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:
Wirral specialist provision secondary schools include:
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:
The test provider is GL Assessment. The examination consists of:
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:
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 Hoylake, 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 reading ages. These test scores can be shared with parents at our 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. Arrangements for sitting the exams are shared by the LA or the individual schools.
Other useful resources can be found below including: