Walsall's grammar schools use exactly the same entrance test as Birmingham's, but they set their own qualifying scores, and those scores are lower. Queen Mary's Grammar School published a Minimum Qualifying Score of 180 for September 2026 entry. The King Edward VI Foundation's qualifying score for its Birmingham schools was 205.
Same paper. Same morning. Same standardised scale. A 25 mark difference in what it takes to be considered. Understanding why is one of the most practically useful things a Birmingham parent can do in October.
One test, nineteen schools, separate decisions
all 19 partnership schools share a single entrance test. Your child sits two papers, once, and the result goes to every partnership school you have applied to.
What the partnership does not do is set a common pass mark. Each school, or each foundation, decides for itself what score it will consider and how it will rank the children who clear it. That is where the difference comes from, and it is not a quirk. It follows from having different numbers of places, different applicant numbers and different governors.
Our 11+ score checker keeps the Birmingham and Walsall figures apart, which is the distinction this page exists to make.
The one thing that is shared: the scale
the partnership entrance test sets the format and the weighting, and results across the whole partnership are reported on an age-weighted standardisation around a median of 200. Queen Mary's states this plainly on its own admissions page.
So a score of 206 means the same thing in Walsall as it does in Birmingham. What differs is what each school does with it.
This is where national websites get the region wrong. They quote the generic GL model, a mean of 100 with entry somewhere above 111. That model is not used here, and a parent working from it will misjudge everything.
The actual numbers, side by side
| Figure | Queen Mary's Grammar School (Walsall) | King Edward VI Foundation (Birmingham) |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying score | 180 minimum qualifying score | 205 |
| Priority score | Not published as such | 224 |
| Lowest score offered a place | Around 200, marked provisional | Not published |
| Lowest score on the waiting list | 225 | Not published |
| Entry year quoted | September 2026 | 2026 entry |
Sources: Queen Mary's Grammar School and the King Edward VI Foundation. Both are reset annually.
Three numbers that are not the same number
Look again at the Walsall column, because it contains the mistake I correct most often.
- 180 is the minimum qualifying score. It is the threshold to be considered at all.
- Around 200 is the score the last offer actually went to. That is an outcome of one year's competition, not a rule.
- 225 is the lowest score on the waiting list, which tells you how far down the list moved.
Writing "Walsall's qualifying score is 200" is wrong. So is telling a child who scored 185 that she is through. She has cleared the threshold to be considered, which is a real and useful thing, and she is also near the bottom of a ranked queue.
The school itself marks the ~200 figure as provisional and subject to governors' confirmation. Treat it that way.
What Queen Mary's High School publishes, and what it does not
An honest gap. The boys' school is unusually open with its figures. Queen Mary's High School does not publish an equivalent set.
So this article will not quote the boys' numbers and let you assume they apply to the girls' school. They are separate schools, with separate governors, separate admission numbers and separate cohorts. If you are considering it for a daughter, phone the school and ask for its qualifying score, its admission number and last year's lowest entry score. In my experience the Walsall schools answer that kind of question far more readily than a large foundation can.
How to actually use this
The practical upshot is simple, and it changes what families do in the fortnight after results.
A Birmingham child who misses 205 has not run out of grammar school options. She has missed one foundation's threshold. Walsall sets its own, and sets it lower, and the test result she already has is the one that counts there.
That is worth a phone call and a place on the preference form before anyone decides the year is over. What it is not is a guarantee, for all the ranked-queue reasons above.
For what the score itself means, see our guide to results day, and for filling in the form properly, our guide to ranking preferences.
See where your child stands today
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Where the 205 does the most damage
The number 205 has taken on a life of its own in Birmingham. Parents say it the way you would say a law of physics. It is not. It is one foundation's threshold for its own schools, reset every year, and it has no authority anywhere else in the partnership.
Every October I have the same conversation with a family who think the year is finished because their child came in at 198 or 201. They have already started talking about appeals and about what went wrong. Nothing went wrong. They are measuring a perfectly good result against the wrong ruler.
What I tell them is to pick up the phone to Walsall before they do anything else, and to get the school on the preference form. Under equal preference it costs them nothing to try, and the test has already been sat. The worst outcome is a no you would have had anyway. I would far rather a family spent that fortnight making calls than rehearsing an appeal they do not need yet.
Mushtaque Ahmed, Founder of GrammarPath and Bright Mentors
Frequently asked questions
Why are Walsall's 11+ scores lower than Birmingham's?
Because each school or foundation sets its own threshold. All 19 West Midlands grammar schools share one entrance test, but the partnership does not set a common pass mark. Queen Mary's Grammar School published a minimum qualifying score of 180 for September 2026 entry, while the King Edward VI Foundation's qualifying score for its Birmingham schools was 205.
Do Walsall and Birmingham grammar schools use the same test?
Yes. All 19 schools in the West Midlands partnership share one entrance test, sat on the same morning, and results are reported on an age-weighted standardisation around a median of 200. Your child sits it once and the result goes to every partnership school named on the registration and preference forms.
What is the qualifying score for Queen Mary's Grammar School?
Queen Mary's Grammar School published a Minimum Qualifying Score of 180 for September 2026 entry. That is the threshold to be considered, not the score that secures a place: the school also published a lowest score offered a place of around 200, marked provisional, and a lowest waiting list score of 225.
My child got 190. Is that enough for a Walsall grammar school?
It clears Queen Mary's Grammar School's published minimum qualifying score of 180 for 2026 entry, so the child would be considered. Whether it secures a place is a different question, because places are allocated in rank order and the lowest score actually offered a place that year was around 200. Treat a qualifying score as the entry fee, not the finish line.
What score does Queen Mary's High School in Walsall need?
The girls' school does not publish an equivalent set of figures to the boys' school. Rather than assuming the two match, contact the school directly and ask for its qualifying score, its admission number and last year's lowest entry score. They are separate schools with separate governors and separate cohorts.
My child missed Birmingham's 205. Should we try Walsall?
It is worth a phone call before deciding the year is over. The 205 is a King Edward VI Foundation figure for its Birmingham schools, not a West Midlands standard, and Walsall sets its own thresholds considerably lower. The test result your child already has is the one that counts there, so the cost of adding a Walsall school to the preference form is low.