Birmingham, West Midlands · Birmingham
King Edward VI Handsworth School
A 224 'priority score' plus catchment guarantees a place, but most general-category offers actually go around 216-219 — well above the nominal 205 qualifying floor.
Formed in 1911 by merging three predecessor Birmingham girls' schools, Handsworth is one of six state academies (alongside Aston, Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, Five Ways, and Handsworth Grammar for Boys) governed by the King Edward VI Academy Trust Birmingham — a single multi-academy trust that is the real legal admissions authority, distinct from the historic 'King Edward VI Foundation' charity, which today runs only two unrelated independent fee-paying schools. All eight Birmingham grammar schools (the six trust academies plus two independent selective academies, Bishop Vesey's and Sutton Coldfield Girls) share one GL Assessment entrance test, itself part of a wider ~19-school West Midlands testing partnership — but each school still sets and publishes its own admission number, catchment, and priority criteria individually. Handsworth's own five-tier system means catchment does real work: a 224 'priority score' combined with living in a large multi-borough catchment guarantees a place, while the residual general category has no catchment requirement at all but an effective cutoff of 216-219, far above the nominal 205 qualifying floor.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- West Midlands
- Local authority
- Birmingham
- Established
- 1911
- DfE URN
- 137047
- Website
- https://kingedwardvi.bham.sch.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- GL Assessment, shared across all eight Birmingham grammar schools and coordinated via the King Edward VI Foundation's website — itself part of a wider ~19-school West Midlands testing partnership, so a child sits the test once regardless of how many participating schools they apply to.
- Test format
- Two multiple-choice test papers of around 60 minutes each, covering English Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Mathematics, and Non-Verbal/Spatial Reasoning, weighted 50% English/Verbal Reasoning, 25% Non-Verbal Reasoning, 25% Mathematics. No science component. Test costs are covered by the schools, not families.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- A minimum standardised 'qualifying score' of 205 for 2026 and 2027 entry, shared across all eight Birmingham consortium grammar schools — this is a low eligibility floor, not a realistic offer threshold. A higher 'priority score' of 224, combined with living in catchment, guarantees an offer outright. In practice, the residual general (no-catchment) category has had an effective cutoff of 216-219 in recent cycles, far above the nominal 205 floor.
- Superselective?
- Not establishedverify with school
See full reasoning in superselectiveNote — doesn't resolve cleanly to true or false.
Doesn't map cleanly onto a true/false answer. The school runs a five-tier system where catchment does real work: Pupil-Premium and 'priority score plus catchment' categories are filled first (the priority-score-plus-catchment category has been fully satisfiable without competition in every year 2023-2026), and only the residual general category is a pure score-rank with no catchment restriction — but that residual category's effective cutoff (216-219) sits well above the nominal 205 qualifying floor, indicating real competition there too. Reported as null/in-between with full reasoning rather than forced into a boolean.
Catchment & priority criteria
A large, named multi-local-authority catchment defined by electoral ward, covering the large majority of Birmingham's wards plus parts of Smethwick, Soho & Victoria, and St Paul's (Sandwell), and Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Kingshurst & Fordbridge, and Smith's Wood (Solihull). Catchment confers priority (via the 224 priority-score category, or within the Pupil Premium categories) but is not a hard boundary — the general category has no catchment restriction at all.
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children achieving the qualifying score, ranked by test score then distance
- Pupil Premium children achieving the qualifying score and living in catchment, ranked by distance
- If fewer than 25% of places are filled by the above, Pupil Premium children achieving the qualifying score living outside catchment, up to 25% of places total, ranked by score then sibling then distance
- Applicants achieving the 224 priority score and living in catchment — guaranteed a place; tie-break older sibling then distance
- All other applicants achieving the 205 qualifying score, ranked by test score, tie-break sibling then distance
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 77.3 | 100.0% (DfE); the school's own site states 96% for the same year — DfE treated as authoritative | Not calculated/published for this cohort on DfE's current page, consistent with the nationwide COVID-era KS2 data gap rather than anything school-specific | — | — |
| A-level (191 students): average grade B (39.88 points per entry). A*-A 38%, A*-B 71% (school's own website; DfE does not publish this breakdown). | |||||
| 2025 | 74.2 | 98.4% (DfE); the school's own site states 96% for the same year — DfE treated as authoritative | Not calculated — no KS2 baseline data for this cohort nationally | 42% (school's own website) | 73% (school's own website) |
| A-level (163 students): average grade B (40.81 points per entry, England state-funded average B-/36.1), progress/value-added score -0.11 ('Below average', confidence interval entirely below zero, England average -0.03) — a real contrast against the strong absolute grade, worth surfacing rather than smoothing over. A*-A 42%, A*-B 73% (school's own website). | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Under Ofsted's new report-card framework: 'Good' in Quality of Education; 'Outstanding' in Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, Leadership and Management, and Sixth-Form Provision.
- Date
- 17-18 December 2024
- Report
- Read the full report
Sources
- 1. DfE Get Information About Schools — URN, status, gender, LA — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/137047
- 2. GIAS — King Edward VI Academy Trust Birmingham (admissions-authority MAT) — https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Groups/Group/Details/16826
- 3. School's own Admission Policy, September 2026 — https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/29903/king_edward_vi_handsworth_school_for_girls_proposed_admissions_arrangements.pdf
- 4. School's own Admissions page — https://kingedwardvi.bham.sch.uk/about-our-school/admissions/
- 5. King Edward VI Foundation — The Test — https://kingedwardvifoundation.co.uk/the-test/
- 6. King Edward VI Foundation — Results and Offers (qualifying/priority scores by year) — https://kingedwardvifoundation.co.uk/results-and-offers/
- 7. School's own History page — https://kingedwardvi.bham.sch.uk/about-our-school/history/
- 8. School's own Exam Results page — https://kingedwardvi.bham.sch.uk/our-curriculum/exam-results/
- 9. Ofsted report, inspected 17-18 December 2024 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50267822
- 10. DfE Compare School Performance — GCSE results over time — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137047/king-edward-vi-handsworth-school/secondary/results-over-time
- 11. DfE Compare School Performance — A-level qualifications — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137047/king-edward-vi-handsworth-school/16-to-18/advanced-level-qualifications
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.