Getting into The Blue Coat School
The Blue Coat entrance test, run online by the school in two phases with papers from CEM: what it involves and what to do next, for entry in September 2027.
Every fact on this page is checked against the school’s published admissions information, and nothing is guessed. · View sources · Report an error
The test was sat on 2 to 4 July 2026 (phase 1). Results are due Friday 16 October 2026.
What to do and when
Sitting the year after (2028 entry)? These are 2027-entry dates, and yours are not published yet: there is nothing you need to do this far out. Sign up for reminders and tick the 2028-entry box, and we’ll email only when your cycle’s dates are out and it is actually time to act.
6 dates as a calendar file, for Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. Share the link with anyone who needs them.
Life’s busy, so we’ll email you a nudge before each Blue Coat deadline above. Nothing else: no newsletter, no marketing, and the reminders stop for good after National Offer Day (1 Mar 2027) unless you sign up again for another school.
The test, in one look
Blue Coat sits the school with CEM 11+.
CEM (the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring) set 11+ papers for many schools for years, and where a school names CEM or the arrangement that followed it, the shape tends to be similar: Verbal, Numerical and Non-Verbal material mixed together and sat in timed sections, rather than one paper per subject. Schools using it publish very little past material, so the school’s own description of what each part covers is what to prepare against.
Schools in this group publish very little past material, and the format tends to mix verbal, numerical and non-verbal work in timed sections rather than one paper per subject. That rewards pace and breadth over deep practice of a single question type. Adaptive practice across all four subjects is the sensible preparation, together with the school’s own description of what each section contains.
Phase 1 is sat at the end of Year 5, not in Year 6. There is no reserve sitting for it. A reserve test exists for phase 2 only, on medical, religious or similar grounds, and permission has to come from the Trust Board.
How places are decided
180 places for September 2027. Reaching the required standard puts a child in the running; this order decides the rest.
Catchment: No catchment area. There is no distance criterion and no priority for Liverpool residents, so a child may apply from anywhere and selection is on test score alone.
This is a fully selective school that ranks on entrance-test score rather than on a conventional distance and sibling list.
3 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.Places are allocated to the highest scoring applicants who meet the eligible score, split into two pools: up to 27 of the 180 places are reserved for the highest scoring applicants who are eligible for free school meals and who achieve the eligible score, and the remaining places go to all other highest scoring applicants who meet the eligible score.
- 2.Among candidates who reach an eligible score, priority is given to Looked After Children, Previously Looked After Children (including those who appear to have been in state care outside England) and children with an EHCP.
- 3.Tie break for the last place: the age weighted non-rounded total score. Children are placed in outcome groups A, B and C, and the school advises that Group A should list the school as a preference, Group B may but is not guaranteed a place, and Group C should not. There is no sibling criterion, no staff criterion and no geographical criterion in the policy.
What an EHCP is: an Education, Health and Care Plan, a legal document from your council for a child with special educational needs. Where a plan names a school, that school has to offer a place, so those places are taken out of the number above before anyone else is ranked. It is not a route most families can apply through.
Taken from the school’s own determined admission arrangements. The full document is linked under sources.
How pupils here do at GCSE
This is based on how pupils at this school go on to perform in their GCSEs, five years after the 11+. Attainment 8 is their average result across eight subjects. Read it as a description of outcomes rather than of teaching: a selective school admits children who were already scoring well at ten, so a high position here reflects who the school takes in as much as what it does with them.
Scores from Compare school and college performance data in England, Department for Education, 2024/25, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The Department publishes the scores and does not publish a ranking: the position above is ours, calculated over state-funded schools with a published score. See the full table.
Common questions
Every applicant sits it, and it covers reading, spelling, general Mathematics, mental arithmetic and developed ability. For 2027 entry it ran in 90 minute slots across three days in early July 2026. It is a sift: about 600 applicants go through to phase two, and there is no appeal against a phase one result.
A separate test in September for those who qualify, covering Verbal ability, Numerical ability and Non-Verbal ability. So the two phases test genuinely different things: phase one leans on what has been learned, phase two on reasoning.
Yes. All testing is conducted online using a PC, keyboard and mouse, at the school. That is worth a practice run at home, because reading a question on screen and clicking an answer is a different habit from working down a paper booklet.
The school places applicants in groups from the test outcome and tells you which one your child is in, so you can complete your council form sensibly. Group A means you should consider naming the school. Group B means you may still be considered but a place is not guaranteed. Group C means the school advises against naming it. Actual test scores are not released.
Yes. Of the 180 places for September 2027, up to 27 go to the highest scoring applicants who are eligible for free school meals and who achieve the required entrance test score. The rest go to the highest scoring applicants overall.
A format-matched mock shows where they genuinely stand.