The Warwickshire 11 plus is the shared West Midlands entrance test, but with a registration route of the county's own. Parents register through the Warwickshire Parent Portal in the summer term of Year 5, children sit two multiple-choice tests in September of Year 6, and the score sets priority at six schools.
Which schools are the Warwickshire grammar schools?
Six, and the county names all six itself. Warwickshire County Council lists them with the intake each one takes, and is careful about how the places are then decided. It states that “each grammar school has their own admission arrangements for each entry year”, and that “usually” higher priority goes to the children who achieve the highest scores in the test and who live within the priority area, which is to say the catchment area, for each school. The word usually is the county's, and so is the catchment condition; neither is ours to drop. Five of the six are grammar schools in the ordinary sense. The sixth is not, and the county says so.
- Alcester Grammar School
One of the six the county names, admitting boys and girls, and entered through the county's own registration.
- King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon
On the county list with a boys' intake at eleven, on the same registration and the same test days.
- Stratford Girls' Grammar School
Girls at eleven, on the county list, with places ranked on the same standardised score.
- Lawrence Sheriff School
Boys at eleven, and one of the two Rugby schools the county lists.
- Rugby High School
Girls at eleven in Rugby, on the county list and on the shared paper.
- Ashlawn School
Described by the county as a bilateral school running one selective class alongside the rest of its intake.
Ashlawn is the one to read carefully. The county describes it as “a bi-lateral school which operates one selective class who follow a slightly different curriculum in Years 7 and 8”, so a Warwickshire family looking at Rugby has a selective stream and a non-selective route inside the same school. Every one of the six has a page of its own on this site, reached from the West Midlands 11 plus hub.
What is in the Warwickshire test?
The county publishes the shape of it directly. The test “contain[s] four sections: English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Mathematics”, and it is “in a multiple-choice format”. There are two tests, and each “will take around 60 minutes to complete (including spoken instructions at the start and explanations of the practice items)”.
It is also not a paper written for Warwickshire alone. The county states that the West Midlands Grammar Schools entrance tests are administered as “a shared test between the Warwickshire, Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire Grammar Schools”, and the King Edward VI Foundation, which arranges the same test for the Birmingham schools, states that “the test is provided by GL Assessment”. Pathway Eleven is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by GL Assessment.
On scoring, the county says only what it can stand behind: “the raw data is then standardised and weighted to provide a total score for each child”. It publishes no conversion table and no qualifying figure, which is exactly why no honest calculator can turn a mock result into a predicted score. Our page on standardised scores works through what standardisation does and does not do.
The county also points a parent at material of its own, and names it: “You can find a Familiarisation Guide and other reference documents relating to the Warwickshire [11 plus] test in our School Admissions Document Library.” That is the county's wording and the county's library, which makes it the one place where what is published about this test is published by the body that runs it. Source: Warwickshire County Council, its 11 plus test page. Read 6 September 2026.
Source: Warwickshire County Council, its 11 plus test page. Checked 5 September 2026.
How much is each part of the paper worth?
Warwickshire does not say, and it is better to write that down than to quietly fill the gap in. What the county does publish is the shape of the paper and the fate of the marks. On the shape, it states that the West Midlands Grammar Schools Entrance Tests contain four sections, English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Mathematics, in a multiple-choice format. On the marks, it publishes a single sentence: “The raw data is then standardised and weighted to provide a total score for each child.” Source: Warwickshire County Council, its 11 plus test page. Read 6 September 2026.
The word weighted is the county's. The percentages are not. The split quoted elsewhere on this site comes from a different organisation: the King Edward VI Foundation, which arranges the same shared test for the Birmingham schools, publishes that “the weightings for the test results are 50% for English/verbal reasoning, 25% for non-verbal reasoning and 25% for mathematics”. Source: King Edward VI Foundation, entrance test information. Checked 5 September 2026.
Two statements, two bodies, and we are not going to weld them into one. What a Warwickshire parent can take from the pair is a direction rather than an arithmetic: the county confirms the sections are weighted rather than simply added together, the Foundation is where a published split for the shared paper actually appears, and Warwickshire publishes no percentages of its own for its own schools. If the exact split matters to how you plan the year, ask the county rather than trusting a figure it has not printed. Our page on standardised scores covers what standardising does to a raw mark before any weighting reaches it.
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How do you register, and when?
Not on the consortium site the other four areas use. Warwickshire runs its own route: a parent creates or logs in to a “Parent Portal account” and submits the online registration form the portal makes available underneath the relevant child's details on that account. Keep whatever confirmation the portal itself gives you at the point of submission. The county's registration page does not describe sending anything afterwards, so do not treat an email as proof that the registration went through.
The county states that registration opens “on 7 May each year for those children currently in Year 5”, and that testing sessions “are then scheduled to take place in September, when they have just started in Year 6”. For entry in September 2027 the council published a deadline of “4pm on Monday 30 June 2026”, adding that “any registrations submitted after this date will not be classed as being 'on time'”.
