The exam at a glance
King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys is part of Grammar Schools in Birmingham for Year 7 admissions. For September 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information is that applicants sit a shared consortium entrance paper set through Grammar Schools in Birmingham.
The tested subjects for this school are Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. The consortium’s format can vary slightly by cycle, so parents should check the current familiarisation information once it is published for the 2028 test round.
At the time of writing, the school’s admissions information points families to the Grammar Schools in Birmingham / West Midlands Grammar Schools website for the live test arrangements and key dates. The school page does not itself set out the paper length or delivery method for the 2028 round, so it is best to treat those details as to be confirmed until the consortium publishes them.
In practical terms, the test day for Birmingham grammar applicants is usually a single entrance-test session run through the consortium process rather than a separate school-specific exam. Families should expect a formal test environment, standard exam rules, and advance instructions about arrival time, permitted equipment and what to do if a child has approved access arrangements.
For preparation, it is sensible to cover all four subjects steadily across Year 5, then switch to timed mixed practice later on. Because this is a consortium test, children benefit from being comfortable moving between different question styles rather than relying on one narrow paper type.
Registration and key dates
Applications for the entrance test are handled through the Grammar Schools in Birmingham process, not by sending a separate test form directly to the school. King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys tells parents to use the grammar schools admissions website for information about registration and deadlines.
For the most recently published timeline visible from the school’s admissions information, test registration opened on 6 May 2025 and the deadline was 27 June 2025. The school page also notes a reasonable adjustments deadline of 13 June 2025 at 4pm. ElevenReady’s verified directory notes a typical exam date of 13 September 2025 for that cycle.
Because your child is aiming for September 2028 entry, do not use those dates as the live deadlines. Instead, use them only as a guide to the usual pattern:
- registration usually opens in May
- the deadline is usually in late June
- the test is usually in September at the start of Year 6
If your child may need access arrangements, gather evidence early and check the published deadline as soon as registration opens. Schools and consortia are usually strict about these dates.
After the test, families receive their child’s result before completing or finalising secondary school preferences, and National Offer Day then follows the standard local authority timetable. The school’s admissions page does not publish a 2028-specific results date yet, so parents should check the current Birmingham grammar schools timeline when it appears.
Useful next steps:
- Bookmark the school’s admissions page and the Grammar Schools in Birmingham registration pages.
- Set a reminder for spring 2027 to look for the 2028 test registration notice.
- Use free email alerts for this school’s key dates: /school-alerts?school=king-edward-vi-handsworth-grammar-school-for-boys
Who can apply: catchment and admissions
King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys offers 150 places in Year 7. The school’s admissions page says that information on Pupil Premium and catchment areas is provided through the Grammar Schools in Birmingham website.
One important point the school does make clear is the tiebreak rule. Where children are equal on test score, priority is given first to looked after children and then to those who live nearest to the school by straight-line distance.
Because this school is part of the Birmingham grammar schools admissions process, parents should read both the school information and the consortium admissions criteria carefully for the relevant year. In particular, check:
- whether your address falls within any published catchment definition for that admissions round
- how Pupil Premium priority is defined and evidenced
- how home address is assessed
- whether there are any residence or shared-address rules that could affect the application
The school website and its prospectus also confirm that the school is a boys’ grammar school for 11–16, while Sixth Form admissions are open more widely.
The school was judged Outstanding at its latest Ofsted inspection listed on the school site.
The school and consortium do not publish every detail that parents often ask for, such as a guaranteed qualifying score, the final distance cut-off, or a fixed pass mark for this school. If you are looking for those figures, check the current admissions pages directly and be cautious about unofficial forum claims.
A month-by-month preparation plan
The exam is usually in September of Year 6, so the most comfortable preparation window is to build skills through Year 5 and the summer. The plan below is realistic for most families and avoids turning the whole year into constant testing.
