King Edward VI Five Ways is the only co-educational grammar school in the Birmingham group, and it admits 180 pupils into Year 7 each September (Five Ways admission policy, September 2026). Entry is through the shared West Midlands entrance test, and for 2026 entry the qualifying score was 205 with a priority score of 224 (King Edward VI Foundation, results and offers).
That combination, co-educational and heavily oversubscribed, makes Five Ways unusual. This guide covers the places, the catchment wards, the order places are actually allocated in, and what that means for how you apply.
What makes Five Ways different
Among the eight Birmingham grammar schools, seven admit boys only or girls only. Five Ways is the exception. If you want a mixed-sex grammar school in Birmingham, this is the option, which is a large part of why demand for its 180 places is what it is.
The school sits on Scotland Lane in Bartley Green, in the south west of the city, and takes pupils from age 11 through to 18 with a sixth form (Five Ways admission policy, September 2026). It is a King Edward VI Foundation school, so it uses the Foundation's shared qualifying and priority scores rather than setting its own.
How many places, and how competitive?
The admission number is 180. That is the figure the school is required to admit up to, and it is set out in the published policy rather than being an estimate.
Competition is best understood through the allocation order below rather than through a single cut-off number. The Foundation does not publish how many applicants named Five Ways, and it explicitly does not release raw scores or the number of marks available in the test, so any site quoting a precise Five Ways cut-off is inferring rather than reporting.
The catchment area, ward by ward
Five Ways draws its catchment from named electoral wards, not from a radius. Living close to the school is not the same as being inside the catchment, and the wards span two local authorities.
| Authority | Wards in the Five Ways catchment |
|---|---|
| Birmingham | Allens Cross, Bartley Green, Bournville & Cotteridge, Frankley Great Park, Harborne, King's Norton North, King's Norton South, Longbridge & West Heath, Northfield, Quinton, Rubery & Rednal, Weoley & Selly Oak |
| Sandwell | Abbey, Bristnall, Old Warley |
That is fifteen wards in total, twelve in Birmingham and three in Sandwell (Five Ways admission policy, September 2026). Check your own ward on your local authority's website rather than assuming, because ward boundaries do not follow the postcode logic most families expect.
How places are actually allocated
When there are more qualified applicants than places, the school works through these categories in order (Five Ways admission policy, September 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 things follow from that order and they are worth sitting with. First, pupil premium sits above the priority score category, and up to 25% of places are reserved for it. Second, category 4 rewards the combination of a high score and a catchment address. Reaching 224 while living outside the catchment does not place you in category 4; you fall to category 5 and are ranked on score alone.
Distance, where it is used, is measured in a straight line from the home address to the school's front gates (Five Ways admission policy, September 2026).
What this means for how you apply
If you are inside the catchment and your child is capable of the priority score, category 4 is the realistic target and the score is worth pushing well clear of 224 rather than at it. If you are outside the catchment, you are competing in category 5 on test score alone, which makes the raw mark the only lever you control.
Either way, name the school on your local authority preference form as well as registering for the test. Registering for the entrance test is not an application for a place, and every year families lose out by doing one and not the other.
For how the score itself is built, see the Birmingham 11+ pass mark guide, and for how catchment and priority interact across the Foundation, see the catchment guide.
Geography quietly decides this one
Five Ways is the only co-educational grammar school in Birmingham, every other Birmingham partnership school is single-sex. That makes it the default question for families who want a mixed environment, and we've guided a lot of Northfield families through exactly this call.
Here's the catch most parents miss: geography quietly decides it. Because Five Ways sits in Bartley Green to the south-west, the children with the strongest catchment claim are those on the Kings Norton, Harborne and Northfield borders. Its catchment also shares no wards at all with Camp Hill's (Camp Hill for Boys admission policy), so you can't treat the two as interchangeable "south Birmingham" options. If a mixed setting matters to you, Five Ways isn't just a preference, it's the only route to it in the city, and where you live largely sets your odds.
It is also one of the strongest performers in the country: in 2025 it placed 53rd nationally in The Telegraph's secondary school rankings, the highest placed grammar school in Birmingham (the school's own announcement).
Mushtaque Ahmed, Founder of GrammarPath and Bright Mentors
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Frequently asked questions
Is King Edward VI Five Ways co-educational?
Yes. Five Ways is the only co-educational grammar school in the Birmingham group of the West Midlands partnership. The other seven Birmingham grammar schools admit boys only or girls only.
How many places does Five Ways offer in Year 7?
The published admission number is 180 places for Year 7 entry in September 2026, as set out in the school's admission policy.
What is the catchment area for King Edward VI Five Ways?
The catchment is defined by electoral ward, not distance. It covers twelve Birmingham wards (Allens Cross, Bartley Green, Bournville and Cotteridge, Frankley Great Park, Harborne, King's Norton North, King's Norton South, Longbridge and West Heath, Northfield, Quinton, Rubery and Rednal, Weoley and Selly Oak) and three Sandwell wards (Abbey, Bristnall, Old Warley).
What score do you need for Five Ways?
Five Ways uses 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 if you also live inside the catchment, because that combination places an application in a higher ranked category.
Does living in the Five Ways catchment guarantee a place?
No. Catchment moves an application into a stronger category when combined with the priority score, but places are still allocated in order through looked after children, pupil premium applicants, then catchment applicants at the priority score, then everyone else at the qualifying score ranked by test score.