The Warwickshire deadline is not the consortium deadline. The shared portal for Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire closed at 4pm on 26 June 2026 for the same cycle. Warwickshire closed four days later, at 4pm on 30 June 2026. Two registrations are required. Neither substitutes for the other, and each has its own closing time.
What are the Warwickshire dates for this cycle?
| Stage | Published date |
|---|---|
| Registration opens | 7 May 2026 |
| Registration closes | 30 June 2026, 4pm |
| The test | 12 and 13 September 2026, with no weekday published |
| Results available | 16 October 2026 |
| Secondary application deadline | 31 October 2026 |
| National offer day | 1 March 2027 |
The county puts the sitting in one sentence: “The test itself will take place on 12 and 13 September 2026”. That is quoted exactly as the council wrote it in its own registration announcement, read on 5 September 2026, and it is the whole of what the county says about the day.
Two things follow, and they are worth keeping apart. The county's point is that there are two test days rather than one, which is a Warwickshire particularity beside the Birmingham 11 plus, where the Foundation publishes a single Saturday with a morning and an afternoon session, and beside the Shropshire and Telford schools, which publish a Monday of their own. Ours is a calendar fact: 12 September 2026 is a Saturday and 13 September 2026 is a Sunday. The county names no weekday for either date. We are not going to call that a typographical error, because we do not know that it is one, and we are not going to quietly drop a day either. The letter the county sends about your own child is the version that applies to your child, and if it disagrees with anything here, the letter is right.
Source: Warwickshire County Council, grammar schools and the 11 plus test, with the deadline time from the county's own registration announcement. Both checked 5 September 2026.
Warwickshire asks a family to hold two portals and two closing times in mind; the preparation should not need holding in mind as well. A free week of Pathway Eleven opens with a Starting Assessment and then decides each day's work for you. Every question in the bank is reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher before it reaches a child. Full mock rehearsals are part of full membership rather than the trial, and they unlock from Year 4.
How is the score used when you apply?
As priority, not as a pass. The county states that for a child applying from Year 5 or Year 6, the score from the test is used to assess their priority for a place, and that a child goes on to the relevant waiting lists for the grammar schools where that score meets the minimum academic standard. It does not publish what that standard is, and neither will we.
The application itself is made “through your home authority”, naming any Warwickshire grammar schools you want on that application, by 31 October. Late applications are processed after the initial offers go out in March, which usually means the remaining places have already been allocated.
One published rule decides whether a score counts here at all, and it catches families who have already sat a selective test somewhere else. Warwickshire County Council states: “However, if your child has taken another [11 plus] test in a different authority other than Warwickshire, Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton or Shropshire then the score from that [11 plus] test cannot be transferred and considered in relation to an application for any of Warwickshire's grammar schools.” The five authorities named in that sentence are the five that share this paper, so a result from a test sat outside them does not travel into a Warwickshire application. On sharing a result that does count, the same council states: “Your results can still be shared between all authorities if you tick the relevant box on the registration form.” The county publishes no route for adding that consent afterwards, so treat the box as part of registering rather than as something to return to. Source: Warwickshire County Council, its 11 plus test page. Read 6 September 2026.
Our page on West Midlands 11 plus results covers the weeks between the score arriving and the form closing, including waiting lists and the official appeals route.
Source: Warwickshire County Council, applying to a Warwickshire grammar school. Checked 5 September 2026.
What support does the county publish?
Two things, and both are easy to miss. The first is access arrangements, which some schools call reasonable adjustments: the practical changes that let a child sit the same paper on fair terms, such as extra time, an enlarged or otherwise modified paper, a coloured overlay, rest breaks, or a separate room instead of a hall. They are for children who already have that kind of support. A child with an education, health and care plan, a child on the school's SEN register, a child with a diagnosed condition affecting reading, writing, attention, hearing, sight or health, or a child given extra time in ordinary school assessments all belong in this conversation, and the evidence comes from the child's school rather than from a parent, so it starts with the class teacher or the SENCo.
For those children the county asks a parent to “complete the specific testing arrangements form and return it to elevenplus@warwickshire.gov.uk once you have completed your registration”, with medical evidence reviewed professionally. That is a separate act from registering, and it happens after it. Here is the part to plan around: the county publishes no deadline for that form. The consortium areas publish a hard cut-off of 4pm on 12 June 2026 for the equivalent step, a fortnight ahead of their registration deadline, and Warwickshire publishes nothing comparable that we could find on 5 September 2026. An absent deadline is not a generous one. Complete the registration early, send the form immediately afterwards, and ask the county directly how long it needs rather than waiting to be told.
The second is a free entitlement, and the county names the provider rather than leaving it vague. It publishes that children eligible for pupil premium can receive free online learning and 11 plus preparation through Atom Learning, for children eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, verified by their primary school. We publish a page comparing Pathway Eleven with Atom Learning, so we will say this as plainly as we can: the county's route is free and ours is not. If your family qualifies, that is worth asking your school about before you pay anyone, including us.
Check this first: every date and quotation above was read on the county's own pages on 5 September 2026. Deadlines, portals and support offers are republished each cycle, so open the page for the year your child sits.
Warwickshire County Council, registering for the test and the county's list of its grammar schools. Check the school's official admissions page for this year's figures.
