Getting into Wolverhampton Girls' High School
The West Midlands Grammar Schools: Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton (SWW) 11+, set by GL Assessment: 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
Registration for the September 2026 test closed on 26 June 2026, 4pm (12 June 2026, 4pm for Special Arrangements). 1 weeks to test day.
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.
5 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 Wolverhampton Girls' High 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
Wolverhampton Girls' High sits the West Midlands Grammar Schools: Shropshire, Walsall and Wolverhampton (SWW), set by GL Assessment.
GL Assessment sets the 11+ for most grammar schools in England, including this one. Papers are multiple-choice, and scores are age-standardised: children born at different points in the school year are marked against slightly different scales, so a summer-born child isn’t disadvantaged. Because GL is the most widely used format, familiarisation materials and practice papers in the same style are easy to come by.
Because GL is multiple-choice and age-standardised, the two things that move a score are accuracy under time pressure and covering every question type rather than the comfortable ones. PlusProgress practice is adaptive across English, Maths, Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning, so it keeps finding the types your child is weakest on instead of rewarding what they already do well, and mock papers follow the format this school sets. Progress is reported as a standardised age score, the same scale the school will use.
The test is sat at the school on a Monday, so she will need a day off school. Other centres in the consortium may run the same test on the Saturday before.
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. The school welcomes applications from all areas, inside and beyond the City of Wolverhampton, and places are allocated in strict order of test score. Distance from home is used only to settle the last place.
Places are allocated purely on entrance-test performance, in two stages, with no sibling, faith or distance priority in the main ranking.
4 ranked criteria decide the order.
▸The full criteria, in the school’s own words
- 1.the school sets a qualifying score in October 2026, communicated to parents in the notification letter, and students meeting criteria 2 or 3 receive an automatic offer where the entry criteria are met;
- 2.a looked-after child, or a child previously looked after who immediately afterwards became subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order, is offered a place if she has achieved a score equal to or exceeding the qualifying score;
- 3.the first twenty five Pupil Premium students (status as at the time of taking the test) whose test scores rank highest in the merit order and who have achieved a test score equal to or exceeding the qualifying score are offered a place, with proof of Pupil Premium status required;
- 4.remaining Pupil Premium students are slotted back into the full order of merit for Stage 2. Stage 2 (remaining places): the scores are put into a table in merit order according to each girl's performance in the entrance test, that table is sent to the Local Authority, and after Stage 1 the remaining places are allocated in strict order of merit on test score. Tie-breaks: for the last of the twenty five Pupil Premium places (Stage 1), priority goes to those living nearest the school by straight-line measurement, with lot for same-address-point flats. For the last place at Stage 2 the order is (1) looked-after / previously looked-after child whose score fell below the qualifying score, (2) a Pupil Premium student whose score was above the qualifying score but who was not placed at Stage 1, (3) a Pupil Premium student whose score fell below the qualifying score, (4) those living nearest the school by straight-line measurement, (5) twins, triplets and multiple births tied at the same address, place to the first born, otherwise by lot.
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.
One sitting, 5 schools
The same test also covers these schools: We have pages for these so far:
Test week: one calm timed run-through, then rest.