| Month | Focus |
| September to October (Year 5) | Start gently: 2 to 3 short sessions a week, about 20 to 30 minutes each. Build arithmetic fluency, careful reading, vocabulary and pattern work. Find out which topics feel easy and which need support. |
| November to December | Move to 3 sessions a week. Introduce each subject separately: one Maths session, one English session, one reasoning session. Keep most work untimed so your child learns methods properly. |
| January | Increase to around 2 to 3 hours a week in total if your child is coping well. Begin short timed sections, not full papers. Practise working accurately under mild time pressure. |
| February | Review progress. If one area is much weaker, rebalance the week rather than doing more of everything. Add mixed exercises so your child has to switch between question types. |
| March | Start occasional longer timed practice. Focus on pacing, answer checking and staying calm after a difficult question. Keep one session each week for untimed teaching and review. |
| April | Use the Easter break well, but do not overload it. Two or three stronger sessions a week is enough for many children. This is a good time to try the first full paper in exam-like conditions. |
| May | Registration usually opens around this point for the relevant test cycle. Academically, continue with one full or half paper each week plus targeted corrections. Total time is often around 3 to 4 hours a week. |
| June | Build consistency. Practise bubbling or marking answers carefully if the consortium instructions require it. Keep vocabulary and mental maths ticking over little and often. |
| July | Use timed papers more regularly, but leave space for schoolwork and rest. Analyse mistakes: was it knowledge, speed, reading too quickly or losing focus? |
| August | Short, steady holiday practice is usually better than cramming. One or two full papers a week is enough for many children, with light revision in between. Prioritise confidence and routine. |
| Early September (Year 6) | Taper rather than intensify. A few sharp review sessions, early nights and calm practical preparation matter more than extra papers at this stage. |
A good rule of thumb is this: teach first, time later. Children usually make the best gains when they understand question types before being asked to race through them.
Subject by subject: what to practise
Maths
For Birmingham grammar preparation, cover secure Key Stage 2 arithmetic and problem solving. Practise the four operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, averages, perimeter, area, basic algebraic thinking, sequences, measures and multi-step word problems. The aim is not just getting the right answer, but choosing an efficient method quickly.
Good practice habits include mental maths warm-ups, careful working out, estimating before solving, and reviewing mistakes by topic. Timed maths practice should come after methods are secure.
English
English preparation should include both comprehension and technical accuracy. Children need to read closely, find evidence, understand tone and vocabulary in context, and distinguish between what a text says directly and what it implies.
Alongside reading work, practise spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence control and precise vocabulary. Regular reading at home matters a great deal: fiction, non-fiction and high-quality children’s journalism all help. Encourage your child to explain answers in full when reviewing comprehension, even if the test itself is multiple-choice.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning often draws on vocabulary, codes, sequences, word relationships, letter patterns and logical language tasks. Children do better when they know the common question families and can spot quickly what each one is asking.
Useful preparation includes building vocabulary steadily, learning common prefixes and suffixes, practising alphabetical order, and doing short focused drills on one question type at a time before mixing them together.
Non-Verbal Reasoning
Non-Verbal Reasoning usually tests patterns, shape relationships, symmetry, rotation, reflection, codes and visual sequences. Many children improve once they learn to look systematically for change: shape, size, position, shading, number and direction.
Practise by talking through patterns aloud at first, then moving to timed sets. It helps to teach your child to eliminate wrong options quickly rather than trying to solve every question from scratch.
Because the consortium format can vary, check the current familiarisation material when it is published and make sure your child has seen the exact answer style and instructions used that year.
Practice papers and mock exams
Practice papers are most useful when they are part of a simple cycle: attempt, review, reteach, retry. A score on its own tells you very little. What matters is understanding why marks were lost and whether the same mistake appears again next week.
For this school, start with subject-by-subject practice and only move to full mixed papers later. That helps children build confidence before dealing with time pressure and question switching.
Useful ElevenReady resources:
- Free King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys practice papers (one per tested subject, with answers): /schools/king-edward-vi-handsworth-grammar-school-for-boys-mock-tests
- The King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys 11+ guide (format, catchment, dates): /schools/king-edward-vi-handsworth-grammar-school-for-boys
- Free email alerts for this school's key dates: /school-alerts?school=king-edward-vi-handsworth-grammar-school-for-boys
If you use mock exams, choose them carefully. A good mock should be there to familiarise your child with timing, instructions and nerves, not to frighten them. One or two well-chosen mocks are usually enough for most children.
Try this approach:
- Spring of Year 5: short timed sections only.
- Late spring to early summer: first full paper at home.
- Summer: occasional mock or full paper under stricter conditions.
- Final weeks: fewer papers, more error review and confidence building.
Avoid doing too many papers back-to-back. Children often learn more from one paper analysed properly than from three rushed attempts.
On the day
Keep the morning plain and predictable. Lay out clothes, pencils and any permitted equipment the night before. Check the test instructions carefully once issued and leave in good time.