Pathway Eleven has no connection to Warwickshire County Council, to any of the six schools or to any admissions authority. We cannot register a child, confirm eligibility, or say anything about catchment or your chances.
Warwickshire parents' questions
Which schools use the Warwickshire 11 plus?+
Six, named by the county itself: Alcester Grammar School, King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon, Stratford Girls' Grammar School, Lawrence Sheriff School, Rugby High School and Ashlawn School. The county says each grammar school has its own admission arrangements for each entry year, and that usually higher priority is given to children who achieve the highest 11 plus test scores and who live within the catchment area for each school.
Is the Warwickshire test the same one Birmingham sits, and does a score travel?+
The paper is shared. The county describes the entrance tests as a shared test between the Warwickshire, Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Shropshire grammar schools. What differs is the route in: Warwickshire registers families through its own Parent Portal, on its own closing date, rather than through the consortium site. A score travels only inside that arrangement. Warwickshire County Council states that if your child has taken another 11 plus test in a different authority other than Warwickshire, Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton or Shropshire, then the score from that test cannot be transferred and considered in relation to an application for any of Warwickshire's grammar schools. The county also states that your results can still be shared between all authorities if you tick the relevant box on the registration form, and it publishes no way of adding that consent once the form has gone. Read on the county's own 11 plus test page on 6 September 2026.
When does Warwickshire registration close?+
For entry in September 2027 the county published a deadline of 4pm on Monday 30 June 2026, and states that any registrations submitted after that date will not be classed as being on time. Registration opens on 7 May each year for children currently in Year 5.
When is the Warwickshire test?+
The county's own registration announcement says that the test itself will take place on 12 and 13 September 2026, and it names no weekday. For the record, 12 September 2026 is a Saturday and 13 September 2026 is a Sunday; the county publishes no weekday for either, and the letter it sends about your child is the version that applies. The county publishes 16 October 2026 as the date results will be available, ahead of the 31 October application deadline.
What score does a child need in Warwickshire?+
The county does not publish one. It says the score is used to assess priority for a place, and that a child joins the waiting list for grammar schools where the score meets the minimum academic standard. No figure for that standard is published, so any number quoted elsewhere is not the county's.
Is Ashlawn School a grammar school?+
Not in the ordinary sense. The county describes it as a bilateral school which operates one selective class who follow a slightly different curriculum in Years 7 and 8, so it runs a selective stream alongside the rest of its intake, and it uses the same test results to fill it.
Where a Warwickshire family goes next
Warwickshire is the area where the paperwork, rather than the paper, is most likely to cost a family the year: a portal of its own, a closing time four days out of step with everybody else's, and a testing arrangements form with no published deadline at all. Do those three things early and the rest of the year belongs to your child. It is also worth saying, on a page about six oversubscribed schools, that most children who sit this test will not be offered a selective place. That is a fact about how many places the county has, not a verdict on a child who did not get one. West Midlands 11 plus results covers October and what follows it, and how much 11 plus practice a day is the page for keeping the year at a pace a nine or ten year old can hold.
- The West Midlands 11 plus entrance test, the shared paper the county buys into, school by school.
- How to register for the West Midlands 11 plus, the county Parent Portal beside the consortium one, with both closing times.
- West Midlands 11 plus results, the October letter, the minimum academic standard and the appeals route.
- The Birmingham 11 plus, the eight city schools on the same shared result.
- West Midlands 11 plus dates and deadlines, every published date for the current cycle, each one sourced.
- 11 plus preparation in Year 5, the year both registrations fall in, term by term.
- 11 plus non-verbal reasoning explained, the question types and what meeting them early actually involves.
- How much 11 plus practice a day, the shape of a session, and the signs that it has become too much.
- All 11 plus guides for parents, the full set of guides in one place.
A free week starts with a Starting Assessment and turns it into a daily plan, so nobody has to decide each evening what to do next. Full mock rehearsals are part of full membership rather than the trial, and they unlock from Year 4.
What the county council publishes, and what it does not
Every date, quotation and policy on this page was read on the county's own pages on 5 September 2026.
Two of them, the score-transferability rule and the Familiarisation Guide, were read on the county's 11 plus test page on 6 September 2026 and are listed with that date below.
- Warwickshire County Council, grammar schools and the 11 plus test, the cycle dates.
- Warwickshire County Council, its 11 plus test page, the four sections, the timings and the shared arrangement.
- Warwickshire County Council, registering for the test, the Parent Portal, the opening date and the testing arrangements form.
- Warwickshire County Council, applying to a Warwickshire grammar school, priority, waiting lists and late applications.
- Warwickshire County Council, grammar schools in Warwickshire, the six schools and Ashlawn's bilateral arrangement.
- Warwickshire County Council, registration announcement for 2027 entry, the deadline time and what counts as on time.
- Warwickshire County Council, its 11 plus test page, the four sections, the standardising sentence, the score-transferability rule, the result-sharing box and the Familiarisation Guide. Read 6 September 2026.
- King Edward VI Foundation, entrance test information, the publisher of the shared test and the published 50/25/25 weighting.