This page is written for a West Midlands primary school office. It gives you free wording you can paste into a newsletter, a link for your website and an A4 sheet you can print, all of them answering the question parents ask you every autumn: how does the 11 plus actually work? Nothing here asks a family for anything.
Read this before anything else. Pathway Eleven is independent of the schools, the local authorities and GL Assessment, and is not endorsed by any of them. We are a paid 11 plus preparation service, and this page is not selling one: it exists because the answers parents want are scattered across the West Midlands Grammar Schools partnership's website, a school foundation, several councils and every school's own admissions page, and they go out of date. Linking it is passing on information. It is not a recommendation of a course, a tutor or a product, and nothing on this page asks your school to prepare, coach or enter a single child.
What to send parents
Three things, in the order they cost you time. The first takes about ninety seconds.
- A paragraph for the newsletterWritten to be pasted whole, with no dates inside it, so it does not go stale between one September and the next. Two lengths are below.
- A line for the useful links pageSitting alongside the council admissions link your website already carries.
- An A4 leaflet for the book bagOne side, printable in black and white, with the whole cycle on it. Download it below and use it however you want.
Newsletter paragraph, short version
Two lines for a sidebar or a bulleted news column.
Parents of children in Years 4 and 5: the West Midlands grammar schools share one entrance test, and children have to be registered for it in the summer term of Year 5, which is separate from the secondary school application form. The dates, what the test contains and what happens afterwards are set out free at https://pathwayeleven.co.uk/11-plus-exam-dates-west-midlands/ (Pathway Eleven, an independent website; the school is not connected to it and does not endorse it).Newsletter paragraph, longer version
For a transfer letter, a Year 5 information evening handout, or a parent bulletin with room for a paragraph.
The fourth paragraph is a statement about your school rather than about the process. Read it before you paste it, and cut or reword it if it does not describe your position.
The 11 plus in the West Midlands: what parents of Year 4 and Year 5 children may want to know.
The grammar schools in this region share a single entrance test, so a child sits it once rather than once per school. Children have to be registered for the test online, in the summer term of Year 5, and registering is not the same thing as applying for a school place. Late registrations are not allowed. Test results reach families in the October of Year 6, in time for the secondary school application form, which closes on 31 October. Offers go out on 1 March.
Families who receive pupil premium should know that the grammar schools give some priority to pupil premium applicants, and that this has to be declared at the point of registration.
The school does not prepare children for this test and does not recommend any tuition provider. If you would like to read about the process, these free pages set it out with every date linked to the council or school page it came from:
The dates and deadlines: https://pathwayeleven.co.uk/11-plus-exam-dates-west-midlands/
Which schools you can apply to: https://pathwayeleven.co.uk/which-grammar-schools-can-my-child-apply-to/
The secondary transfer form: https://pathwayeleven.co.uk/secondary-transfer-west-midlands/
Preparing at home: https://pathwayeleven.co.uk/11-plus-preparation/
These pages are published by Pathway Eleven, an independent education website. The school is not connected to it and does not endorse it or any other provider.Line for a useful links page
Paste the markup, or copy the words and make the link in your own editor.
<a href="https://pathwayeleven.co.uk/for-schools/">11 plus information for parents (Pathway Eleven, free and independent)</a>If your website policy asks for outbound links to be nofollowed, this version does the same job:
<a href="https://pathwayeleven.co.uk/for-schools/" rel="nofollow">11 plus information for parents (Pathway Eleven, free and independent)</a>Point it at the dates page instead if you would rather send families straight to the timetable.
The A4 sheet. One side of A4, laid out to photocopy in black and white, carrying the same facts as this page in bullet form with the four page addresses printed in full. It downloads on a single click: West Midlands 11 plus: a one-page leaflet for parents (PDF, one side of A4). There is no form in front of it and no email address is collected, here or anywhere on the way to it. Print it, copy it, attach it to a newsletter or put the file on your own website. It carries its own version date and the address it came from, so a parent holding an old copy can find the current one.
What the sheet does not carry is any mention of a price, an offer or a product. That is deliberate. A sheet that goes home in ninety book bags should be information a family can act on, and nothing else.
The shape of the year, and the step that closes in Year 5
The shape matters more than any individual date, because the shape is the same every year and the dates are not.
Read from the bottom of that staircase. Registration for the shared entrance test opens and closes in the summer term of Year 5. Birmingham City Council publishes the closing time for each cycle and states plainly that late registrations are not allowed. The test itself falls at the start of Year 6, results reach families in the middle of October, the secondary school application form closes on 31 October, and one offer arrives on 1 March.
