papers are multiple choice, taken on the same day. CEM used mixed-format booklets and tried to be harder to tutor for. The new test is more structured and, in practice, closer to a GL-style assessment. Good GL-style practice material is now more useful than old CEM papers.
Standardised scores and the pass mark
Scores are age-standardised. A summer-born child isn't disadvantaged by being nearly a year younger than a September-born classmate. The system adjusts for that.
The consortium publishes a qualifying score each year. In most years it sits around 220 combining English, Maths, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. But the qualifying score and the effective cut-off for super-selective places are different things. At Camp Hill Boys, the actual admission score in a typical year sits well above 240. Passing means eligible. Getting in at Camp Hill means scoring in the top few hundred applicants out of several thousand.
The schools that use distance-based selection (Aston, Handsworth Boys, Handsworth Girls, Bishop Vesey's, Sutton Coldfield Girls) only need you to clear the qualifying score. After that it's distance to school, sibling links, and the normal admissions rules. The super-selective schools (Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, Five Ways) rank all eligible applicants by score and admit the highest.
Registration and the practical timeline
If your child is in Year 5 now, the key date is the end of June. That's when registration closes. You sign up through the Birmingham Consortium website and choose a test centre. The test itself happens in September, right at the start of Year 6.
Results come out in October. They need to, because the secondary school preference deadline in Birmingham is 31 October. You need your result before you commit to a preference order. National offer day is 1 March.
What trips parents up here? Forgetting that the test runs before you've applied. Some parents assume they apply to a specific grammar school and then sit a test for that school. That's how some independent schools work, not how the Birmingham consortium works. Register with the consortium, sit the test, get your result, then rank the schools on your form.
How much preparation is realistic?
Birmingham grammar schools are competitive enough that most children who get in have done structured preparation. That doesn't mean you need a tutor three times a week from Year 3. It means your child should know the question types before test day and have practised working under time pressure.
The question types are learnable. Verbal reasoning uses word games, code-breaking, letter sequences, and vocabulary questions. Non-verbal reasoning uses shape and pattern recognition. Both reward familiarity. A child seeing these questions cold on test day is at a real disadvantage. A child who's done 40 or 50 practice sessions has seen the patterns before.
English at the Birmingham test emphasises reading comprehension and technical accuracy. Punctuation. Grammar. Spelling. Children who read widely tend to do well. Maths covers the Year 5 and 6 curriculum, with an emphasis on problem solving and word problems. The test moves fast. Children who can do the maths but work slowly struggle with timing more than with content.
A sensible timeline for most families looks like this. Start familiarisation in January of Year 5. Move to regular timed practice from Easter. Do full mock papers across the summer. Use the final weeks before September to fine-tune. That's roughly 8 to 9 months of consistent work, which is more than enough if you stick with it.
Should you pay for a tutor?
Birmingham has a strong "everyone has a tutor" pressure in some social circles. That pressure isn't always accurate. Plenty of children pass the consortium test with home preparation using CGP, Bond, and practice paper sets.
A tutor is most useful for filling a specific gap. If your child struggles with non-verbal reasoning and you don't feel confident teaching it, a handful of sessions can unlock it. A tutor also helps with accountability when home practice keeps slipping. You pay partly for the structure.
What a tutor can't do is change whether your child is the right fit for grammar school. If they're well short of the required level, no amount of tutoring delivers a Camp Hill place. Being honest about where your child sits matters more than spending more.
FAQ
My child is at a state primary in Birmingham. Will the school help prepare for the 11+?
Probably not explicitly. State primaries in selective areas generally don't teach to the 11+ because it falls outside the national curriculum and not every pupil is sitting it. Some schools mention it at Year 5 parents' evenings. Most don't. Don't rely on your primary to do this work for you. Most preparation happens at home or with a tutor.
Can my child sit the test if we don't live in Birmingham?
Yes. The Birmingham consortium test is open to any child, regardless of where you live. Out-of-area children register the same way through the consortium site. The super-selective schools don't prioritise local applicants, so Camp Hill and Five Ways genuinely admit children from well outside Birmingham. Distance matters more for Handsworth, Aston, Bishop Vesey's and Sutton Coldfield Grammar for Girls.
We're starting in Year 5. Is that too late?
No. Year 5 is when most Birmingham families begin serious preparation. Earlier can help children who need longer to build confidence, but you don't need to begin in Year 3. What you do want to avoid is starting in July before a September test. That's not enough runway given how competitive Birmingham is.
If my child passes the qualifying score but not the Camp Hill cut-off, what happens?
Your child is eligible for any of the eight consortium grammar schools. You list them in preference order on the admissions form. If Camp Hill is top of your list and their score doesn't reach the admission threshold, they won't be offered Camp Hill. But they may be offered a school further down your list where distance or score is sufficient. This is why the preference order matters. A passed-but-not-top child might still get Handsworth Boys or Bishop Vesey's, which is a good outcome many families overlook.
If you want to see where your child actually stands before you commit to a prep plan, readyfor11.co.uk gives you a free benchmark across reasoning, English and maths. No account. No paywall. About 20 minutes, and you get a clearer picture of where to focus.