Wolverhampton Girls' High School 11+ guide

Key information for Wolverhampton Girls' High School

• Address: Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, WV6 0BY

• Number of pupils: 1,100+

• Admissions contact: [email protected]

• Number of places in Year 7: 180

• 11+ exam: West Midlands Grammar School Entrance Test

• Catchment area: No

About Wolverhampton Girls' High School

Wolverhampton Girls' High School is a selective school. It aims to develop 'happy, confident and resilient young women'.

This school is recognised among the best state schools in the West Midlands. It has a history of providing outstanding education for girls for over a century.

Offering a broad and rich curriculum, the school combines high expectations with tailored support to achieve its excellent academic results at GCSE and A level. Wolverhampton Girls' High School has been rated Outstanding four times in a row by Ofsted.

Wolverhampton Girls' 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.

What subjects are on the entrance exam?

Wolverhampton Girls' High 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 Wolverhampton Girls' High 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.

Wolverhampton Girls' High School will then set a qualifying score. This isn’t always decided until after the entrance test takes place.

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

1. Looked After or previously Looked After Children who achieve the qualifying score or above are automatically offered a place.

2. The highest-scoring 25 children who receive Pupil Premium and achieve the qualifying score are automatically offered a place.

3. Other children are offered places in order of their test score. If a tie break is needed, Looked After and previously Looked After children are prioritised, followed by children who receive Pupil Premium, followed by those living nearest to the school.

Wolverhampton Girls' High School catchment area

Wolverhampton Girls’ High School does not have a catchment area. Children do not have to be living in the City of Wolverhampton to apply to the school. Distance to the school is only used as a tie break for the last place in each admissions category. Distances are measured in a straight line from the school to the child's permanent home address.

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.