Most secondary transfer information reaches families in the autumn of Year 6. For every route except the selective one, that is the right moment. For the selective route the deciding step has already closed, and there is no appeal against having missed a registration.
| When | What happens | What a parent has to do |
|---|---|---|
| Year 4 | Nothing formal at all. | Decide whether the selective route is one they want to consider, and read around it while there is no pressure. |
| Year 5, spring | The registration dates for the cycle are published. | Find the dates and put the closing date in a calendar with an alert a fortnight before. |
| Year 5, summer | The registration window opens and closes. Late registrations are not allowed. | Register online, tick the pupil premium box if it applies, and tick the boxes that share the result with schools outside their own council. |
| Year 6, September | The test is sat at an allocated centre. | Wait for the centre letter. Centres are allocated rather than chosen. |
| Year 6, October | Scores reach families, ahead of the application deadline. | Use the score to decide the preference order, then submit the council form by 31 October. |
| Year 6, March | One offer is made on 1 March. | Accept, or join a waiting list, or appeal, depending on the offer. |
We have deliberately not reprinted this year's dates here. They change every cycle, and a table copied into a page that nobody re-reads is how a school website ends up telling parents about a deadline that passed two years ago. The current cycle's dates live on one page, West Midlands 11 plus dates and deadlines, with every cell linked to the school or council that published it and the date we last read it. That page is re-read each term. Link that, and your website is current without anybody at your school maintaining it.
What the test contains, for the parent who asks you at the classroom door: two papers, covering English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics and non-verbal and spatial reasoning, weighted 50 per cent to English and verbal reasoning, 25 per cent to mathematics and 25 per cent to non-verbal reasoning. There is no writing section. Every question is multiple choice and answers go on a separate answer sheet. Scores are standardised for age, which the partnership says means younger children are not disadvantaged by being younger on the day. The test is provided by GL Assessment. None of the schools keep past papers, and the partnership publishes a free familiarisation guide instead, at westmidlandsgrammarschools.co.uk.
Five things a family cannot put right afterwards
Almost everything in this process is recoverable. These five are not, and they are the reason a school office is worth involving at all.
- The registration closing timeBirmingham City Council states that late registrations are not allowed. A child who is not registered does not sit the test.
- The pupil premium boxIt is ticked at registration or not at all. The council's own wording is that you cannot apply under pupil premium if you forget to tick this box, and nothing later in the process can add it.
- The data-sharing boxesA result is shared with grammar schools outside the family's own council only if the relevant boxes are ticked at registration. Birmingham warns that without them a child will not be offered a place at the non-Birmingham grammar school on 1 March, even if they scored enough.
- The 31 October application formRegistering for the test is not applying for a place. The council says so in terms: applying to sit an entry test is not the same as asking for a place at the school, and the council application form still has to be completed.
- Naming a school before the score arrivesBirmingham advises parents to wait for the test result before naming a grammar school as one of their preferences. Results are sent before the 31 October deadline, which is what makes waiting possible.
Three of the five happen at one online form in the summer term of Year 5, months before anyone in Year 6 talks about secondary transfer. The other two are in Year 6, and both depend on that form having been completed. That is the whole argument for a Year 4 and Year 5 audience.
How to register for the West Midlands 11 plus walks a parent through that form box by box; this page is the short version a school can pass on.
What schools publish now
Before writing this page we read the secondary transfer page of ten West Midlands primary schools, across the six areas that feed the partnership. Of those ten pages, eight did not mention the 11 plus and one mentioned pupil premium priority, in a single clause. We have not named the schools. The observation is our own, made on 9 September 2026, and it is here because it is the reason the page exists rather than a comment on any school.
Arrived here from a school newsletter, as a parent rather than a member of staff? Start with the preparation guide, which is free and is where most families begin, then the dates page for the current cycle.
Questions a school office asks us, and questions parents ask them
Can a school link this page without endorsing a company?+
That is the only thing this page asks a school to do. Linking an information page is the same act as linking a council admissions page, which community and voluntary controlled schools are already required to do. Nothing on the page says any school, council or the partnership approves it, and the page says so itself in the paragraph a parent reads first.
Does this ask us to prepare children for a selective test?+
No, and it must not. Birmingham City Council's published policy is that no teaching or coaching for selective tests should happen in its primary schools, because coaching can be counter-productive. Everything offered here is addressed to parents at home, and the school's part is passing on where the information is.
Is there a form, a sign-up or a cost anywhere in this?+
No. The pages are open, the A4 sheet downloads on one click, and nothing a parent must do to read the information requires an email address. Pathway Eleven is a paid preparation service and says so on its own pages, but nothing a school passes on carries a price, an offer or a form, and nothing is addressed to a child.
Which year group should this go to?+
Year 4 and Year 5. Registration for the shared entrance test falls in the summer term of Year 5, so a letter sent to Year 6 parents arrives after the decision has already been made for them. That timing gap is the single most useful thing a primary school can close.
Our families apply through Sandwell or Dudley. Is this relevant?+
Yes. Birmingham City Council sets eligibility for the shared entrance test by a child's date of birth, not by the council a family lives in, and Warwickshire County Council states the same for its own test in as many words. A family in an authority with no selective school of its own sits the same test and then names the school on their own council's application form.
How do we know the dates on it are current?+
Every date is linked to the school, partnership or council page it came from, with the date we last read that page, and the dates live on one page that is re-read each term rather than being repeated across the site. That is the argument for linking rather than pasting: a paragraph copied into a school website in 2024 is still saying 2024.
Can we host the A4 sheet on our own website?+
Yes. Print it, photocopy it, attach it to a newsletter or upload the file to your own site. It carries its own version date and the address it came from, so a parent holding an old copy can always find the current one.