Give your child a familiar breakfast, not a special one they may not want. Aim for calm, matter-of-fact reassurance: this is a chance to show what they know, not a judgement on them as a person.
Useful reminders for children:
- listen carefully to instructions at the start of each section
- if a question feels hard, do not panic; move on and come back if there is time
- watch for silly mistakes in easy questions
- keep an eye on time, but do not stare at the clock
- take a breath and reset between sections
Parents can help most by staying steady themselves. Try not to discuss cut-offs, scores or school preferences on the journey. Save post-exam analysis for later unless your child wants to talk.
After the exam: results, allocation and appeals
After the test, families receive their child’s result through the Birmingham grammar schools admissions process. You then use that information alongside your local authority secondary application, listing schools in your genuine order of preference.
National allocation follows the usual local authority process on 1 March or the next working day. If your child is offered a place, the local authority explains next steps. If not, you may be placed on a waiting list if the admissions arrangements allow it, and you may also have the right to appeal.
For appeals, always read the current admission authority guidance for the relevant year. Appeals are not a re-sit of the test; they consider whether the admission arrangements were applied correctly and, where relevant, whether the reasons for wanting a place outweigh the prejudice to the school of taking another pupil.
If your child is close to the threshold for qualification or you think an error may have affected the application, keep paperwork organised: registration confirmation, score notification, address evidence and any correspondence about special arrangements.
The school’s admissions information does not currently publish the 2028-specific results date or appeal timetable, so parents should check the live consortium and local authority pages when those are released.
What has changed recently
The main current point from the school’s admissions information is that it directs parents to the Grammar Schools in Birmingham / West Midlands Grammar Schools website for admissions procedures, catchment and Pupil Premium information, rather than publishing all live entrance-test details on the school page itself.
The school’s admissions page also includes a 2026 admissions timeline for an older cycle, showing registration opening on 6 May 2025 and a reasonable adjustments deadline of 13 June 2025 at 4pm. For families applying later, that is useful as a guide to the normal annual pattern, but the school indicates that applicants must use the current grammar schools admissions website for up-to-date dates.
We did not find an official announcement on the school page of a recent change to the school’s published Year 7 places figure; the school continues to state 150 places.
We also did not find an official school announcement on the official pages we reviewed confirming a recent change of exam board for this school. For 2028 entry, use the consortium information published for the relevant cycle and the school’s current admissions guidance.
Frequently asked questions
Does King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys set its own 11+ test?
No. The school is part of Grammar Schools in Birmingham, so admissions are handled through the shared consortium process rather than a separate school-only test.
What subjects should my child prepare for?
For 2028 entry, ElevenReady’s verified information is Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Check the current consortium familiarisation materials for the exact format used that year.
How many places are available in Year 7?
The school offers 150 places in Year 7.
Is there a catchment area?
The school says catchment and Pupil Premium information is provided through the Grammar Schools in Birmingham website. Always read the current admissions criteria for the exact rules for your child’s application year.
When do registration and the test usually happen?
Based on the timeline linked from the school, registration has recently opened in May, closed in late June, and the test has usually been in September. For 2028 entry, wait for the live dates to be published.
Does the school publish a pass mark or distance cut-off?
Not on the reviewed school admissions page. Parents should use the official admissions pages and avoid relying on unofficial cut-off claims online.
Sources
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys - Admissions: School is part of Grammar Schools in Birmingham for admissions; applicants should use Grammar Schools in Birmingham / West Midlands Grammar Schools for current admissions information; Year 7 admission number is 150; school says grammar schools website contains information on Pupil Premium and catchm
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys - Home: School website identity and general school information.
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys - Prospectus: School is a boys' grammar school for ages 11 to 16 and welcomes boys and girls into the Sixth Form.
- King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys - Ofsted: School lists its Ofsted judgement as Outstanding.
- West Midlands Grammar Schools - Home: Regional grammar schools admissions portal referenced by the school for entrance test registration and admissions information.
Preparing for other schools in Birmingham
- How to prepare for the Al-Burhan Grammar School 11+ · practice papers
- Aspire Ap School · practice papers
- Birchfield Independent Girls' School · practice papers
- Birmingham Independent College · practice papers
- Bishop Vesey's Grammar School · practice papers
- Blackwater Academy · practice papers
Written by ElevenReady from the school's published information and reviewed by a person before publishing. Last reviewed 4 October 2026. Exam arrangements change. Check the school's admissions page for the current year.