ASSESSMENT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

SECONDARY EDUCATION ON WIRRAL

Wirral has a wide range of fantastic non-selective and selective secondary schools; every pupil is different and their needs and interests may be best catered for at different schools. We strongly encourage parents who are considering secondary school options to visit a range of schools before they make their decision. 

Wirral, non-selective mainstream secondary schools include:

• Ridgeway High School
• Pensby High School
• The Mosslands School
• Bebington High Sports College
• South Wirral High School
• Birkenhead Park School
• The Oldershaw School
• Prenton High School for Girls
• Weatherhead High School
• Hilbre High School
• Woodchurch High School (faith school)
• St John Plessington Catholic College (faith school)
• St Mary's Catholic College, A Voluntary Academy (faith school)
• Co-op Academy Bebington
  
  

Wirral specialist provision secondary schools include:

• Clare Mount Specialist Sports College
• Kilgarth School
• Foxfield School
• Meadowside School
• West Kirby Residential School
• The Observatory School
  

SELECTIVE SCHOOLS

If you wish to consider a grammar school place, the selective schools administer entrance examinations. Four of the grammar schools use Wirral's co-ordinated entrance examination (11+) as their admissions examination.  

Those schools are:

• Calday Grange Grammar School for Boys
• West Kirby Grammar School for Girls
• Wirral Grammar School for Boys
• Wirral Grammar School for Girls

The test provider is GL Assessment. The examination consists of:

• non-verbal reasoning,
• verbal reasoning
• mathematics

The 11+ Assessment Request Forms are made available each year from the beginning of May for children in Year 5 who will be applying for secondary school places.  The form will be available from Wirral's admissions portal from May onwards.  Assessment request forms are for parents who want their child to take the 11+ assessment in September of Year 6. Forms need to be returned to Wirral Local Authority by 31st May.

The timetable for parents considering applying for their children to undertake the grammar school entrance examination is:

31st MAY  Deadline for 11+ assessment requests

SEPTEMBER   On-line secondary school application system 'goes live'

SEPTEMBER  11+ assessments (check calendar for each year's tests) 

OCTOBER  Results to parents 

31st OCTOBER  Deadline for secondary preference forms

1st MARCH   NATIONAL SCHOOL ALLOCATION DAY 

There are other selective schools on Wirral that administer their own admission examinations and have their own selection criteria which are detailed on each of their websites.  They are:

• Upton Hall Grammar School for girls (Faith School)
• St Anselm's Grammar School for boys (Faith School)
• Birkenhead High School Academy for girls (10% of admissions on Music Aptitude Assessment only)

Examination dates for these schools are:

Upton Hall - Early September 

St Anselm's - Mid September

Birkenhead High School Academy - usually in October.

The 11+ examinations use a standardised scoring system: see the link below for an explanation of this system. At Brookdale, we complete Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning tests in Years 3 and 5 as well as annual Reading Tests from Years 3 to 6 which also provide standardised scores. These test scores can be shared with parents at our bi-annual parent-teacher meetings and can be useful (along with a range of other factors) in considering whether a child is suited to grammar school education.

As of September 2019, 11+ tests are no longer sat at primary schools; the letter from heads at Wirral Grammar Schools (see files section below) explains this change. 

Other useful resources can be found below including:

• Link to Wirral Schools Admissions Portal
• Wirral Council's Familiarisation booklet 
• Link to GL Assessment's 11+ Familiarisation Materials 

Files to Download