Contents
Thinking about applying to King Edward VI Five Ways School? Find out everything you need to know about admissions in 2025–2026 and how to prepare your child for success in the 11 plus entrance exam.
Key information for King Edward VI Five Ways School
Address: Scotland Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham, B32 4BT
Number of pupils: 1,100+
Admissions contact: online contact form
Number of places in Year 7: 180
Catchment area: Yes
Dates for your diary
The 2025 exam dates haven’t been published yet. However, they are likely to be the same as 2024. Please use the dates below as a guide.
Tuesday 7th May 2024: registration opens for the West Midland Grammar Schools' Entrance Test
Friday 14th June 2024: reasonable adjustments deadline
Friday 28th June 2024: test registration closes
Saturday 14th September – Monday 16th September 2024: West Midlands Grammar Schools’ Entrance Test
Friday 18th October 2024: parents receive test results
Thursday 31st October 2024: secondary school applications close at 5pm
Monday 3rd March 2025: secondary school national offers day
About King Edward VI Five Ways School
King Edward VI Five Ways School is the only mixed grammar school in the King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham. It was founded in 1883 and occupies a 32-acre site next to Bartley Green reservoir.
King Edward VI Five Ways School is committed to improving social mobility in Birmingham. The school aims to develop and invest in growing talent. Students at Five Ways School enjoy superb facilities. These include specialist classrooms, dance studios, and a swimming pool.
How to apply to King Edward VI Five Ways School
King Edward VI Five Ways School is a selective state school. This means that your child will need to take the 11 plus exam to be eligible for a place in Year 7.
King Edward VI Five Ways School is a member of the West Midlands Grammar Schools partnership. The partnership consists of 19 schools across Birmingham, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton. All 19 schools share the same entrance test. This means that your child will only need to take the test once – even if you’re applying to multiple schools in the partnership.
The registration portal for the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test opens in May 2025 and closes in late June. After registration, your child will be invited to take the 11 plus exam at one of the participating schools. They will be allocated a test venue and a slot to take the test in September 2025. You’ll then receive your child’s results by mid-October.
To apply to King Edward VI Five Ways School, you’ll need to name the school as one of your preferred schools on the secondary school common application form. This will be available on your home council website from early September and must be submitted by 31st October 2025.
Remember – passing the 11 plus doesn’t guarantee that your child will be allocated a place at your preferred school. Many grammar schools are often oversubscribed with qualified children. Schools and their admissions authorities work through admissions criteria to prioritise children for places. We’ve included the admissions criteria for King Edward VI Five Ways School below.
What subjects are on the entrance exam?
King Edward VI Five Ways School uses the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test.
The exam consists of two one-hour papers. These papers are divided into smaller, individually-timed sections which assess:
English comprehension
Maths
Verbal reasoning
Non-verbal reasoning
All of the questions in the West Midlands Grammar Schools’ Entrance Test are multiple-choice. Your child will have separate answer sheets which they will use to mark their answers. These are marked electronically.
Guide to the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test
Find out everything you need to know in our complete guide to the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test. Plus, get access to free 11 plus resources to help your child feel confident for their exam!
How does place allocation work at King Edward VI Five Ways School?
Your child’s marks in the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test are weighted for each section:
English and verbal reasoning: 50%
Non-verbal reasoning: 25%
Maths: 25%
These weighted scores are age-standardised to ensure that younger children aren’t disadvantaged.
King Edward VI Five Ways School will then set a qualifying score. This isn’t always decided until after the entrance test takes place. As a guide, the minimum qualifying score for entry to King Edward VI Five Ways School in 2024 was 205.
If the number of children who have achieved the qualifying score exceeds the number of places available, King Edward VI Five Ways School applies oversubscription criteria. Children are prioritised for places in the following order:
Looked-After or previously Looked-After Children who achieve the qualifying score, ranked by test score and then by distance from the school.
Children who get free school meals, achieve the qualifying score, and live in the catchment area, ranked by distance from the school.
If fewer than 45 places are filled by children in category 2, places are offered to children who get free school meals, achieve the qualifying score and live outside the catchment area.
Children who achieve the priority score and live in the catchment area. Prioritised if they have a sibling at the school, then ranked by distance from the school.
Children who achieve the qualifying score, ranked by test score. Where scores are equal, priority is given to children with a sibling at the school, then ranked by distance from the school.
The catchment area consists of home addresses that are in these electoral wards: Birmingham: Allens Cross, Bartley Green, Bournville & Cotteridge, Frankley Great Park, Harborne, King’s Norton North, King’s Norton South, Longbridge & West Heath, Northfield, Quinton, Rubery & Rednal, Weoley & Selly Oak. Sandwell: Abbey, Bristnall, Old Warley.
Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation
The West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test is designed to select the most academically able children in the area. Here are our top tips to help you and your child feel confident for exam day!
Bitesize learning
It’s important to build a good knowledge base before the 11 plus. Using a ‘little and often’ approach when learning is key – our brains encode new information more effectively when dealing with smaller ‘chunks’ of information. For children aged 10–11, child psychologists recommend regular study sessions of 20–30 minutes.
Atom Home makes learning a more enjoyable process for your child. They'll explore exciting worlds full of interactive questions, earning coins to spend in the Atom shop. Atom adapts to your child, showing them questions at just the right level of difficulty to keep them motivated.
Read widely
11 plus exams test your child’s ability to analyse and interpret written information. Regular reading is a great way to help your child build these skills.
Encourage them to read books from different genres and by a diverse range of authors. Increasing the variety of your child’s reading will help them understand different styles, tones and purposes. Meanwhile, reading a little every day will help widen their vocabulary, sharpen their analytical thinking, and enhance their imagination.
Refine exam technique
When your child feels confident with the topics they’ve learnt in Year 5, they’ll be ready to put their knowledge to the test.
Practice tests can help your child develop problem-solving skills and build confidence working under test conditions. They’re also a great way to consolidate learning and highlight knowledge gaps for further improvement.
With Atom Home, you'll unlock online mock tests and printable practice papers for the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test. Enjoy automatic marking and progress tracking with the online tests, and help your child get familiar with the real exam experience with printable practice papers.
Celebrate progress
Setting regular, achievable goals and celebrating your child’s progress – no matter how big or small – will help keep their motivation high.
Make sure to encourage a growth mindset. This means celebrating effort, as well as achievement! When your child makes mistakes or struggles to understand a particular topic, help them understand that they’ll improve through practice. Regular praise will help your child improve their resilience when tackling new and challenging topics.
Tailored preparation for the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test
Wish you could give your child a roadmap to success in the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Test? You can. Atom Home has everything you need to get prepared, in one package.
You don't need a tutor to get into your top-choice grammar school. You just need Atom. We’ll create a tailored plan for your child and support them along their fun revision journey.
Online and printable practice papers for the West Midland Grammar Schools Entrance Test
90,000+ adaptive questions
500+ hours of on-demand video lessons
Automatic marking and instant progress data
Contents