Bebington, Merseyside · Wirral
Wirral Grammar School for Girls
The consortium's entrance test provider just switched from GL Assessment to Quest Assessments — many tutoring sites online still describe the old provider, and any qualifying-score figure quoted from them is likely stale.
Founded in 1931, this is 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 Boys (which sits in the same town but is an entirely separate single-academy trust with its own governance). The two Catholic Wirral grammars sit outside this arrangement entirely. The school's own current policy states plainly that its Governors, not Wirral Council, determine admission, with the council only running the shared test and coordinated application process. A single unpublished 'required score' applies identically across all four consortium schools, used as a pass/fail gate rather than a ranking tool.
Key facts
- Gender
- girls
- Age range
- 11-18
- Region
- North West
- Local authority
- Wirral
- Established
- 1931
- DfE URN
- 137171
- Website
- https://www.wirralgirls.co.uk
Admissions
- Admissions authority
- The school sets its own test and criteria
- Entrance test board
- Quest Assessments, effective from the September 2026 test sitting — replacing GL Assessment, which was used through the September 2025 sitting. Many tutoring sites online still describe GL Assessment, likely stale content that hasn't caught up with the change.partly verified
The GL Assessment to Quest Assessments transition is confirmed via the current Wirral Council page and joint schools/Quest FAQ, but many independent tutoring sites still describe GL Assessment as current, likely stale content.
- Test format
- Two age-standardised multiple-choice papers sat on the same day in Year 6, covering verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and mathematics. The two paper scores are added together and compared against the unpublished required score.
- Qualifying / pass mark
- Not published. The school's own policy states only that pupils scoring above the required score 'will be deemed to have achieved the grammar school standard,' with no number given — this single threshold is shared identically across all four non-Catholic Wirral consortium schools and is reset each cycle after that year's cohort is marked.verify with school
Not published anywhere by design. Two tutoring sites offered conflicting unofficial figures (around 236 on an unspecified scale, and around 110 as a self-described estimate) — neither is confirmed by any primary source.
- Superselective?
- No
The qualifying standard is a single shared threshold used identically across all four non-Catholic Wirral grammar consortium schools, with no school-specific elevated bar. The school's own policy uses a binary pass/fail framing with no further ranking of scores — oversubscription among qualifiers is resolved via care status, medical need, Free School Meals eligibility, siblings, staff-child status, and finally distance, not by re-ranking test scores. This contrasts with a genuinely superselective school that admits strictly in score-rank order.
Catchment & priority criteria
None. No defined catchment area, zone, or parish list. Distance is used only as the last oversubscription tiebreak criterion. Applications are accepted from outside Wirral, including Liverpool, Cheshire, Wales, and residence outside England.
- Children with an EHC Plan naming the school
- Looked-after and previously looked-after children
- Girls with a valid medical reason supported by a doctor's letter
- Up to 15 places for girls eligible for Targeted Free School Meals, ranked by distance from the school
- Sisters (including half and step-sisters at the same address) attending the school at time of application
- Daughters of staff employed 2+ years, or recruited to a skills-shortage post
- Distance from home to school, as the final tiebreak. All categories apply only among girls who have already met the qualifying standard — meeting it doesn't itself guarantee a place.
Results
| Year | Attainment 8 | GCSE 5+ Eng & Maths | Progress 8 | A*–A | A*–B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 67.3 (Wirral LA average not stated for this specific measure) | 88.9% | +0.38 ('Above average', confidence interval +0.17 to +0.59) — this cohort predates the COVID-era gap. The prior cohort (2023) scored +0.62, well above average. | — | — |
| A-level (139 students): average grade B (40.48 points per entry, Wirral LA average B-/35.08, England average C+/34.38). | |||||
| 2025 | 69.3 (Wirral LA average 45.3, England average 46.1) | 92.2% (Wirral LA 44.0%, England 45.4%) | Not calculated — confirmed directly by DfE as the nationwide COVID-era gap for this cohort | verify with school | verify with school |
| A-level (132 students): average grade B+ (42.27 points per entry, Wirral LA average B-/35.37, England average B-/35), value-added progress score -0.03 ('Average', confidence interval -0.13 to +0.08). DfE's current service doesn't publish an A*-A/A*-B percentage breakdown for this school. | |||||
Ofsted
- Rating
- Outstanding, in every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and sixth-form provision. This was a full graded inspection under the pre-September 2024 framework — no inspection has occurred since.
- Date
- 6 December 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/137171
- 2. School's own Admissions Policy and Procedure 2027 — https://www.wirralgirls.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Admissions-Policy-September-2027-updated.pdf
- 3. Wirral Non-Faith Grammar Schools 11+ Admissions FAQ (joint document) — https://www.wirralgirls.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/FAQs.pdf
- 4. Ofsted report, inspected 6 December 2022 — https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50206447
- 5. School's own Our History page — https://www.wirralgirls.co.uk/about-us/our-history/
- 6. DfE Compare School Performance — Progress 8, 2023 and 2024 — https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/137171/wirral-grammar-school-for-girls/secondary/progress-measures-for-2023-and-2024
Last updated 2026-09-01. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.