Upton Hall School 11+ guide

Thinking about applying to Upton Hall 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 Upton Hall School

• Address: Upton Hall School, Saughall Massie Lane, Upton, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH49 6LJ
• Number of pupils: approx. 1,000
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Number of places in Year 7: 156
• 11+ exam: GL Assessment
• Catchment area: no

Dates for your diary

• Thursday 19th June 2025: Upton Hall School summer open evening
• Friday 11th July 2025: deadline to apply for Upton Hall School entrance exam
• Late August 2025: parents receive details of exam arrangements
• Thursday 11th September 2025: Upton Hall School autumn open evening
• Saturday 20th September 2025: Upton Hall School entrance exam
• By 24th October 2025: parents receive exam results
• Friday 31st October 2025: national deadline to apply for secondary school places
• Monday 2nd March 2026: national secondary school offers day

About Upton Hall School

Upton Hall School is a Catholic girls' grammar school in Wirral. It was founded in 1849 by Marie Madeleine, who wanted to ensure that girls had equal educational opportunities to boys.

Ofsted rated Upton Hall School 'outstanding' in all areas in 2022 and described the school as one where "students thrive". The report praised students' "exemplary behaviour" and leaders' "highest expectations for all pupils".

Upton Hall School has full international school status. This is in recognition of work undertaken throughout the curriculum to ensure students appreciate the world we live in. A range of events help students develop cultural awareness, such as culture week and feast day.

How to apply to Upton Hall School

Upton Hall 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.

Registration for the 2025 entrance exam opens in April 2025 and closes on Friday 11th July. If your daughter is baptised Catholic, make sure to upload her baptismal certificate to this form. Baptised Catholic children are prioritised for places in the school’s oversubscription criteria.

The exam will take place on Saturday 20th September 2025 and you’ll be informed of the outcome of the tests by 24th October. The school will let you know if your child is eligible for a place based on her exam performance. If you would then like to apply to the school, you’ll need to name it 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.

Upton Hall School is not a member of the Wirral grammar schools’ consortium. If you are considering other grammar schools in Wirral, you will need to register your child for these tests separately.

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 Upton Hall School below.

What subjects are on the entrance exam?

The Upton Hall School entrance exam consists of two papers. Both of these papers are supplied by GL Assessment. Many grammar schools in England use papers provided by GL for their 11 plus exams.

Both papers have a 50 minute time limit and are completely multiple-choice. Your child will have a separate question booklet and answer sheets for each paper. They will need to mark the answer, or answers, which they think are correct on the answer sheets.

1. English

GL Assessment 11 plus English papers are based on the content your child will have learned on the national curriculum at school.

Some questions will test reading comprehension. Your child will need to read a passage of text and answer questions to demonstrate their understanding. Other questions will assess further English skills, such as spelling, grammar and punctuation.

2. Verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning is not taught on the national curriculum, so the questions might be unfamiliar to your child. Grammar schools often use 11 plus verbal reasoning papers because they analyse children’s academic potential, rather than what they have already learned.

Verbal reasoning involves reasoning with written information, such as words, letters, numbers and symbols. Your child will need to understand how words are produced and used, and the relationships between them. They might also need to use logic to solve codes and work out the next item in a sequence.

How does place allocation work at Upton Hall School?

After the test, your child’s answer sheets are marked using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR). This technology picks up the marks your child has made to indicate which answers they think are correct. Your child receives a mark for every correct answer.

These marks are then age-standardised. Age-standardisation is a common practice in 11 plus scoring and ensures younger children aren’t disadvantaged. A standardised age score of 100 represents the average score for the child's year group, while a score of 120 indicates the child is working within the top 10% of their year group.

Your child’s standardised marks are added together to produce one total score. The top 60% of scores are defined as the ‘required standard’ for entry to Upton Hall School.

Of the girls who meet this required standard, 156 places are offered to children in this priority order:

1. Looked after and previously looked after children
2. Baptised Roman Catholic girls who are eligible for free school meals
3. Baptised Roman Catholic girls
4. Daughters of staff employed by Upton Hall School for at least two years
5. Girls who have not been baptised Roman Catholic, but whose parents wish them to have a Roman Catholic education and who are eligible for free school meals
6. Girls who have not been baptised Roman Catholic, but whose parents wish them to have a Roman Catholic education

If there is oversubscription in any of the categories above, places are allocated in order of merit based on the score in the entrance exam. If several children have the same score, priority is given to the girls who live closest to the school.

Atom’s top tips for 11 plus preparation

The 11 plus 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

Verbal reasoning tests 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 11 plus entrance exams. 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.