Camp Hill is two separate schools, not one. King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls sit on the same road in Kings Heath, share an identical catchment area, and apply identical admissions rules. What they do not share is size: the boys' school admits 120 pupils into Year 7, the girls' school admits 150 (Camp Hill for Boys admission policy 2026, Camp Hill for Girls admission policy 2026).
Both are King Edward VI Foundation schools, so both used a qualifying score of 205 and a priority score of 224 for 2026 entry (King Edward VI Foundation, results and offers). This guide covers what that means in practice, and the one thing about Camp Hill that families most often get wrong.
Two schools, one road
Both schools are at Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7QJ. That shared address causes a lot of confusion, so to be precise: they are separate schools with separate admission numbers, separate rolls and separate places, and you apply to each one separately.
They are not, however, separate when it comes to siblings, and this is the detail families most often miss. A sibling at one school counts as a valid sibling claim at the other. The boys' policy states that an older sibling on roll at Camp Hill for Girls is a valid sibling claim for Camp Hill for Boys, and the girls' policy says exactly the same in reverse (boys' policy, girls' policy). So an older brother at the boys' school does strengthen a younger sister's application to the girls' school. Sibling priority is a tie-breaker rather than a category of its own, but in a school this oversubscribed a tie-breaker decides real places.
What is genuinely shared is the catchment area. Both policies list exactly the same eighteen Birmingham electoral wards, so if you are inside the catchment for one you are inside it for the other.
| Camp Hill for Boys | Camp Hill for Girls | |
|---|---|---|
| Year 7 places | 120 | 150 |
| Address | Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7QJ | |
| Catchment | The same eighteen Birmingham wards | |
| Qualifying / priority score | 205 and 224 for 2026 entry | |
| Oversubscription rules | Identical five categories | |
The 30-place gap between them is the single hardest number in this guide to ignore. Same catchment, same thresholds, same rules, but one school has a quarter fewer places to give.
The catchment, ward by ward
The catchment is defined by electoral ward, not by distance from the gates. Both schools draw from these eighteen Birmingham wards (Camp Hill for Boys admission policy 2026):
Acocks Green, Balsall Heath West, Billesley, Bordesley and Highgate, Bordesley Green, Bournbrook and Selly Park, Brandwood and Kings Heath, Druids Heath and Monyhull, Hall Green North, Hall Green South, Highters Heath, Moseley, Small Heath, South Yardley, Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath East, Sparkhill, Stirchley, and Tyseley and Hay Mills.
Note what is absent. Unlike King Edward VI Five Ways, which reaches into three Sandwell wards, Camp Hill's catchment is entirely within Birmingham. And it covers the south and east of the city, so it does not overlap with the Five Ways catchment at all. Families sometimes assume the two are interchangeable south Birmingham options. They are not: Five Ways draws from the south west, Camp Hill from the south and east.
Check your own ward on the Birmingham City Council ward lookup rather than guessing from a postcode. Ward boundaries rarely follow the lines families expect.
How places are allocated
Both schools work through the same five categories when there are more qualified applicants than places (Camp Hill for Girls admission policy 2026):
- 1. Looked after and previously looked after children who achieve the qualifying score, ranked by test score then distance.
- 2. Pupil premium children who achieve the qualifying score and live inside the catchment, ranked by distance.
- 3. Pupil premium children outside the catchment, used only if category 2 filled fewer than 25% of places, until 25% is reached, ranked by test score.
- 4. Applicants achieving the priority score who live inside the catchment, with sibling priority, then ranked by distance.
- 5. Everyone else achieving the qualifying score, ranked by test score, then sibling, then distance.
Two consequences are worth spelling out. Pupil premium sits above the catchment-plus-priority-score category, with up to a quarter of places reserved for it. And reaching 224 while living outside the catchment does not get you into category 4 at all: you fall to category 5 and are ranked on test score alone.
There is a fuller walkthrough of how these categories interact in the catchment and priority scores guide.
What this means for your application
If you are inside the catchment, category 4 is the realistic target and the priority score is the number to aim past, not at. If you are outside it, you are competing in category 5 on test score alone, which makes the mark itself the only lever you control.
Remember that registering for the entrance test is not the same as applying for a place. You register with the West Midlands partnership to sit the test, then name the school on your local authority preference form. Birmingham allows up to six preferences, and boys and girls are applying to different schools here, so a family with a son and a daughter is running two separate applications with two different place counts behind them.
Rank it first, if you are in catchment and clear on score
Both Camp Hill schools, Boys and Girls, sit among the most sought-after grammars in the West Midlands, and the competition reflects it. Camp Hill Boys offers around 120 Year 7 places but receives close to 1,000 applications, a ratio of roughly 8 to 1. That intensity is earned, as both schools rank among the top performers in the region.
Our honest advice is simple. If your child is in catchment and their score sits comfortably at the top of the range (for non-Pupil Premium applicants that has meant 240 or above in recent years), put Camp Hill first. You have every reason to. For Pupil Premium applicants who meet the qualifying score and live in catchment, we would say the same: rank it first, because the admissions criteria prioritise you and the effective bar is very different.
There is one fact that changes how families should read all of this, and most parents miss it. The two schools are closely linked, so a sibling already on roll at one gives sibling priority at the other. An older brother at Camp Hill Boys strengthens a younger sister's claim at Camp Hill Girls, and the reverse holds too. Where a parent is agonising over whether a score is quite enough, that sibling link can tip a borderline application, so it is worth knowing before you rank your preferences.
Mushtaque Ahmed, Founder of GrammarPath and Bright Mentors
Papers are coming
GrammarPath practice papers for the West Midlands test are on the way. Join the list and we will email you the moment they launch.
Frequently asked questions
Are Camp Hill Boys and Camp Hill Girls the same school?
No. They are two separate King Edward VI Foundation grammar schools that share a site on Vicarage Road in Kings Heath. They have separate admission numbers, 120 for the boys' school and 150 for the girls' school, and you apply to them separately. Their catchment area and admissions rules are identical.
How many places does Camp Hill offer?
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys admits 120 pupils into Year 7 and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls admits 150, according to their published 2026 admission policies.
What is the catchment area for Camp Hill?
Both Camp Hill schools share a catchment of eighteen Birmingham electoral wards: Acocks Green, Balsall Heath West, Billesley, Bordesley and Highgate, Bordesley Green, Bournbrook and Selly Park, Brandwood and Kings Heath, Druids Heath and Monyhull, Hall Green North, Hall Green South, Highters Heath, Moseley, Small Heath, South Yardley, Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath East, Sparkhill, Stirchley, and Tyseley and Hay Mills. The catchment is defined by ward, not distance.
What score do you need for Camp Hill?
Both schools use the King Edward VI Foundation thresholds. For 2026 entry the qualifying score was 205 and the priority score was 224. Reaching the priority score matters most when combined with a catchment address, because that combination places an application in a higher ranked category.
Does a sibling at Camp Hill Boys help an application to Camp Hill Girls?
Yes. Both schools' admission policies state that an older sibling on roll at the other Camp Hill school counts as a valid sibling claim. An older brother at Camp Hill for Boys is a sibling claim at Camp Hill for Girls, and an older sister at the girls' school is a sibling claim at the boys' school. Sibling status acts as a tie-breaker within a category rather than as a category of its own, but at schools this oversubscribed it decides real places.
Does Camp Hill share a catchment with King Edward VI Five Ways?
No. Camp Hill's catchment covers south and east Birmingham and sits entirely within Birmingham. Five Ways draws from south west Birmingham plus three Sandwell wards. The two catchments do not overlap, so being inside one does not put you inside the other.