Bebington, Merseyside · Wirral
Wirral Grammar School for Boys
Reaching the required test standard only makes a boy eligible — up to 30 places then go to looked-after and disadvantaged children first, and most remaining places by siblings and staff status before score matters again.
One of four non-Catholic Wirral grammar schools sharing a council-administered entrance test — alongside Calday Grange, West Kirby Grammar, and Wirral Grammar School for Girls — while the two Catholic Wirral grammars, St Anselm's College and Upton Hall FCJ, run entirely separate arrangements outside this consortium. The school's own current policy states plainly that admission is determined by its Governors, with Wirral Council only conducting the shared assessment on the school's behalf. Test score functions as a pass/fail gate here, not a ranking tool: once a boy clears the required standard, places go through categories for looked-after and disadvantaged children, medical need, siblings, and staff children, with score-ranking used only for whatever places remain.
Key facts
- Gender
- boys
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- North West
- Local authority
- Wirral
- Established
- 1931
- DfE URN
- 137476
- Website
- https://www.wirralgrammarboys.com
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Quest Assessments, per the school's own admissions page and Wirral Council's page — reported by a secondary source to have replaced GL Assessment starting with the September 2026 sitting, not independently confirmed.
- Test format
- Two papers sat on the same day at a designated venue in the autumn term of Year 6, covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, and mathematics. Scores are adjusted for the child's exact age.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not published as a fixed number. Wirral Council's own page states the qualifying ('eligible') score is set by the admissions authorities only after that year's papers are marked, based on cohort performance — there's no pre-announced threshold. A tutoring site cites a standardised score of 236, but this couldn't be confirmed from any primary source or pinned to a specific cycle.verify with school
No fixed pass mark is published by the school or Wirral Council — it's determined after marking each year.
- Superselective?
- No
A boy must first reach 'the required standard' — a pass/fail threshold, not a ranked score — to be eligible at all. Once eligible, places aren't allocated by highest score: they go in strict order through non-academic categories — up to 30 places for looked-after or disadvantaged children (with a concession of up to 5 marks below the eligible score for this group only), then medical need, siblings, and staff children — before any remaining places are decided by distance as a tiebreak. Score is a gate here, not a ranking mechanism, the same pattern confirmed across the other schools in this Wirral consortium.
Catchment & priority criteria
None — no catchment area or boundary is defined. Distance is used only as a last-resort tiebreaker among already-eligible applicants if the school is oversubscribed after the priority categories are applied.
- Up to 30 places for looked-after and previously looked-after children, or children with Pupil/Service Premium, scoring at or above the eligible score or up to 5 marks below it
- A valid medical reason for placement at this specific school, evidenced by a senior healthcare professional
- Siblings (including step, foster, adopted, and other children at the same address) attending the school at the time of application
- Children of staff employed 2+ years, or recently recruited to a skills-shortage post
- Distance — shortest home-to-school distance via the council's computer mapping system, as a tiebreak among already-eligible applicants
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 65.4 | 91% | Not calculated — the school's own results document states explicitly there were no progress measures published in 2024-25 due to COVID affecting KS2 outcomes, matching the nationwide gap | 34% | 60% |
| A-level: average grade B-. A*-A 34%, A*-B 60% (school's own results page; a raw grade-count table in a separate school document computes to slightly different figures of around 31.5%/57.6% for the same cohort, likely a rounding or methodology difference). | |||||
| 2024 | verify with school | verify with school | verify with school | — | — |
| Could not be obtained — the school's site only hosts the current year's outcomes document, and DfE's Compare School Performance service was inaccessible during this research, so the second most recent year's results couldn't be independently verified. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Good overall (this was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since). Behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and sixth-form provision were all Outstanding; quality of education and leadership and management were Good.
- Date
- 8 November 2022
- 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/137476
- 2. School's own Admissions Policy 2027-2028 — https://www.wirralgrammarboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Admissions-Policy-Correct-27-28.pdf
- 3. School's own Main School Admissions page — https://www.wirralgrammarboys.com/main-school-admissions/
- 4. Wirral Council — assessment for grammar school education — https://www.wirral.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/school-admissions/step-by-step/apply-secondary-school-place/assessment-grammar
- 5. Ofsted report, inspected 8 November 2022 — https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/137476
- 6. School's own KS4 and KS5 Outcomes and Destinations 2024-25 — https://www.wirralgrammarboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/KS4-and-KS5-Outcomes-and-Destinations-24-25.pdf
- 7. School's own Results page — https://www.wirralgrammarboys.com/results/
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.