Something on the page is wrong for our area. What then?+
Email info@pathwayeleven.co.uk and say which line and which area. We check it against the council's or the school's own published page and correct it, and the last updated date at the top of the page moves when the words do.
Is registering for the 11 plus the same as applying for a school place?+
No. Registering puts a child in for the shared entrance test. The council application form is separate and closes on 31 October, and Birmingham says so in terms: applying to sit an entry test is not the same as asking for a place at the school.
What is in the West Midlands 11 plus test?+
Two papers, covering English comprehension, verbal reasoning, mathematics and non-verbal and spatial reasoning, weighted 50 per cent to English and verbal reasoning, 25 per cent to mathematics and 25 per cent to non-verbal reasoning. There is no writing section. Every question is multiple choice and answers go on a separate answer sheet. Scores are standardised for age, which the partnership says means younger children are not disadvantaged by being younger on the day. The test is provided by GL Assessment. None of the schools keep past papers, and the partnership publishes a free familiarisation guide instead, at westmidlandsgrammarschools.co.uk.
We get free school meals. Does that change anything?+
It may. The grammar schools give some priority to applicants registered for pupil premium, and that priority is claimed by ticking a box when a child is registered for the test, in the summer term of Year 5. Birmingham City Council's wording is that you cannot apply under pupil premium if you forget to tick this box, and nothing later in the process can add it.
The pages worth linking
The first four are the ones printed on the A4 leaflet, so a parent holding the sheet and a parent following your website link arrive at the same four places. The rest are for a parent who wants to go further.
- West Midlands 11 plus dates and deadlines, every published date for the current cycle, each one linked to the school or council that published it, with a calendar file. This is the page to start from.
- Which grammar schools can my child apply to, a postcode tool that lists the partnership schools in distance order with each school's catchment rules.
- Secondary transfer in the West Midlands, the whole council application year for every family in the year group, selective route or not, with a printable checklist.
- 11 plus preparation, a guide for parents, what the test covers and how families prepare at home without a tutor.
- The results tracker, every published cut-off, qualifying score and appeal figure in the region, by school and year, for the parent who wants the numbers.
- How to register for the West Midlands 11 plus, the two portals and the boxes that cannot be corrected later.
- The West Midlands 11 plus entrance test, the partnership, the schools in it and how one test covers them all.
- All 11 plus guides for parents, everything we have written, in one list.
Every page cited above, with the date it was read
Each address below was opened and read in full on 9 September 2026. No fact on this page is welded from two sources: each one is attributed to the single page it came from. Where a figure belongs to one cycle rather than to the process in general, it is described as the shape rather than reprinted here, and the dates page carries the cycle.
- Birmingham City Council, Grammar schools in Birmingham, on one shared test, eligibility by date of birth, and registering not being the same as applying. Page last updated 17 August 2026, read 9 September 2026.
- Birmingham City Council, Registering for the entrance test, on the closing time, late registrations not being allowed, the pupil premium box, the data-sharing boxes, waiting for the result before naming a school, and results arriving before 31 October. Page last updated 18 June 2026, read 9 September 2026.
- Birmingham City Council, Coaching for selective tests, on no teaching or coaching for selective tests happening in the city's primary schools, and on where the council points parents instead. Page last updated 16 June 2026, read 9 September 2026.
- West Midlands Grammar Schools, The entrance test, on the two papers, the four areas, the weighting, the absence of a writing section, the separate answer sheet, standardisation for age and who provides the test. Read 9 September 2026.
- West Midlands Grammar Schools, Preparing for the test, on the schools endorsing no tuition provider, no past papers being kept, the free familiarisation guide and the pupil premium partnership with Atom Learning. Read 9 September 2026.
- West Midlands Grammar Schools, The schools, for the partnership's own grouping of its schools. Read 9 September 2026.
- West Midlands Grammar Schools, West Midlands Grammar Schools, on registration being made online through the partnership's own site, and on the test centre being allocated rather than chosen. Read 9 September 2026.
- King Edward VI Foundation, Results and offers, on results reaching families in the October of Year 6. Read 9 September 2026.
- King Edward VI Foundation, The test, on each of the grammar schools offering some priority to pupil premium applicants. Read 9 September 2026.
- Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, September 2027 entry, for its published pupil premium category, ranked by standardised score and limited to no more than 30 per cent of students in that category. Read 9 September 2026.
- Warwickshire County Council, The 11 plus test, on eligibility being decided by date of birth rather than by where a child lives. Read 9 September 2026.
- Department for Education, What maintained schools must publish online, on community and voluntary controlled schools publishing a link to the local authority's website for admissions. Last updated 24 October 2024, read 9 September 2026.
- GOV.UK, Schools admissions: how to apply, on the 31 October deadline and offers being sent on 1 March. Read 9 September 2026.
How this page is kept current. Every address in this list is re-read once a term. The next check is December 2026, and the last updated date at the top moves only when the words on the page actually change. If a line is wrong for your area, write to info@pathwayeleven.co.uk and we will check it against the source and correct it.