Queen Mary's Grammar School 11+ guide

Atom Learning is partnered with Queen Mary's Grammar School. You can read more about our partnership here.

Thinking about applying to Queen Mary's Grammar 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 Queen Mary's Grammar School

• Address: Sutton Road, Walsall, WS1 2PG
• Number of pupils: 1,300+
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Number of places in Year 7: 180
• 11+ exam: West Midlands Grammar School Entrance Test
• Catchment area: No

Dates for your diary

• Tuesday 6th May 2025: registration opens for the West Midlands Grammar Schools' Entrance Test
• Friday 13th June 2025: reasonable adjustments deadline
• Friday 27th June 2025: test registration closes
• Saturday 13th September 2025: West Midlands Grammar Schools’ Entrance Test
• Friday 17th October 2025: parents receive test results
• Friday 31st October 2025: secondary school applications close at 5pm
• Monday 2nd March 2026: secondary school national offers day

About Queen Mary's Grammar School

Queen Mary's Grammar School is a selective boys' school. It is located just outside Walsall town centre. It is twinned with the girls' school, Queen Mary's High School. It's also part of the Mercian Trust. This is a group of schools working together to provide the best education and life chances for the children and young people of Walsall.

Founded in 1554 by Mary Tudor, this is one of the oldest schools in the country. It is proud of its traditions and heritage. But it is also confident of an exciting future, aiming to shape a new educational landscape with its Mercian Trust partners.

The school is part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme. It offers eight hours of Mandarin Chinese language study each week. It has also been nationally recognised for its mental health programme, Change Your Mind. Students plan and deliver wellbeing workshops to local primary schools.

Queen Mary's is part of the Consortium of Grammar Schools in Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton (SWW Consortium). Children only have to take one test to apply to any of these schools. From 2023, the testing process is also shared with all grammar schools in Birmingham and Warwickshire.

How to apply to Queen Mary's Grammar School

Queen Mary's Grammar 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.

Queen Mary's Grammar 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 on Tuesday 6th May 2025 and closes on Friday 27th June 2025. 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. You’ll then receive your child’s results by Friday 17th October.

To apply to Queen Mary's Grammar 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 Queen Mary's Grammar School below.

What subjects are on the entrance exam?

Queen Mary's Grammar 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.

How does place allocation work at Queen Mary's Grammar 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.

Queen Mary's Grammar 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 Queen Mary's Grammar School in 2024 was 295.

If the number of children who have achieved the qualifying score exceeds the number of places available, Queen Mary's Grammar School applies oversubscription criteria. Children are prioritised for places in the following order:

Looked After or previously Looked After Children. Up to 54 boys who receive Pupil Premium, in order of test score, and with priority given to boys who attend a primary school listed in the Walsall Children’s Services Directory. Other boys who achieve the qualifying score, in rank order of their score.

Queen Mary's Grammar School catchment area

Queen Mary's Grammar School does not have a catchment area. Children do not have to live in the Borough of Walsall to apply.

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.