There are two deadlines, and families confuse them
Before any calendar, the single most useful thing to understand is that the 11+ has two separate applications, run by two different bodies, months apart.
- Registering for the test, with the West Midlands grammar schools partnership, in May and June of Year 5.
- Applying for a school place, with your local authority, by 31 October of Year 6.
Doing the first does not do the second. Every year families sit the test, get a good score, and then discover they have not actually applied to any school. The test result is only a qualification; the local authority form is the application.
The full cycle, start to finish
The dates below are the ones published for the 2026 entry cycle by the King Edward VI Foundation, which is the most recent set documented end to end. The pattern repeats annually with the dates shifting by a few days.
| Stage | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Registration opens | Early May, Year 5 | Partnership |
| Registration closes | Late June, Year 5 | Partnership |
| Test centre details posted | September | Your allocated centre |
| The entrance test | September, start of Year 6 | Partnership |
| Results released | By 17 October 2025 for 2026 entry | Partnership |
| Local authority form | 31 October | Your council |
| Offers made | 2 March 2026 for 2026 entry | Your council |
For the current cycle, registration for September 2027 entry closed at 4pm on 26 June 2026, according to the partnership's registration page. If you missed it, the next window opens around May 2027.
May and June: the window everyone leaves late
The registration window runs roughly six weeks, from about the first week of May to the last week of June. That is a generous amount of time, and the form itself takes five to ten minutes.
It is still the deadline I chase parents hardest on. The gap between opening and closing is exactly long enough for a family to decide they will do it next weekend, six weekends in a row. There is no late entry, no discretion and no appeal against missing it. The child simply does not sit the test that year.
My advice is unglamorous: register in the first week it opens. Nothing about registering early disadvantages you, and it removes the only deadline in this process with no remedy.
September: the test itself
Children sit the test in September, at the very start of Year 6, having gone back to school only days earlier. Your allocated test centre writes to your home address in September with the arrangements for the day, so watch the post rather than your inbox for that one.
The format, from the partnership's entrance test page: two papers of roughly 50 to 60 minutes with a short comfort break between them. Each paper is split into individually timed sections, and a child cannot revisit an earlier section or move ahead.
October: results, then the deadline that matters
Results arrive in the middle of October. For 2026 entry, the Foundation stated that parents would receive their child's test score by Friday 17 October 2025.
Then comes the part families underestimate. The local authority preference form is due by 31 October, which leaves roughly a fortnight between learning the score and having to commit to a ranked list of schools.
That fortnight is the whole game. It is when you decide, with a real number in front of you, which schools to name and in what order. If you have not thought about catchment and ordering before results day, you are doing it in a hurry.
March: offer day
Offers are made by your local authority in the first days of March. For 2026 entry, the Foundation gives the date as 2 March 2026.
A qualifying score does not guarantee a place. For 2026 entry the Foundation set a Qualifying Score of 205 and a Priority Score of 224 for its Birmingham grammar schools, and places are allocated against each school's own oversubscription criteria after that.
Working backwards from the test
If you take the September test date as fixed, the preparation calendar falls out of it. The summer before is the last clear block of time; the Easter and May half term holidays of Year 5 are the ones before that.
See our Year 5 study plan for how to use them, and our step by step registration guide for the form itself.
Papers are coming
GrammarPath practice papers for the West Midlands test are on the way, written to the real two-paper format. Join the list and we will email you the moment they launch.
The registration deadline is the one with no remedy, and it is the one families leave until last
The key dates to remember are usually the date of registration, which is normally the first week of May up until the last week of June. Normally it is around six weeks, so a parent has plenty of available time, and the application itself takes five to ten minutes.
But parents will kind of leave it, or procrastinate towards the end of the window. The key thing is that we have to apply before the deadline. There is no way round it afterwards.
The other key dates are the holidays, obviously, the time to revise. The test itself is normally on the second weekend of September, because the students normally go back at some point in the first week. And the results come by email around mid October. It could be the beginning of the second week; the results come in throughout the week. Normally it is on a Monday, but previously it was on a Friday, spaced out through the week by email.
Mushtaque Ahmed, Founder of GrammarPath and Bright Mentors
Frequently asked questions
When does registration for the West Midlands 11+ open and close?
The window runs roughly six weeks, from about the first week of May to the last week of June in Year 5. For September 2027 entry it closed at 4pm on 26 June 2026. There is no late entry and no appeal against missing it, so registering in the first week it opens is the safest approach.
When is the West Midlands 11+ test?
In September, at the very start of Year 6, days after children return to school. Your allocated test centre writes to your home address in September with the arrangements for the day, so watch the post rather than email for that.
When do 11+ results come out in Birmingham?
The middle of October. For 2026 entry the King Edward VI Foundation stated that parents would receive their child's test score by Friday 17 October 2025. The pattern repeats annually with the date shifting by a few days.
What is the 31 October deadline?
It is the local authority preference form, which is the actual application for a school place. Registering for the test and applying for a place are two separate things, run by different bodies months apart. Families who do only the first sit the test and then find they have not applied anywhere.
When are grammar school offers made?
In the first days of March. For 2026 entry the Foundation gives the date as 2 March 2026. A qualifying score does not guarantee a place: for 2026 entry the Qualifying Score was 205 and the Priority Score 224 for the Foundation's Birmingham schools, with places then allocated on each school's own criteria.
How long is there between results and the application deadline?
About a fortnight. Results arrive mid-October and the local authority form is due by 31 October, so you have roughly two weeks to decide, with a real score in front of you, which schools to name and in what order. Thinking about catchment and ordering before results day is what makes that fortnight manageable.